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The Graduate director Mike Nichols dies

Mike Nichols, the Oscar-winning director of The Graduate and husband of news anchor Diane Sawyer, has died at the age of 83. Nichols died suddenly on Wednesday (19Nov14) after suffering a cardiac arrest.
ABC News President James Goldston announced the tragedy, writing, “He was a true visionary, winning the highest honors in the arts for his work as a director, writer, producer and comic and was one of a tiny few to win the EGOT-an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony in his lifetime… No one was more passionate about his craft than Mike.”
Born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany in 1931, Nichols fled to New York with his family aged seven unable to speak English. He got involved in theatre and studied acting before joining a comedy improv group.
In 1963, he earned a Tony Award for his Broadway directorial debut of Barefoot in the Park, and he moved into movies in 1966 by helming the multi Oscar-winning Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Nichols lost out on the Best Director Oscar on that occasion, but he followed it up with a win in 1968 for The Graduate, which also landed him BAFTA and Golden Globe nods.
In the 1970s and ’80s he produced the original Broadway run of musical Annie, which earned him another Tony Award, and helped launched the career of Whoopi Goldberg by creating a one-woman stage show for her in 1984.
He also worked on TV shows and became one of only 12 stars to be honoured at the four major awards shows when he won the Emmy Award for the TV movie Wit. He won the same prize again in 2004 for miniseries Angels in America.
Nichols leaves his fourth wife, Sawyer, and three children – Daisy, Max and Jenny – from previous marriages. His funeral is due to be held later this week (begs17Nov14).

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