Zoneboy
11-20-2014, 09:23 AM
Link (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/director-mike-nichols-dead-age-83-n252326)
Mike Nichols, one of the most acclaimed directors in the history of American film and stage, whose work included the movies “The Graduate” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, died suddenly on Wednesday night. He was 83.
His death was announced Thursday morning by James Goldston, the president of ABC News, who described him as a “true visionary.” Nichols was married to the ABC anchor Diane Sawyer.
Nichols was one of a handful of people to win an Emmy, a Tony, a Grammy and an Oscar. His canon included some of the defining American films of the second half of the 20th century, among them “Working Girl,” “Silkwood” and “The Birdcage.” He won the Oscar in 1968 for “The Graduate.”
“There’s nothing better than discovering, to your own astonishment, what you’re meant to do,” he once said. “It’s like falling in love.”
The actors who collaborated with him frequently were some of the most celebrated, including Jack Nicholson, Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep, who thought so much of Nichols that she once described him as “my master and commander. You know, my king.”
Mia Farrow remembered him on Twitter as “funniest, most generous, wisest, kindest of all.”
For the stage, Nichols won more Tony Awards for direction of a play — six — than anyone else. Those included Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park” in 1964 and “The Odd Couple” in 1965, and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” two years ago.
“I think a director can make a play happen before your eyes so that you are part of it and it is part of you,” he once said. “If you can get it right, there's no mystery. It’s not about mystery. It’s not even mysterious. It’s about our lives.”
Nichols won nine Tony Awards in all, including two for producing and one for directing a musical, “Monty Python’s Spamalot” in 2005.
“He is a giver,” the legendary playwright Tom Stoppard said in the ABC announcement. “He’s good at comfort and joy. He’s good at improving the shining hour and brightening the dark one, and, of course, he’s superlative fun. ... To me he is the best of America.”
Nichols’ work for television included “Angels in America,” the award-winning HBO miniseries about the AIDS crisis, in 2003.
Before his death, he had been at work on an HBO adaptation of “Master Class,” the Terrence McNally play about the opera legend Maria Callas, which is to star Streep.
Nichols was born Michael Igor Peschkowsky on Nov. 6, 1931, in Berlin. His family Nazi Germany for the United States when he was 7. He told The Associated Press in 1996 that at the time he knew how to say two things in English: “I don’t speak English” and “Please don’t kiss me.”
Besides Sawyer, to whom he was married 26 years, Nichols is survived by three children and four grandchildren. The ABC announcement said that the family planned a small, private service this week and a memorial to be announced later.
Mike Nichols, one of the most acclaimed directors in the history of American film and stage, whose work included the movies “The Graduate” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, died suddenly on Wednesday night. He was 83.
His death was announced Thursday morning by James Goldston, the president of ABC News, who described him as a “true visionary.” Nichols was married to the ABC anchor Diane Sawyer.
Nichols was one of a handful of people to win an Emmy, a Tony, a Grammy and an Oscar. His canon included some of the defining American films of the second half of the 20th century, among them “Working Girl,” “Silkwood” and “The Birdcage.” He won the Oscar in 1968 for “The Graduate.”
“There’s nothing better than discovering, to your own astonishment, what you’re meant to do,” he once said. “It’s like falling in love.”
The actors who collaborated with him frequently were some of the most celebrated, including Jack Nicholson, Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep, who thought so much of Nichols that she once described him as “my master and commander. You know, my king.”
Mia Farrow remembered him on Twitter as “funniest, most generous, wisest, kindest of all.”
For the stage, Nichols won more Tony Awards for direction of a play — six — than anyone else. Those included Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park” in 1964 and “The Odd Couple” in 1965, and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” two years ago.
“I think a director can make a play happen before your eyes so that you are part of it and it is part of you,” he once said. “If you can get it right, there's no mystery. It’s not about mystery. It’s not even mysterious. It’s about our lives.”
Nichols won nine Tony Awards in all, including two for producing and one for directing a musical, “Monty Python’s Spamalot” in 2005.
“He is a giver,” the legendary playwright Tom Stoppard said in the ABC announcement. “He’s good at comfort and joy. He’s good at improving the shining hour and brightening the dark one, and, of course, he’s superlative fun. ... To me he is the best of America.”
Nichols’ work for television included “Angels in America,” the award-winning HBO miniseries about the AIDS crisis, in 2003.
Before his death, he had been at work on an HBO adaptation of “Master Class,” the Terrence McNally play about the opera legend Maria Callas, which is to star Streep.
Nichols was born Michael Igor Peschkowsky on Nov. 6, 1931, in Berlin. His family Nazi Germany for the United States when he was 7. He told The Associated Press in 1996 that at the time he knew how to say two things in English: “I don’t speak English” and “Please don’t kiss me.”
Besides Sawyer, to whom he was married 26 years, Nichols is survived by three children and four grandchildren. The ABC announcement said that the family planned a small, private service this week and a memorial to be announced later.