Mike Nichols

Born: November 6 1931
Where: Berlin, Germany

The one-time stand-up comedian and theatre director first attracted notice with his Oscar-nominated debut feature Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Career highlights have included the Academy Award-winning The Graduate, Silkwood, Working Girl and Closer.

He is also a member of that select group including Barbra Streisand,Rita Moreno and Mel Brooks who have at least one Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Grammy.

His Russian father and German mother mixed in Berlin literary circles including relatives of radical thinkers Vladamir Nabakov and Boris Pasternak.

At the outbreak of World War II - in 1939 - the family moved to New York when he was seven.

After attending the University of Chicago, he founded the comedy group The Compass - later renamed Second City - with Elaine May and Paul Sills.

In 1957, the Nichols and May team toured the country to a rapturous reception before making TV specials and appearing on Broadway.

He then switched to theatre directing and staged several successful Broadway comedies, including Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple.

In 1966 he made his big screen debut with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in his Oscar-winnning adaptation of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

The following year he directed another box office smash - a young Dustin Hoffman played the virginal student in The Graduate with Anne Bancroft.

The movie landed Nichols a best director Oscar as well as nominations for Hoffman and Bancroft and supporting actress Katharine Ross.

In 1970, Nichols helmed a partially successful adaptation of Joseph Heller's anti-war novel Catch-22 starring Alan Arkin and Art Garfunkel.

The following year Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen and an Oscar-nominated Ann-Margret starred in Nichols' dissection of human relationships Carnal Knowledge.

The director was on less firm ground with the sci-fi thriller The Day of the Dolphin and caper comedy The Fortune.

As a result he returned to Broadway (where he won six Tony awards) and worked on the occasional TV special.

However, after the documentary Gilda Live and two-handed drama The Gin Game, Nichols was back on form with Silkwood with Meryl Streep as the whistleblower on dodgy deeds in the nuclear industry.

Nichols then team up Nicholson and Streep for the Nora Ehron comedy Heartburn and went on to adapt Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues with Matthew Broderick.

He scored a box office hit with romantic comedy Working Girl, starring Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith and subsequently brought Carrie Fisher's Hollywood expose Postcards from the Edge to the big screen.

Next up was Regarding Henry with Harrison Ford and Annette Bening and the werewolf romance Wolf with Nichols regular, Jack Nicholson.

In 1996, Nichols successfully adapted the French comedy La Cage Aux Folles, re-titling it The Bird Cage and starring Robin Williams.

This was followed with the disappointing political comedy Primary Colours and the sci-fi flop What Planet Are You From with Gary Shandling.

Switching to the small screen, Angels in America starring Meryl Streep, picked up 11 Emmy's including best director.

In 2004, he was back on big screen form with Closer, an all-star adaptation of Patrick Marber's play with Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Natalie Portman.