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Bay Street mourns the loss of Mike Nichols

Bay Street Theater thoughts are with the family of Mike Nichols (director/writer/producer) who died last evening. He is the of Diane Sawyer.

 

See the article below from USA TODAY:

Mike Nichols, esteemed director/writer/producer and husband of Diane Sawyer, has died.

ABC reports he died suddenly on Wednesday evening of cardiac arrest. He was 83.

Nichols' death was announced by ABC News President James Goldston.

"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," Goldston said in the statement. "No one was more passionate about his craft than Mike."

"His humor, his intellect, the stories," said Robin Roberts on Thursday morning's Good Morning America, recalling visiting him at his home.

"You felt smarter and funnier just being next to him. ....He was an incredible, incredible man," said George Stephanopoulos.

According to ABC, Nichols had been immersed in a new project for HBO to adapt Master Class, Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning play about opera legend Maria Callas.

The project reunited him with Meryl Streep, one of his most frequent collaborators. She once said of Mike, "no explanation of our world could be complete and no account or image of it so rich, if we didn't have you," in hailing him as one of the essential artists of our time.

Nichols, born Michael Igor Peschkowsky, was born in Germany in 1931, and came to the United States when he was 7 years old, when his family escaped Nazi Germany. He pursued theater while attending the University of Chicago in the early 1950s, when he joined a comedy troupe in Chicago and teamed up with performer Elaine May. The duo gained national popularity together.

"People always thought we were making fun of other people when we were in fact making fun of ourselves," Nichols told the AP in 1997.

BNichols, who moved easily from Broadway to big screen to television, leaves a legacy of creative, brilliant offerings.

His films include Carnal Knowledge, Charlie Wilson's War and The Graduate, for which he won an Oscar. He won Emmys for Wit and Angels in America. Onstage, he tackled comedy - The Odd Couple; classics such as Uncle Vanya and musicals including Spamalot, which won him his sixth of nine Tony Awards.

Nichols, who was married four times, is survived by Sawyer, children Daisy, Max and Jenny, and four grandchildren. ABC says a "small, private service will be held this week, and a memorial will be held later this week."

 

Posted: November 20, 2014 in Shows & Events