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Mike Nichols: a life

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Publisher:
Penguin Press
Publication Date:
2021
Edition:
First edition
Language:
English

Description

"A magnificent biography of one of the most protean creative forces in American entertainment history, a life of dazzling highs and vertiginous plunges--some of the worst largely unknown until now--by the acclaimed author of Pictures at a Revolution and Five Came Back. Mike Nichols burst onto the scene as a wunderkind without parallel: while still in his 20's, he was half of a lucrative hit improv duo with Elaine May that was the talk of the country. Next he directed four hit Broadway plays, picking up the Best Director Tony for three of them, and by his mid-30's the first two films he directed, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate, were the highest-grossing movies of 1966 and 1967 respectively, and The Graduate had won him an Oscar for Best Director. Well before his 40th birthday, Nichols lived in a sprawling penthouse on Central Park West, drove a Rolls Royce, collected Arabian horses, and counted the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Avedon and the Aga Khan as good friends. Where he had arrived is even more astonishing given where he began: born Igor Peschkowsky to a Jewish couple in Berlin in 1931, he and his younger brother were sent alone to America on a ship in 1939. Their father, who had gone ahead to find work, was waiting for them; their mother would follow, in the nick of time. His name changed by his father to "Michael Nichols," the young boy caught very few breaks: his parents were now destitute, and his father died when Mike was just 11, leaving his mentally unstable mother alone and overwhelmed. Perhaps most cruelly, Nichols was completely bald: as a small child an allergic reaction to an immunization shot had caused total and permanent hair loss. His parents claimed they could not afford to buy him even a cheap wig until he was almost in high school. Mark Harris gives an intimate and even-handed accounting of success and failure alike; the portrait is not always flattering, but its ultimate impact is to present the full story of one of the most richly interesting, complicated, and consequential figures the worlds of theater and motion pictures have ever seen. It is a triumph of the biographer's art"--

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ISBN:
9780399562242

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Grouping Information

Grouped Work IDc22ff528-ceb9-aac0-e3fa-26df2ca628a2
Grouping Titlemike nichols a life
Grouping Authormark harris
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-09-11 14:59:27PM
Last Indexed2024-12-03 06:53:06AM

Solr Fields

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Biography
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Windsor Biography
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"A magnificent biography of one of the most protean creative forces in American entertainment history, a life of dazzling highs and vertiginous plunges--some of the worst largely unknown until now--by the acclaimed author of Pictures at a Revolution and Five Came Back. Mike Nichols burst onto the scene as a wunderkind without parallel: while still in his 20's, he was half of a lucrative hit improv duo with Elaine May that was the talk of the country. Next he directed four hit Broadway plays, picking up the Best Director Tony for three of them, and by his mid-30's the first two films he directed, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate, were the highest-grossing movies of 1966 and 1967 respectively, and The Graduate had won him an Oscar for Best Director. Well before his 40th birthday, Nichols lived in a sprawling penthouse on Central Park West, drove a Rolls Royce, collected Arabian horses, and counted the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Avedon and the Aga Khan as good friends. Where he had arrived is even more astonishing given where he began: born Igor Peschkowsky to a Jewish couple in Berlin in 1931, he and his younger brother were sent alone to America on a ship in 1939. Their father, who had gone ahead to find work, was waiting for them; their mother would follow, in the nick of time. His name changed by his father to "Michael Nichols," the young boy caught very few breaks: his parents were now destitute, and his father died when Mike was just 11, leaving his mentally unstable mother alone and overwhelmed. Perhaps most cruelly, Nichols was completely bald: as a small child an allergic reaction to an immunization shot had caused total and permanent hair loss. His parents claimed they could not afford to buy him even a cheap wig until he was almost in high school. Mark Harris gives an intimate and even-handed accounting of success and failure alike; the portrait is not always flattering, but its ultimate impact is to present the full story of one of the most richly interesting, complicated, and consequential figures the worlds of theater and motion pictures have ever seen. It is a triumph of the biographer's art"--
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Books
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Book
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c22ff528-ceb9-aac0-e3fa-26df2ca628a2
isbn
9780399562242
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Book
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Non Fiction
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BIO NICHOLS MIKE HARRIS
owning_library_clearview
Admin and Storage
Bookmobile
Clearview Library District
Severance Library
Windsor Library
owning_location_clearview
Windsor Library
primary_isbn
9780399562242
publishDate
2021
publisher
Penguin Press
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Entertainment & Performing Arts
Biographies
Motion picture producers and directors
Motion picture producers and directors -- United States -- Biography
Nichols, Mike
PERFORMING ARTS / Individual Director (see also BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Entertainment & Performing Arts)
United States
title_display
Mike Nichols : a life
title_full
Mike Nichols : a life / Mark Harris
title_short
Mike Nichols
title_sub
a life
topic_facet
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Entertainment & Performing Arts
Motion picture producers and directors
Nichols, Mike
PERFORMING ARTS / Individual Director (see also BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Entertainment & Performing Arts)

Solr Details Tables

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ils:215903129301Windsor BiographyBIO NICHOLS MIKE HARRIS1falsefalseOn Shelf3

record_details

Bib IdFormatFormat CategoryEditionLanguagePublisherPublication DatePhysical DescriptionAbridged
ils:215903BookBooksFirst editionEnglishPenguin Press2021xiii, 673 pages, 32 unnumberered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

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ils:215903129301On ShelfOn Shelffalsetruetruefalsefalsetruefalse