MIKE NICHOLS
Name: Michael Igor Peschkowsky
Born: 6 November 1931 Berlin, Germany
Mike Nichols (born November 6, 1931) is an Academy Award winning American film
director, writer, and producer.
Born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany, he and his German-Russian
Jewish family moved to the United States to flee the Nazis in 1939. He became a
naturalized citizen of the United States in 1944. While attending the University
of Chicago in the 1950s, he began work in improvisational comedy with the
Compass Players, a precursor to The Second City, and later started the long-running
Midnight Special folk music program on radio station WFMT.
Nichols formed a comedy team with Elaine May, with whom he appeared in
nightclubs, on radio, released best-selling records, made guest appearances on
several television programs and had their own show on Broadway, directed by
Arthur Penn. They were accompanied by Chicago pianist Marty Rubenstein, host of
the television show Marty's Place. Personal idiosyncrasies and tensions (the
latter culminating in the out-of-town closing of A Matter of Position, a play
written by May and starring Nichols) eventually drove the duo apart to pursue
other projects in 1961. They later reconciled and worked together many times,
with May scripting his films The Birdcage and Primary Colors. They appeared
together at President Jimmy Carter's inaugural gala and in a 1980 New Haven
stage revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Swoosie Kurtz and James
Naughton.
Nichols has been married four times, most notably to TV journalist Diane Sawyer,
whom he wed on April 29, 1988.[citation needed] He has three children, Daisy (born
1964), Max (born 1974) and Jenny (born 1977). His daughter-in-law
is ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols.
Nichols is a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. He is also a founder (along
with George Morrison and Paul Sills) of The New Actor's Workshop in New York
City, where he occasionally teaches. They have coached the likes of Geoff Keogh
from Melbourne, Australia; Matthew Clarke, from Vancouver, Canada; Damian (Maximum)
Coyle from Belfast, Ireland; Kathy Hendrickson, Noelle Lynch, Jason Hale, Aditi
Das, Josh Day, John Zibell, Caroline Sanchez, Martha Rainer, Douglas Gorenstein,
Diane Paulis, Katie Caufield, David Turner,Brendon Bates and Matt Skollar of the
USA.
Name: Michael Igor Peschkowsky
Born: 6 November 1931 Berlin, Germany
Mike Nichols (born November 6, 1931) is an Academy Award winning American film
director, writer, and producer.
Born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany, he and his German-Russian
Jewish family moved to the United States to flee the Nazis in 1939. He became a
naturalized citizen of the United States in 1944. While attending the University
of Chicago in the 1950s, he began work in improvisational comedy with the
Compass Players, a precursor to The Second City, and later started the long-running
Midnight Special folk music program on radio station WFMT.
Nichols formed a comedy team with Elaine May, with whom he appeared in
nightclubs, on radio, released best-selling records, made guest appearances on
several television programs and had their own show on Broadway, directed by
Arthur Penn. They were accompanied by Chicago pianist Marty Rubenstein, host of
the television show Marty's Place. Personal idiosyncrasies and tensions (the
latter culminating in the out-of-town closing of A Matter of Position, a play
written by May and starring Nichols) eventually drove the duo apart to pursue
other projects in 1961. They later reconciled and worked together many times,
with May scripting his films The Birdcage and Primary Colors. They appeared
together at President Jimmy Carter's inaugural gala and in a 1980 New Haven
stage revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Swoosie Kurtz and James
Naughton.
Nichols has been married four times, most notably to TV journalist Diane Sawyer,
whom he wed on April 29, 1988.[citation needed] He has three children, Daisy (born
1964), Max (born 1974) and Jenny (born 1977). His daughter-in-law
is ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols.
Nichols is a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. He is also a founder (along
with George Morrison and Paul Sills) of The New Actor's Workshop in New York
City, where he occasionally teaches. They have coached the likes of Geoff Keogh
from Melbourne, Australia; Matthew Clarke, from Vancouver, Canada; Damian (Maximum)
Coyle from Belfast, Ireland; Kathy Hendrickson, Noelle Lynch, Jason Hale, Aditi
Das, Josh Day, John Zibell, Caroline Sanchez, Martha Rainer, Douglas Gorenstein,
Diane Paulis, Katie Caufield, David Turner,Brendon Bates and Matt Skollar of the
USA.