Mike Nichols
Director Mike Nichols Mike Nichols is a German-born American director and writer for movies, television and theater and also a producer and comedian. He started his career in the 1950s along with Elaine May who is also a talented director screenwriter and actress. Nichols won Academy Award for his movie titled The Graduate in 1968. His other notable films are Who 's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Bird Cage, Carnal Knowledge, Working Girl, Closer and the most recent TV miniseries called Angels in America which airs on HBO. This paper attempts to explore the majority of Mike Nichols successes and his journey through Hollywood as a filmmaker. I choose this as my final research paper because I’m getting my film production degree at SLCC in the hopes to eventually be able to write and direct my own movie. Between wanting to be a director and knowing directors have to use many forms of digital media in their work I wanted to write my paper about a director so I choose Mr Nichols because he was one of my mothers favorite actors and he also works on one of my favorite miniseries, Angels in America.
Early Life Mike Nichols was born as Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany on November 6th 1931. His father was a Austrian Doctor who was a Jew from Russian Immigrants and his mother was a German Jew. His father made Nichols live in Serbia so that the Russian Revolution would not affect him. He later moved to settle in Germany (Gates). Mike Nichols is a third cousin twice removed from the scientist Albert Einstein from his mother’s side (Gates). Filmmaking Career Later, Mike moved to Vancouver to start his filmmaking career professionally. He acted and directed in various productions. In 1963, Nichols was chosen to lead Neil Simon 's Broadway play Barefoot in the Park which is a romantic comedy that starred Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. He realized almost immediately that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Barefoot in the Park
Early Life Mike Nichols was born as Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany on November 6th 1931. His father was a Austrian Doctor who was a Jew from Russian Immigrants and his mother was a German Jew. His father made Nichols live in Serbia so that the Russian Revolution would not affect him. He later moved to settle in Germany (Gates). Mike Nichols is a third cousin twice removed from the scientist Albert Einstein from his mother’s side (Gates). Filmmaking Career Later, Mike moved to Vancouver to start his filmmaking career professionally. He acted and directed in various productions. In 1963, Nichols was chosen to lead Neil Simon 's Broadway play Barefoot in the Park which is a romantic comedy that starred Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. He realized almost immediately that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Barefoot in the Park
Cited: Caggiano, Chris. "Review - My One and Only at the Goodspeed Opera House - Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals." 22 May 2011. Everything Musicals. (http://everythingmusicals.com/everything_i_know_i_learn/2011/05/review-my-one-and-only-at-the-goodspeed-opera-house.html Comedy. University Of Chicago Press, 1991. Rich, Frank. "Tom Stoppard 's Real Thing". The New York Times 6 January 1984. (http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html) Wakeman, John. World Film Directors, Volume 2. The H. W. Wilson Company, 1988. 704-710. Also a lot of help from www.imdb.com