On June 10, 2010, in Culver City, California, Mike Nichols received the American Film Institute's Life Time Achievement Award. The AFI award was established by the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute on February 26, 1973 to honor a single individual for his or her lifetime contribution to enriching American culture through motion pictures and television.
Mary Louise Parker
Tom Hanks (then 45) has been the youngst recipient, so far, and Lillian Gish (90) the oldest. David Lean, Alfred Hitchcock and Sean Connery are the only non-Americans to win the award.
Tom Hanks (youngest recipient) (Photo/wiki)
The Trustees initially specified that the recipient must be one who advanced the art of film and whose achievements had been acknowledged by the general public as well as by film scholars, critics and the individual's peers. The Trustees also specified that the work of the recipient must have withstood the test of time.
Mike Nichols, this year's recipient of the AFI award, is a German-American television, stage and film director, writer, and producer. Nichols has won all the major American entertainment awards: an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. In 2001, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Albert Einstein (Photo/wiki)
As far as his family's roots go, according to research done by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of Harvard University, in 2010 for the PBS series Faces of America, Nichols' grandfather was a leading theorist on anarchism in the early 20th century and Nichols is related to Albert Einstein who was a cousin on his mother’s side.
Movies Nichols have made deal with people and the faulty, confused worlds they live in. In the films The Graduate and Working Girl, he talked about those individuals who want to turn their lives around for the better.
One theme in Nichols' films is the faults in people that lead them to live imperfect lives. He would make this the subject of his dramatic films and his comedies.
Harrison Ford, Clista Lockhart
Some of Nichols films include The Fortune, Wolf, Silkwood, Regarding Henry, Catch 22, Working Girl, Closer, and the true story film, Charlie Wilson's War. Of the movie stars he worked with, Nichols would do three films with Meryl Streep, two films with Julia Roberts, and four films with three time Academy Award Winner Jack Nicholson. Two films that Nichols and Nicholson did were Wolf and Carnal Knowledge. (AP Photos/Chris Pizzello)
More footage on Mike Nichols below.
Diane Sawyer, Nichols
Films directed by Mike Nichols
1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967 The Graduate
1968 Teach Me!
1970 Catch
1971 Carnal Knowledge
1973 The Day of the Dolphin
1975 The Fortune
1980 Gilda Live
1983 Silkwood 5
1986 Heartburn
1988 Biloxi Blues
Working Girl
1990 Postcards from the Edge
1991 Regarding Henry
1994 Wolf
1996 The Birdcage
1998 Primary Colors
2000 What Planet Are You From?
2001 Wit
2003 Angels in America
2004 Closer
2007 Charlie Wilson's War
Year Honoree Age
1973 John Ford 79
1974 James Cagney 74
1975 Orson Welles 59
1976 William Wyler 73
1977 Bette Davis 68
1978 Henry Fonda 72
1979 Alfred Hitchcock 79
1980 James Stewart 71
1981 Fred Astaire 81
1982 Frank Capra 84
1983 John Huston 76
1984 Lillian Gish 90
1985 Gene Kelly 72
1986 Billy Wilder 79
1987 Barbara Stanwyck 79
1988 Jack Lemmon 63
1989 Gregory Peck 72
1990 David Lean 82
1991 Kirk Douglas 74
1992 Sidney Poitier 65
1993 Elizabeth Taylor 61
1994 Jack Nicholson 56
1995 Steven Spielberg 48
1996 Clint Eastwood 65
1997 Martin Scorsese 54
1998 Robert Wise 83
1999 Dustin Hoffman 61
2000 Harrison Ford 57
2001 Barbra Streisand 58
2002 Tom Hanks 45
2003 Robert De Niro 59
2004 Meryl Streep 54
2005 George Lucas 60
2006 Sean Connery 75
2007 Al Pacino 67
2008 Warren Beatty 71
2009 Michael Douglas 64
2010 Mike Nichols 78
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