Mike Nichols, born as Michael Igor Peschowsky, was a film director and producer, theatre director, actor and comedian. He was born in Berlin in a German-Russian-Jewish family that immigrated to America in 1939 running away from the Nazis. He graduated in New York, and during his studies at the Chicago University he had different jobs. Upon his return to New York, he studied acting with Lee Strasberg. During his medical studies in Chicago he joined a group of comedians that became known as an improvisation group Compass Players (predecessor of The Second City). Through the group he met Elaine May and the two of them became a successful comedian duo. They performed in many nightclubs, on TV and then in late 1950’s became extremely popular in New York. They recorded three albums and won a Grammy for the recording from 1961. In the following year, they stopped their collaboration and Nichols made his debut on Broadway by directing Neil Simon’s play Barefoot in the Park starring Robert Redford. The play was very successful and Nichols won the theater award Tony in 1964. He made his debut as a film director with the film adaptation of the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. His next film was the comedy The Graduate (1967) starring Dustin Hoffman, which remained his most famous film to date. Even though it was nominated for seven Oscars, the film won only the one in the category Best Film and the Golden Globe for best director. Having proven himself as a film director, he never forgot the theatre and successfully balanced his directing career between film and theatre. He won nine Tony awards for different theatre productions. He was one of the few people who managed to win the so-called EGOT, i.e. the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. His next feature film was the successful film adaptation of the famous novel Catch-22 (1970). During the 1907’s he made the controversial drama Carnal Knowledge (1971) starring Jack Nicholson, Ann-Margret, Art Garfunkel and Candice Bergen, the less successful thriller The Day of the Dolphin (1973) and the crime comedy The Fortune (1975) in which he again collaborated with Jack Nicholson besides Warren Beatty and Stockard Channing. Since he always remained connected to his comedian roots he shot the Broadway performance by the comedian Gilda Radner that was published as Gilda Live (1980). His next film was the critically acclaimed and commercially successful drama Silkwood (1983) starring Meryl Streep. He continued his collaboration with Streep in his later films: Heartburn (1986) starring also Jack Nicholson and based on Nora Ephron’s biographical novel; Postcards from the Edge (1990) starring Shirley MacLaine and based on the novel by Carrie Fisher. Besides on film, he worked with Meryl Streep in theatre on the play The Seagull from 2001. During the 1980’s he directed the drama Biloxi Blues (1988) based on Neil Simon’s theatre play and starring Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken, as well as the romantic drama Working Girl (1988) starring Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford. He worked with Ford again on the drama Regarding Henry (1991), and with Jack Nicholson on the horror Wolf (1994). Nevertheless, he achieved his greatest success with the comedy The Birdcage (1996) starring Robin Williams and Gene Hackman. He produced most of himself. As a producer of James Ivory’s drama The Remains of the Day (1993) he was nominated for an Oscar. In late 1990’s he directed the comedy about a presidential campaign Primary Colors (1998) starring John Travolta and Emma Thompson. On this film, as well as on The Birdcage (American version of the French original La Cage aux Folles, 1978) he once again worked with Elaine May who adapted both screenplays. Afterwards he directed the sci-fi comedy What Planet Are You From? (2000), which did quite badly at the box offices, and the TV drama Wit (2001) on which he again collaborated with Emma Thompson, and received the Emmy award for Best Director and Best TV Film. He continued to work for television and filmed the popular TV series Angels in America (2003) about early dayys of AIDS in America. Among other awards, the series won the Golden Globe and the Emmy award and Nichols was awarded with an Emmy as Best Director as well. Based on the theatre play, for the big screen he directed the successful romantic drama Closer (2004). A year later he directed the Monty Python’s musical Spamalot on Broadway and was again awarded the Tony award. His last film is the biopic Charlie Wilson's War (2007) starring Tom Hanks. In 2012, he received his ninth Tony award for the play Death of A Salesman starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Andrew Garfield. One of his last projects was the television adaptation of the theatre play Master Class about the life of the legendary opera singer Maria Callas starring Meryl Streep. In 2010, he received the life-time achievement award from the American Film Institute.