Director, producer and sometime performer Mike Nichols has died, and Turner Classic Movies will offer a mini-festival of Nichols’ work on the night of Dec. 6.
The movie channel will show three of the films by Nichols, who died of a heart attack Nov. 19 at the age of 83. They will be “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” one of his best, at 8 p.m.; “The Graduate” at 10:30 p.m., and “Carnal Knowledge” — my favorite among his works — at 12:30 a.m. Dec. 7.
It’s worth noting here that posthumous tributes have singled out Nichols as one of the rare holders of the EGOT — meaning he won at least one competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. You have to do a lot of different things to achieve that, but Nichols did, winning a Grammy for a recording of a comedy performance when he was teamed with Elaine May; picking up eight Tony Awards as a director; an Oscar for “The Graduate”; and Emmys for directing and producing both “Wit” and “Angels in America.” (Both, by the way, are worth revisiting.)
Only a dozen people can lay claim to the EGOT, according to the GoldDerby.com website. The list gets longer if you start counting special and honorary awards, but we’re sticking with people who won theirs in direct competitions. Besides Nichols, they are Richard Rodgers, Helen Hayes, Rita Moreno, John Gielgud, Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, producer Scott Rudin and three from the world of music Marvin Hamlisch, Jonathan Tunick and Robert Lopez.
Rich Heldenfels
Akron Beacon Journal
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