Mike Nichols (born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American<!-- DO NOT ADD "German", SEE MOS:NATIONALITY. --> film and theatre director and comedian.<!-- Keep most notable occupation in lead per MOS:ROLEBIO. --> He worked across a range of genres and had an aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of their experience. He is one of 28 people to have won all four of the major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). His other honors included three BAFTA Awards, the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2010. His films received a total of 42 Academy Award nominations, and seven wins.
Nichols began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe The Compass Players, predecessor of The Second City, in Chicago. He then teamed up with his improv partner, Elaine May, to form the comedy duo Nichols and May. Their live improv act was a hit on Broadway, and each of their three albums was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album; their second album, An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, won the award in 1962. After they disbanded, he began directing plays, and quickly became known for his innovative theatre productions.
His Broadway directing debut was Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park in 1963, with Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. He continued to direct plays on Broadway, including Luv (1964), and The Odd Couple (1965) for each of which he received Tony Awards. He won his sixth Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play with a revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (2012) starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. His final directing credit was the revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal (2013). Nichols directed and/or produced more than 25 Broadway plays throughout his prolific career.
Warner Bros. invited Nichols to direct his first film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), followed by The Graduate (1967) for which Nichols won the Academy Award for Best Director. Nichols also directed Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Day of the Dolphin (1973), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1990), Wolf (1994), The Birdcage (1996), Primary Colors (1998), Closer (2004), and Charlie Wilson's War (2007). Nichols additionally directed the HBO television film Wit (2001), and miniseries Angels in America (2003), both of which won him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
Early life
Nichols was born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky on November 6, 1931, in Berlin, Germany. He was a son of Brigitte Claudia (née Landauer) and Pavel Peschkowsky, a physician. a leading theorist on anarchism, and author Hedwig Lachmann.
Around the age of four, Nichols had lost his hair following an allergic reaction to an inoculation for whooping cough; as a result, he wore wigs and false eyebrows throughout his entire adulthood.
In April 1939, when the Nazis were arresting Jews in Berlin, seven-year-old Mikhail and his three-year-old brother Robert were sent alone to the United States to join their father, who had fled months earlier. His mother joined the family by escaping through Italy in 1940. The family moved to New York City on April 28, 1939. His father, whose original name was Pavel Nikolaevich Peschkowsky, changed his name to Paul Nichols, Nichols derived from his Russian patronymic. Before Paul Nichols had received his U.S. medical license, he was employed by a union on 42nd Street, X-raying union members. He later had a successful medical practice in Manhattan, enabling the family to live near Central Park.
<blockquote>Before he established his practice, he was a union doctor, and part of his job was X-raying union members. They didn't know about shielding X-ray machines, and he died of leukemia at 44. [in 1944]
:– Mike Nichols After graduating from the Walden School, a private progressive school on Central Park West, Nichols briefly attended New York University before dropping out. In 1950, he enrolled in the pre-med program at the University of Chicago.
Comedy career
thumb|[[Nichols and May, ]]
Nichols first saw Elaine May when she was sitting in the front row while he was playing the lead in a Chicago production of Miss Julie, and they made eye contact. directed by Paul Sills. In Chicago, he started doing improvisational routines with May, which eventually led to the formation of the comedy duo Nichols and May in 1958, first performing in New York City.
They performed live satirical comedy acts and eventually released three records of their routines, which became best-sellers. They also appeared in nightclubs and were on radio and television. Jack Rollins, who later became Woody Allen's manager and producer, invited them to audition and was most impressed: "Their work was so startling, so new, as fresh as could be. I was stunned by how really good they were, actually as impressed by their acting technique as by their comedy ... I thought, My God, these are two people writing hilarious comedy on their feet!"
In 1960, Nichols and May opened the Broadway show An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May, directed by Arthur Penn. The LP album of the show won the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. Personal idiosyncrasies and tensions, such as on the unsuccessful A Matter of Position, a play written by May and starring Nichols, eventually drove the duo apart to pursue other projects in 1961. About their sudden breakup, director Arthur Penn said, "They set the standard and then they had to move on," May scripted Nichols's films The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998). In 2010, at the AFI's "Life Achievement Award" ceremony, May gave a humor-filled tribute to Nichols.
Career as a director
1960–1970: Broadway debut and film breakthrough
thumb|right|160px|Nichols directed several of [[Neil Simon's plays]]
Pre-film stage career
After the professional split with May, Nichols went to Vancouver, British Columbia, to work in the theater, directing a production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and acting in a revival of George Bernard Shaw's St. Joan. Barefoot in the Park was a big hit, running for 1,530 performances and earning Nichols a Tony Award for his direction. including six for Best Director of either a play or a musical, one for Best Play, and one for Best Musical.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
In 1966, Nichols was a star stage director and Time magazine called him "the most in-demand director in the American theatre." Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Warner Bros. invited Nichols to direct a screen adaptation of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Taylor, Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis, for which he received a fee of $400,000. the number 1 film of 1966.
The film was considered groundbreaking for having a level of profanity and sexual innuendo unheard of at that time. It won five Academy Awards and garnered thirteen nominations (including Nichols's first nomination for Best Director), earning the distinctions of being one of only two films nominated in every eligible category at the Oscars (the other being Cimarron), and the first film to have its entire credited cast nominated for acting Oscars. It also won three BAFTA Awards and was later ranked No. 67 in AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition).
The Graduate
thumb|left|160px|[[Dustin Hoffman (1968) appeared in the Nichols-directed film The Graduate]]
His next film was The Graduate (1967), starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross for which he was paid $150,000, a deal he had made four years earlier with producer Joseph E. Levine. It became the highest-grossing film of 1967 and one of the highest-grossing films in history up to that date, with Nichols receiving % of the profits, making him a millionaire. The quality of the cinematography was also influenced by Nichols, who chose Oscar winner Robert Surtees to do the photography. Surtees, who had photographed major films since the 1920s, including Ben-Hur, said later, "It took everything I had learned over 30 years to be able to do the job. I knew that Mike Nichols was a young director who went in for a lot of camera. We did more things in this picture than I ever did in one film." He then directed Neil Simon's Plaza Suite in 1968, earning him another Tony Award for Best Director. He also directed the short film Teach Me! (1968), which starred actress Sandy Dennis. In 1969 his film production company, Friwaftt, was acquired by Avco Embassy, the distributor of The Graduate, who also appointed him to the board of directors. Friwaftt stood for "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
Nichols's next film was a big-budget adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 (1970), followed by Carnal Knowledge (1971) starring Jack Nicholson, Ann-Margret, Art Garfunkel and Candice Bergen. Carnal Knowledge was highly controversial upon release because of the casual and blunt depiction of sexual intercourse. In Georgia, a theatre manager was convicted in 1972 of violating the state's obscenity statutes by showing the film, a conviction later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Jenkins v. Georgia.
1971–1989: Rise to prominence and stardom
thumb|left|Nichols at the National Film Society in 1979
Nichols returned to Broadway to direct Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue in 1971. The play won Nichols another Tony Award for Best Director. In 1973, Nichols directed a revival of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya on Broadway starring George C. Scott and with a new translation by himself and Albert Todd. Nichols would not direct another narrative feature film for eight years. Trevor Griffiths's Comedians ran for 145 performances. In 1976 Nichols also worked as Executive Producer to create the television drama Family for ABC. The series ran until 1980. In 1977, Nichols produced the original Broadway production of the hugely successful musical Annie, which ran for 2,377 performances until 1983. Nichols won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Later in 1977, Nichols directed D.L. Coburn's The Gin Game. The play ran for 517 performances and won a Tony Award for Best Actress for Jessica Tandy.
In 1980, Nichols directed the documentary Gilda Live, a filmed performance of comedian Gilda Radner's one-woman show Gilda Radner Live on Broadway. It was released at the same time as the album of the show, both of which were successful. Nichols was then involved with two unsuccessful shows: he produced Billy Bishop Goes to War, which opened in 1980 and closed after only twelve performances, and directed Neil Simon's Fools, in 1981, which closed after forty performances. Returning to Hollywood, Nichols's career rebounded in 1983 with the film Silkwood, starring Meryl Streep, Cher and Kurt Russell, based on the life of whistleblower Karen Silkwood. The film was a financial and critical success, with film critic Vincent Canby calling it "the most serious work Mike Nichols has yet done." The show eventually went to Broadway and ran for 767 performances, winning Tony Awards for Best Actor, Best Choreography (both for Tommy Tune) and Best Supporting Actor (Charles "Honi" Coles). In 1984, Nichols directed the Broadway premiere of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing. The New York Times critic Frank Rich wrote that "The Broadway version of The Real Thing—a substantial revision of the original London production—is not only Mr. Stoppard's most moving play, but also the most bracing play that anyone has written about love and marriage in years." The play was nominated for seven Tony Awards and won five, including a Best Director Tony for Nichols. Nichols followed the success with the Broadway premiere of David Rabe's Hurlyburly, also in 1984. It was performed just two blocks away from the theater showing The Real Thing. It was nominated for three Tony Awards and won Best Actress for Judith Ivey. In 1986 Nichols directed the Broadway premiere of Andrew Bergman's Social Security and in 1988 directed Waiting for Godot, starring Robin Williams and Steve Martin. Williams cited Nichols and May as among his early influences for performing intelligent comedy.
In 1986, Nichols directed the film Heartburn, which received mixed reviews, and starred Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. In 1988, Nichols completed two feature films. The first was an adaptation of Neil Simon's autobiographical stage play Biloxi Blues starring Matthew Broderick, also receiving mixed critical reviews. Nichols directed one of his most successful films, Working Girl, which starred Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver. The film was a huge hit upon its release, and received mostly positive reviews from critics. It was nominated for six Academy Awards (including Best Director for Nichols) and won the Academy Award for Best Song for Carly Simon's "Let the River Run". At one point in the 1980s, Nichols—prone to bouts of depression—reported that he had considered suicide, a feeling apparently brought on by a psychotic episode he experienced after taking the drug Halcion.</blockquote>
2000–2016: Career expansion and later work
In the 2000s, Nichols directed the films What Planet Are You From? (2000), Closer (2004) and Charlie Wilson's War (2007), a political drama that was ultimately his final feature film. What Planet Are You From? received mixed reviews from critics, while Closer and Charlie Wilson's War received generally positive reviews and were both nominated for Academy Awards, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards.
Nichols also directed widely acclaimed adaptations of Wit (2001) and Angels in America (2003) for television, winning Emmy Awards for both of them. For his direction of the Broadway musical Spamalot, he won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2005.
thumb|Nichols in 2010
In 2012, Nichols won the Best Direction of a Play Tony Award for a revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. In 2013, he directed Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz in a Broadway revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal. The play began previews of its limited run on October 1, 2013 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, opened on October 27, and closed on January 4, 2014.
Among projects that remained uncompleted when he died, in April 2013 it was announced that Nichols was in talks to direct a film adaptation of Jonathan Tropper's novel One Last Thing Before I Go. The film was to be produced by J. J. Abrams, who previously wrote the Nichols-directed film Regarding Henry (1991). In July 2014, it was announced that Nichols and Streep would reunite for an HBO film of Terrence McNally's 1985 play Master Class, with Nichols directing Streep in the starring role of opera singer Maria Callas.
Nichols was a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. He was also a co-founder of The New Actors Workshop in New York City, where he occasionally taught. In addition, he remained active in the Directors Guild of America, interviewing fellow film director Bennett Miller on stage in October 2011 after the Guild's screening of Miller's Moneyball.
In January 2016, PBS aired Mike Nichols: American Masters, an American Masters documentary about Nichols directed by his former improv partner, Elaine May. On February 22, 2016, HBO aired the documentary Becoming Mike Nichols.
Directing style
After his early successes as a stage and film director, Nichols had developed a reputation as an auteur who likes to work intimately with his actors and writers, often using them repeatedly in different films. Writer Peter Applebome noted that "few directors have such a gift for getting performances out of actors." During a half-year period in 1967 he had four hit plays running simultaneously on Broadway, during which time his first Hollywood feature, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, had also become a popular and critical success. Combined with his second film, The Graduate, in 1967, the two films had already earned a total of 20 Oscar nominations, including two for Best Director, and winning it for The Graduate.
Nichols was able to get the best out of actors regardless of their acting experience, whether an unknown such as Dustin Hoffman or a major star like Richard Burton. For his first film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, each of the four actors was nominated for an Oscar, with Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis winning. Burton later said, "I didn't think I could learn anything about comedy—I'd done all of Shakespeare's. But from him I learned," adding, "He conspires with you to get your best." Producer Ernest Lehman agreed with her choice: "He was the only one who could handle them," he said. "The Burtons were quite intimidating, and we needed a genius like Mike Nichols to combat them." Biographer Kitty Kelley says that neither Taylor nor Burton would ever again reach the heights of acting performance they did in that film.
Personal life
Nichols was married four times; the first three ended in divorce, the last upon his death.
Nichols's first marriage was to Patricia Scot; they were married from 1957 to 1960. His second was to Margot Callas, a former "muse" of the poet Robert Graves, from 1963 to 1974. The couple had a daughter together, Daisy Nichols. His third marriage, in 1975, to Annabel Davis-Goff, produced two children, Max Nichols and Jenny Nichols; it ended in divorce in 1986. His fourth was to former Good Morning America and ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer, whom he married on April 29, 1988. None of his wives were Jewish and his children were not brought up according to a religion, but they identify as Jewish. His son Max married former ESPN journalist Rachel Nichols.
Nichols had a lifelong interest in Arabian horses. From 1968 to 2004, he owned a farm in Connecticut and was a noted horse breeder. He also imported quality Arabian horses from Janów Podlaski Stud Farm in Poland, some of which sold for record-setting prices. While in high school, Nichols had been an instructor at the Claremont Riding Academy in Manhattan's Upper West Side and also had "ridden in horse shows in Chicago."
In 2009, Nichols signed a petition in support of releasing director Roman Polanski, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects."
Death and legacy
Nichols died of a heart attack on November 19, 2014, at his apartment in Manhattan. During the 87th annual Academy Awards on February 22, 2015, Nichols was featured in the In Memoriam segment, in anchor position. Nichols left John Frederick Herring Sr.'s painting "Horse with Groom" to his son Max.
When Nichols died, many celebrities paid tribute to him, including Whoopi Goldberg, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Kevin Spacey and Tom Stoppard. On November 8, 2015, stars and artists gathered at New York's IAC Building to pay tribute to Nichols. Hosts for the private event included Elaine May and Lorne Michaels. Eric Idle and John Cleese performed. Guests included Streep, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Natalie Portman, Carly Simon, Nathan Lane and Christine Baranski.
In 2017, during an Oscars Actress Roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter, Amy Adams, Natalie Portman, and Annette Bening spoke about the effect Nichols had on their lives. In 2020 Woody Allen described Nichols as "maybe the best comedy director ever on the stage."
Filmography and theatre credits
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+Directed features
!scope="col" | Year
!scope="col" | Title
!scope="col" | Distribution
|-
| 1966
!scope="row"|Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
| Warner Bros.
|-
| 1967
!scope="row"|The Graduate
| Embassy Pictures
|-
| 1970
!scope="row"| Catch-22
| Paramount Pictures
|-
| 1971
!scope="row"| Carnal Knowledge
| rowspan=2|Embassy Pictures
|-
| 1973
!scope="row"|The Day of the Dolphin
|-
| 1975
!scope="row"| The Fortune
| Columbia Pictures
|-
| 1980
!scope="row"| Gilda Live
| Warner Bros.
|-
| 1983
!scope="row"| Silkwood
| 20th Century Fox
|-
| 1986
!scope="row"| Heartburn
| Paramount Pictures
|-
|rowspan=2| 1988
!scope="row"|Biloxi Blues
| Universal Pictures
|-
!scope="row"| Working Girl
| 20th Century Fox
|-
| 1990
!scope="row"| Postcards from the Edge
| Columbia Pictures
|-
| 1991
!scope="row"| Regarding Henry
| Paramount Pictures
|-
| 1994
!scope="row"| Wolf
| Columbia Pictures
|-
| 1996
!scope="row"|The Birdcage
| Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
|-
| 1998
!scope="row"| Primary Colors
| Universal Pictures
|-
| 2000
!scope="row"| What Planet Are You From?
|rowspan=2| Sony Pictures Releasing
|-
| 2004
!scope="row"|Closer
|-
| 2007
!scope="row"|Charlie Wilson's War
| Universal Pictures
|-
|}
Discography
- Improvisations to Music (1958) Mercury
- An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May (1960) Mercury
- Mike Nichols & Elaine May Examine Doctors (1961) Mercury MG 20680/SR 60680
- In Retrospect (1962) Universal Music Group, compilation, re-released as compact disc in 1996
Awards and honors
Nichols is one of the few entertainers to have won the EGOT, the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
Nichols received five Academy Award nominations, winning Best Director for The Graduate (1967). He was also nominated for his work on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988) and for producing The Remains of the Day (1993). For his collaborations with Elaine May, Nichols was nominated for three Grammy Awards winning for Best Comedy Album in 1962. Nichols also known for his extensive work on Broadway and received 16 Tony Award nominations, winning eight times for Barefoot in the Park (1964), Luv/The Odd Couple (1965), Plaza Suite (1968), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1972), Annie (1977), The Real Thing (1984), Monty Python's Spamalot (2005), and Death of a Salesman (2012). Nichols also received Primetime Emmy Awards for directing and producing the HBO television film Wit (2001) and miniseries Angels in America (2003).
In 1989 Nichols was presented the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement by Awards Council member Diane Sawyer. He also received a Gala tribute from Film Society of Lincoln Center in 1999. In 2001, he received the Peabody Award for his HBO television film Wit which starred Emma Thompson. In 2003 he was awarded with the Kennedy Center Honors where he was honored by Elaine May, Meryl Streep, Candice Bergen, and Tom Stoppard. In 2010 he was honored with the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award where he was honored by Elaine May, Nora Ephron, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Julia Roberts, Candice Bergen, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, and Shirley MacLaine.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Awards and nominations received by Nichols' films
|-
! rowspan="2" | Year
! rowspan="2" | Title
! colspan="2" style="background-color:#aaaade; text-align:center;" width=160| Academy Awards
! colspan="2" style="background-color:#aa0; text-align:center;" width=160| BAFTA Awards
! colspan="2" style="background-color:#fe1; text-align:center;" width=160| Golden Globe Awards
|-
! Nominations
! Wins
! Nominations
! Wins
! Nominations
! Wins
|-
| 1966
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
|align=center| 13
|align=center| 5
|align=center| 3
|align=center| 3
|align=center| 7
|
|-
| 1967
| The Graduate
|align=center| 7
|align=center| 1
|align=center| 7
|align=center| 5
|align=center| 7
|align=center| 5
|-
| 1970
| Catch-22
|
|
|align=center| 2
|
|
|
|-
| 1971
| Carnal Knowledge
|align=center| 1
|
|
|
|align=center| 3
|align=center| 1
|-
| 1973
| The Day of the Dolphin
|align=center| 2
|
|
|
|align=center| 1
|
|-
| 1975
| The Fortune
|
|
|
|
|align=center| 1
|
|-
| 1983
| Silkwood
|align=center| 5
|
|align=center| 2
|
|align=center| 5
|align=center| 1
|-
| 1988
| Working Girl
|align=center| 6
|align=center| 1
|align=center| 3
|
|align=center| 6
|align=center| 4
|-
| 1990
| Postcards from the Edge
|align=center| 2
|
|align=center| 3
|
|align=center| 3
|
|-
| 1996
| The Birdcage
|align=center| 1
|
|
|
|align=center| 2
|
|-
| 1998
| Primary Colors
|align=center| 2
|
|align=center| 3
|align=center| 1
|align=center| 2
|
|-
| 2001
| Wit
|
|
|
|
|align=center| 2
|
|-
| 2003
| Angels in America
|
|
|
|
|align=center| 7
|align=center| 5
|-
| 2004
| Closer
|align=center| 2
|
|align=center| 3
|align=center| 1
|align=center| 5
|align=center| 2
|-
| 2007
| Charlie Wilson's War
|align=center| 1
|
|align=center| 1
|
|align=center| 5
|
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!align=center|43
!align=center|7
!align=center|27
!align=center|10
!align=center|56
!align=center|17
|}
Direction for Oscar-related performances
Nichols has directed multiple Oscar winning and nominated performances.
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="text-align:center;"
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Performer
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Result
|-
| colspan="4" style="background-color:#DDDAFE; text-align:center;"|Academy Award for Best Actor
|-
| 1967
| Richard Burton
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
|
|-
| 1968
| Dustin Hoffman
| The Graduate
|
|-
| colspan="4" style="background-color:#DDDAFE; text-align:center;"|Academy Award for Best Actress
|-
| 1967
| Elizabeth Taylor
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
|
|-
| 1968
| Anne Bancroft
| The Graduate
|
|-
| 1984
| Meryl Streep
| Silkwood
|
|-
| 1989
| Melanie Griffith
| Working Girl
|
|-
| 1991
| Meryl Streep
| Postcards from the Edge
|
|-
| colspan="4" style="background-color:#DDDAFE; text-align:center;"|Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
|-
| 1967
| George Segal
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
|
|-
| 2005
| Clive Owen
| Closer
|
|-
| 2008
| Philip Seymour Hoffman
| Charlie Wilson's War
|
|-
| colspan="4" style="background-color:#DDDAFE; text-align:center;"|Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
|-
| 1967
| Sandy Dennis
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
|
|-
| 1968
| Katharine Ross
| The Graduate
|
|-
| 1972
| Ann-Margret
| Carnal Knowledge
|
|-
| 1984
| Cher
| Silkwood
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1989
| Joan Cusack
| rowspan="2"|Working Girl
|
|-
| Sigourney Weaver
|
|-
| 1999
| Kathy Bates
| Primary Colors
|
|-
| 2005
| Natalie Portman
| Closer
|
|-
|}
See also
- Mike Nichols' unrealized projects
- List of atheists in film, radio, television and theater
- List of people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards
References
Bibliography
External links
- - American Film Institute
- 2010 Life Achievement Award - American Film Institute
- The Evolution of Mike Nichols, New York article