Mike Nichols

Nichols directed such movies as The Graduate and Birdcage and Broadway musicals such as Spamalot. He won nine Tony Awards. Nichols died Wednesday at 83. He talked with Terry Gross in 2001.

He directed the new HBO movie Wit based on the Pulitzer-prize winning off-Broadway play about a college professor dying of ovarian cancer. (It premieres on HBO Saturday, March 24 at 9PM). Nichols is also the director of The Graduate (for which he won an Oscar for Best Director), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Silkwood, Working Girl, and Primary Colors. Before he became a film director NICHOLS was known for his popular comedy improvisations with Elaine May.