American comedian, director and filmmaker Mike Nichols was BOTD in 1931. Born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin to a middle-class Jewish family, his family fled Germany following the rise of the Nazi Party, emigrating to the United States when he was a child. Raised in New York City, he had a comfortable middle-class upbringing, studying at New York University before enrolling in medicine at the University of Chicago. While a student, he met the comedian and writer Elaine May, with whom he had a brief romance. He dropped out of medical school, returning to New York to study Method Acting with Lee Strasberg, and joined Chicago comedy troupe the Compass Players. He and May became a formidable comedy duo, with a series of hit comedy revues on Broadway, winning a Grammy for their 1961 comedy album An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May. After they disbanded, he shifted his focus to theatre directing, finding success with the 1963 Broadway premiere of Neil Simon’s comedy Barefoot in the Park, making a star of its young lead Robert Redford. Further success followed with Simon’s play The Odd Couple starring Walter Matthau, winning Nichols a Tony Award for his direction. Lured to Hollywood, he made an electrifying feature film debut with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a brutal and affecting adaptation of Edward Albee’s play, starring Hollywood glamour couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The film became a critical and commercial sensation, defying censors by retaining most of Albee’s scripted profanities, (homo)sexual innuendo and lacerating psychodrama. It dominated the 1967 awards season, earning 13 Oscar nominations and winning five awards, including best actress for Taylor. Nichols’ next film The Graduate, a jaundiced comedy about a college sports star who has an affair with the mother of his erstwhile girlfriend, made a star of Dustin Hoffman and became a cultural touchstone for Baby Boomer disaffection. Known for his affinity with actors, he nurtured the careers of Meryl Streep, Cher, Melanie Griffiths, Julia Roberts, Emma Thompson, Natalie Portman and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Often drawn to queer-themed narratives, he directed complex, fascinating queer characters including Cher in Silkwood, Kathy Bates in Primary Colours and Nathan Lane and Robin Williams as a bickering gay couple in The Birdcage, an English-language remake of French comedy La Cage aux Folles. His late career triumphs included a successful TV adaptation of Tony Kushner’s AIDS-themed play Angels in America, and a celebrated Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman starring Hoffman. In 2009, Nichols became the ninth EGOT winner, having been awarded Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards. Married four times, latterly to TV journalist Barbara Walters, and with three children, he had a decade-long relationship in his youth with photographer Richard Avedon. He died in 2014, aged 83.