Mark Harris.
MARK HARRIS
mike nichols: a life (2021)
Mike Nichols (born 1931 as Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky) was an immensely successful film and theatre director. He was one of few people to win all four of the leading American entertainment awards - Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
He began his career in the 1950s working with Elaine May as a highly successful improvisional comedian. At the age of 32e moved on to direct plays on Broadway, his first being Barefoot in the Park starring Robert Redford. He won Tony Awards for plays directed in 1964 and 1965. Nichols moved from theatre to film, winning an Oscar for the highly successful The Graduate in 1967.
Mark Harris’ biography describes Nichols dramatic early life. He lost his hair at the age of four due to an allergic reaction, and wore wigs and false eyebrows for the rest of his life. And at the age of seven Mikhail and his three year old brother were sent alone from Berlin to the USA fleeing from the Nazi persecution of the jews.
At the height of his career Nichols became wealthy and flamboyant, living in a three storey Central Park West penthouse, driving a Rolls Royce, and collecting Arabian horses.
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Mark Harris is a journalist and author living in New York City. He has written for New York, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times. He has also written two books on the history of the Hollywood film industry.
