Award-winning United States director, Mike Nichols, passed away of a cardiac arrest on November 19 at his home in New York City.
According to Reuters reports, the nine-time Tony Award winner died at the age of 83. He directed some influential films such as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate. Here are clips from his ten key movies.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Nichols raised the bar into the stratosphere with his very first film, an adaptation of Edward Albee’s vinegar-sharp relationship satire. Nichols – who had won the best play Tony for his stage version of Albee’s play – needed two actors with hands-on experience of tempestuous relationships, two people who knew what it was like to hate and love your significant other at the same time. Step forward: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. All of whom were nominated for Oscars, obviously.
The Graduate (1967)
A young Dustin Hoffman showed up to the audition for the part that would change his life, nervous and insecure. He appeared as Benjamin Braddock, the virginal college kid who gets a schooling in sex and sophistication from the much older Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft). Hoffman, auditioning opposite Katherine Ross, said she would “never be interested in a guy like me in a million years” . It was exactly the self doubt Nichols was looking for. The film was a giant hit. It won Nichols his Oscar. The film also boosted the profile of folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, with their song Mrs. Robinson.
Postcards from the Edge (1990)
Scripted by Carrie Fisher and based on her experiences of living in her showbiz mum’s shadow while recovering from a drug addiction. Meryl Streep played fragile Suzanne Vale with a style that would become almost stereotypical. But the real star was Shirley MacLaine as her defiant star-to-the-end mum. It’s of its time, but the film’s energy? Still here.
Catch-22 (1970)
Nichols spent two years hammering out the kinks in the script for this tricky adaptation, based on Joseph Heller’s sprawling satire. M*A*S*H (released the same year) would get the popular vote, but Nichols’s take on the insanity of war found a cult following, partly thanks to a gang-busting performance from his lead, Alan Arkin.
Silkwood (1983)
Nichols’s first collaboration with Streep (who he would later cast in Postcards from the Edge and the romcom Heartburn) was inspired by the story of whistleblower Karen Silkwood, who died in mysterious circumstances after challenging the safety record of the nuclear power plant where she worked. Streep was due to work one more time with Nichols before he died, this time playing world famous opera warbler Maria Callas.
The Birdcage (1996)
Based on the stage play La Cage aux Folles, and starring Robin Williams as Armand, the gay owner of The Birdcage drag club. He’s in a relationship with Albert (Nathan Lane), who moonlights as the club’s hottest act, “Starina”. The pair are asked to pretend they’re not together when Armand’s son brings his fiancée’s ultra-conservative dad for a visit. Lively and touching, Nichols was praised by GLAD for a film that portrayed gay characters as rounded and complex. A rarity to this day.
Working Girl (1988)
Wall Street with a heart. Nichols cast Melanie Griffith as Tess McGill, a naive secretary who wheedles her way to the top of the financial food chain. Griffiths got her only Oscar-nomination to date for her role. With Sigourney Weaver as Tess’s dragon boss, and Harrison Ford as the moneyed mover and shaker who falls for Tess, Nichols got even more bang for his buck.
Primary Colors (1998)
Nichols raked over the mucky business of Clinton-era US politics with the help of John Travolta, who delivered a convincing approximation of the man who had sexual relations with that woman. Nichols’s film helped The West Wing swing (the TV show would debut a year later), and its influence can be seen in political satire since, namely George Clooney’s The Ides of March.
Wit (2001)
An understated drama about genius and mortality. Emma Thompson, who co-scripted the teleplay with Nichols, played Vivian Bearing, a gifted scholar of metaphysical poetry who is diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. The film got a brief festival run before its airing on HBO. Despite the limited release window, Roger Ebert – possibly the US’s most famous film critic – named it one of his best films of 2001.
Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
Nichols’s last film showed the director playing to his strengths. A satire, rammed with a top notch cast (Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman), and subversive but fun. Hanks took the lead in the biopic, based on the real-life tale of a hard-partying senator who made moves to increase support for Afghani fighters taking on the Soviet Union. It gave Hoffman one of his career-defining moments, with a raging monologue that makes most other actors look like, ahem, “fucking amateurs”.