While many probably only knew Mike Nichols as Diane Sawyer's husband, the low-key director was responsible for some of the most acclaimed and devastating films in the history of movies, such as the adaptation of the 60s play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
Mike Nichols died suddenly last Wednesday, at 83, in what the IB Times says was a heart attack. Diane Sawyer's husband was a renowned filmmaker whose career went back almost five decades, being responsible for all-time film classics such as "The Graduate," the film that gave Dustin Hoffman his head start in movies and gave the world the often-imitated character of Mrs. Robinson (played by Anne Bancroft) and the classic Simon & Garfunkel tune with the same name.
Diane Sawyer's husband sported a broad career that saw him directing some of the greatest actors in the world in amazing performances - for example, his work in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" saw two of the movie's four cast members win Oscars for their performances: Elizabeth Taylor in her second Academy Award (in what's considered the best piece of acting of her long career) and Sandy Dennis; actors Richard Burton (Taylor's husband at the time) and George Segal were also strong contenders on that year's Oscar night.
While his best-known films are probably the 60s classics "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "The Graduate," the career of Diane Sawyer's husband expanded way beyond personal dramas (although he was also the director of "Closer," a sort of modern-day version of the "Virginia Woolf" play), even working with the Monty Python guys at some point, according to E! Online.
The long-standing career of the great director who was also Diane Sawyer's husband included romantic comedy classic "Working Girl" in an all-star cast that included Melanie Griffith (in the role that made her a star), Han Solo himself Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Cusack, Alec Baldwin and even Kevin Spacey. The film became an instant hit at the time gathering six Academy Awards nominations, including one for Nichols' directing; it's now considered a genre classic.
Other famous works of Diane Sawyer's husband's career include the absurd 1996 comedy "The Birdcage," a remake from a French film with the same name. The movie also featured quite an interesting cast, including a pre-"Ally McBeal" Calista Flockhart, Nathan Lane, legendary actors Dianne Wiest and Gene Hackman and Robin Williams as the owner of a Florida drag queen show bar. Williams also died tragically earlier this year, in what has been confirmed as a suicide.
Nichols' last film was the 2007 Tom Hanks film "Charlie Wilson's War," which also starred Oscar-winning actors Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman; the latter also passed away this year.
Since news of the death of Nichols came out, many news outlets have turned their focus on the former anchorwoman, who, of course, is much more used to being on the other side: Sawyer's whole career saw her asking other people questions, not answering them.
Us Weekly remembers an interview Sawyer gave earlier this year about how she's been keeping up ever since her retirement in Ladies' Home Journal, and in it she revealed that her also famous director husband was really the romantic one in the house.
"He puts little notes in my sock drawer or in my suitcase before I leave for a work trip," Sawyer said of Nichols. "I think one of the most romantic things is simply the way he reaches for my hand all the time."
Mike Nichols was Diane Sawyer's husband from 1988 until his death earlier this week. They had no children together, but he had two boys and a girl from a previous marriage; Sawyer, on the other hand, was only ever married to Nichols and claimed that they hardly ever fought.
Nichols' death is a great loss for his friends and family, and certainly a grand one for film as well.
