Immigrant of the Day: Mike Nichols (Germany)

Mike Nichols (born November 6, 1931) is an Academy Award winning film director, writer, and producer.  He won an Oscar as best Director for the classic film “The Graduate” in 1967.

Born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany, his family fled the Nazis in 1939 and came to the United States.  In 1944, Nichols became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

While attending the University of Chicago in the 1950s, Nichols began work in improvisational comedy, and later started a long-running folk music program on radio.

Nichols directed 16 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Elizabeth Taylor, Sandy Dennis, Richard Burton, George Segal, Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, Ann-Margret, Meryl Streep, Cher, Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Cusack, Kathy Bates, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen. Taylor and Dennis won Oscars for their performances in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Among Nichols’ credits as director are:

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

Primary Colors (1998)

Regarding Henry (1991)

Postcards from the Edge (1990)

Working Girl (1988)

Biloxi Blues (1988)

Silkwood (1983)

Carnal Knowledge (1971)

Catch-22 (1970)

The Graduate (1967)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

KJ