Editing Mike Nichols (section)

==Comedy career==
{{main|Nichols and May}}
[[File:Elaine May and Mike Nichols 1960.JPG|thumb|[[Nichols and May]], {{circa|1960}}]]
Nichols first saw [[Elaine May]] when she was sitting in the front row while he was playing the lead in a Chicago production of ''[[Miss Julie]],'' and they made eye contact.<ref name="Coleman" /> {{rp|39}} Weeks later he ran into her in a train station where he started a conversation in an assumed accent, pretending to be a spy, and she played along, using another accent.<ref name="Nachman" /> {{rp|325}} They hit it off immediately, which led to a brief romance. Later in his career, he said "Elaine was very important to me from the moment I saw her."<ref name="Nachman" />{{rp|325}}

In 1953, Nichols left Chicago for New York City to study [[method acting]] under [[Lee Strasberg]], but was unable to find stage work there.<!--LAT ref is for the entire paragraph--><ref name="latimes" /> He was invited back to join Chicago's [[Compass Players]] in 1955, the predecessor to Chicago's [[The Second City|Second City]], whose members included May, [[Shelley Berman]], [[Del Close]], and Nancy Ponder,<ref name="autogenerated1988"/><ref name="Coleman">{{cite book|last1=Coleman|first1=Janet|title=The Compass: The Improvisational Theatre That Revolutionized American Comedy|date=1991|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0-226-11345-6}}</ref> directed by [[Paul Sills]]. In Chicago, he started doing improvisational routines with May, which eventually led to the formation of the [[comedy duo]] [[Nichols and May]] in 1958, first performing in New York City.

They performed live [[satire|satirical]] comedy acts and eventually released three records of their routines, which became best-sellers. They also appeared in nightclubs and were on radio and television. [[Jack Rollins (producer)|Jack Rollins]], who later became [[Woody Allen]]'s manager and producer, invited them to audition and was most impressed: "Their work was so startling, so new, as fresh as could be. I was stunned by how really good they were, actually as impressed by their acting technique as by their comedy ... I thought, My God, these are two people writing hilarious comedy on their feet!"<ref name="Nachman">{{cite book |last1= Nachman |first1=Gerald |author-link1= Gerald Nachman (journalist) |title=Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s|year= 2003 |url=https://archive.org/details/seriouslyfunnyre00nach |url-access= registration |location=New York, NY |publisher=Pantheon Books |publication-date=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/seriouslyfunnyre00nach/page/659 659] |isbn= 978-0-375-41030-7 |oclc=50339527 }}</ref>{{rp|340}}

In 1960, Nichols and May opened the [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] show ''An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May'', directed by [[Arthur Penn]]. The LP album of the show won the 1962 [[Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album]]. Personal idiosyncrasies and tensions, such as on the unsuccessful ''A Matter of Position'', a play written by May and starring Nichols, eventually drove the duo apart to pursue other projects in 1961. About their sudden breakup, director [[Arthur Penn]] said, "They set the standard and then they had to move on,"<ref name="Nachman" />{{rp|351}} while talk show host [[Dick Cavett]] said "they were one of the comic meteors in the sky."<ref name="Nachman" />{{rp|348}} Comedy historian [[Gerald Nachman (journalist)|Gerald Nachman]] describes the effect of their break-up on American comedy:

{{blockquote|Nichols and May are perhaps the most ardently missed of all the satirical comedians of their era. When Nichols and May split up, they left no imitators, no descendants, no blueprints or footprints to follow. No one could touch them.<ref name="Nachman" /> {{rp|319}} }}

They later reconciled and worked together many times. They appeared together at President [[Jimmy Carter]]'s inaugural gala, in 1977, and in a 1980 New Haven stage revival of ''[[Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]]'' with [[Swoosie Kurtz]] and [[James Naughton]].<ref>{{cite web | first=Lee |last=Hill | title=Great Directors Critical Database: Mike Nichols | url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/nichols/ | work=Senses of Cinema| date=June 2003 | access-date=October 12, 2008}}</ref> May scripted Nichols's films ''[[The Birdcage]]'' (1996) and ''[[Primary Colors (film)|Primary Colors]]'' (1998). In 2010, at the [[American Film Institute|AFI]]'s "Life Achievement Award" ceremony, May gave a humor-filled tribute to Nichols.<ref>video clip: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgjBxiDmJyU "Elaine May Salutes Mike Nichols at the AFI Life Achievement Award"], American Film Institute</ref>