By April MacIntyre Oct 20, 2009, 3:03 GMT
TV Land Prime will broadcast the 38th AFI Life Achievement Award tribute to Mike Nichols, who was selected by the American Film Institute's (AFI) Board of Trustees to receive the highest honor for a career in film, it was announced today by Sir Howard Stringer, Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees.
AFI award recipient Mike Nichols EPA/JASON SZENES
Nichols was born in Berlin in 1931, fleeing Nazi Germany at age eight. Hewas certified a genius at 12, became half of the hit comedy act “Nichols andMay” in his twenties, was an acclaimed director of stage and screen in his thirties, conquered television, and now, in his late seventies, remains a force equally at ease in all mediums.
The award will be presented to Nichols at a gala tribute in Los Angeles next summer.
Upon being notified of the honor, Nichols said, “I’m surprised and pleased. The AFI award is truly an honor. I feel very blessed. I was watching The Graduate on myBlackberry last week and it really holds up.”
“Genius is a word oft overused in our world, but surely not in the case of Mike Nichols,” said Stringer. “His artistry has spanned the mediums of modernstorytelling – movies, television and the stage – and his gifts across five decades continue to inspire artists and audiences alike. It is AFI’s honor to present him with its 38th Life Achievement Award.”
Nichols has received the Oscar, the Emmy, the Tony and the Grammy during his career.
From the AFI:
After spending his adolescence in New York, Nichols attended the University ofChicago, where he met Elaine May. The two writers developed the premiercomedy act of the late ‘50s, performing in clubs, on TV and eventually onBroadway, where their show, An Evening with Nichols and May (1960) led to a Grammy-winning recording. After they split, Nichols found a new collaborator in playwright Neil Simon, directing four hit Broadway shows— Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, and The Prisoner of Second Avenue—all Tony Award winners.
Having honed his craft on stage, Nichols moved to the big screen in1966, when Elizabeth Taylor handpicked him to direct Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Despite studio objections, Nichols shot the film in stark black and white, occasionally using handheld shots to intensify the dramatic tension. The film was abox-office and critical success, earning 13 Academy Award nominations, including one each for the four actors as well as for Best Director.
Nichols’ second film, The Graduate (1967), won him the Best Directing Oscar. He went on to direct an adaptation of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Day of the Dolphins (1973) and the period comedy TheFortune (1975).
He returned to Broadway in 1977 with two very different hits: producing the musicalAnnie and directing the drama The Gin Game with Hume Cronyn and JessicaTandy.
In 1983, Nichols returned to features with the biopic Silkwood. Reunitingwith both Streep and Nicholson in 1986, he helmed Heartburn, an adaptation of Nora Ephron's bestselling novel, followed by Working Girl (1988), an adaptation of CarrieFisher's semi-autobiographical Postcards from the Edge (1990), The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998).
In 2001, Nichols returned to television by directing Emma Thompson in an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Wit for HBO, earning Emmy Awards for directing and producing.
He followed up in 2003, producing and directing the six-part miniseries adaptation of Tony Kushner's Angels in America for HBO, which received 11 Emmy Awards.
Then, in his triumphant return to Broadway in 2005, he won his sixth Tony as BestDirector for the musical Spamalot, based on the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).
And in 2007, well into his seventies, Nichols returned to features to direct Charlie Wilson's War.
The AFI Life Achievement Award is the highest honor given for a career in film, the AFI Life Achievement Award was established by the AFI Board of Trustees on February 26, 1973.
Mike Nichols joins an esteemed group of individuals who have been chosenfor this distinguished honor since its inception in 1973.1973 John Ford1974 James Cagney1975 Orson Welles1976 William Wyler1977 Bette Davis1978 Henry Fonda1979 Alfred Hitchcock1980 James Stewart1981 Fred Astaire1982 Frank Capra1983 John Huston1984 Lillian Gish1985 Gene Kelly1986 Billy Wilder1987 Barbara Stanwyck1988 Jack Lemmon1989 Gregory Peck1990 Sir David Lean1991 Kirk Douglas1992 Sidney Poitier1993 Elizabeth Taylor1994 Jack Nicholson1995 Steven Spielberg1996 Clint Eastwood1997 Martin Scorsese1998 Robert Wise1999 Dustin Hoffman2000 Harrison Ford2001 Barbra Streisand2002 Tom Hanks2003 Robert De Niro2004 Meryl Streep2005 George Lucas2006 Sean Connery2007 Al Pacino2008 Warren Beatty2009 Michael Douglas
TV Land will broadcast the 38th AFI Life Achievement Award tribute on TV Land PRIME.
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