Editing Mike Nichols (section)

==Directing style==
After his early successes as a stage and film director, Nichols had developed a reputation as an [[auteur]] who likes to work intimately with his actors and writers, often using them repeatedly in different films. Writer [[Peter Applebome]] noted that "few directors have such a gift for getting performances out of actors."<ref name="Whitehead">{{cite book|last1=Whitehead|first1=J.W.|title=Mike Nichols and the Cinema of Transformation|date=2014|publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=978-0-7864-7145-4|pages=5, 90}}</ref> During a half-year period in 1967 he had four hit plays running simultaneously on Broadway, during which time his first Hollywood feature, ''[[Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (film)|Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]]'', had also become a popular and critical success. Combined with his second film, ''The Graduate'', in 1967, the two films had already earned a total of 20 Oscar nominations, including two for Best Director, and winning it for ''The Graduate.''

Nichols was able to get the best out of actors regardless of their acting experience, whether an unknown such as Dustin Hoffman or a major star like Richard Burton. For his first film, ''[[Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (film)|Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]]'', each of the four actors was nominated for an [[Academy Awards|Oscar]], with [[Elizabeth Taylor]] and [[Sandy Dennis]] winning. Burton later said, "I didn't think I could learn anything about comedy—I'd done all of Shakespeare's. But from him I learned," adding, "He conspires with you to get your best."<ref name="Weber Obit"/>

However, it was Taylor who chose Nichols to be their director, because, writes biographer [[David Bret]], "she particularly admired him because he had done a number of ad-hoc jobs to pay for his education after arriving in America as a seven-year-old Jewish refugee."<ref name="bret">{{cite book|last1=Bret|first1=David|title=Elizabeth Taylor : the lady, the lover, the legend : 1932–2011 : a new biography|date=2011|publisher=Greystone Books|location=Vancouver|isbn=978-1-55365-440-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/elizabethtaylorl0000bret/page/176 176]|url=https://archive.org/details/elizabethtaylorl0000bret/page/176}}</ref> Producer [[Ernest Lehman]] agreed with her choice: "He was the only one who could handle them," he said. "The Burtons were quite intimidating, and we needed a genius like Mike Nichols to combat them."<ref name="Kelley">{{cite book|last1=Kelley|first1=Kitty|title=Elizabeth Taylor : the last star|date=2011|publisher=Simon and Schuster|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4516-5676-3|page=222}}</ref> Biographer [[Kitty Kelley]] says that neither Taylor nor Burton would ever again reach the heights of acting performance they did in that film.<ref name="Kelley" />

The same style of directing was used for ''The Graduate'', where, notes film historian [[Peter Biskind]], Nichols took Dustin Hoffman, with no movie acting experience, along with Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross and others, and managed to get some of their finest acting on screen. This ability to work closely with actors would remain consistent throughout his career. Hoffman credits Nichols for permitting the realistic acting needed for the satirical roles in that film:

{{blockquote|It's Nichols's style—he walks that edge of really going as far as he can without falling over the cliff, into disbelief. It's not caricature. That's the highest compliment for satire.<ref name="Whitehead" /> }}

In a similar way, [[Jeremy Irons]], who acted in the play ''[[The Real Thing (play)|The Real Thing]]'', said that Nichols creates a very "protective environment: he makes you feel he's only there for you,"<ref name="latimes" /> while [[Ann-Margret]], for her role in ''[[Carnal Knowledge (film)|Carnal Knowledge]]'', felt the same: "What's wonderful about Mike is that he makes you feel like you're the one that's come up with the idea, when it's actually his."<ref name="crane">{{cite book|last1=Crane|first1=Robert|last2=Fryer|first2=Christopher|title=Jack Nicholson : the early years|date=2012|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington|isbn=978-0-8131-3615-8|page=101}}</ref>