Godspeed P. D. James

Mystery novelist Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park,  better known as P. D. James, died on 27 November 2014 at the age of 94.

P. D. James was born in Oxford on 3 August 1920. She attended the British School in Ludlow and Cambridge High School for Girls. She was unable to go to university because she could not afford to do so. She went to work in a tax office after leaving school. When she was 21  she married Earnest Connor Bantry White. Her husband served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II. Unfortunately after the war he suffered from schizophrenia so severely that he spent much of his time in hospital. To support the family P. D. James studied hospital administration and began working for the National Health Service in 1948. She continued to work for the NHS until 1968. Afterwards she worked for the Home Office until 1979, most of that time spent in the Criminal Policy Department.

P. D. James's first novel, Cover Her Face, was published in 1962. It was the first in what would be a series of 14 novels featuring Detective Chief Inspector (and eventually Commander) Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard. The  Adam Dalgliesh novels would prove to be extremely popular. Starting in 1983 the first novels in the series would be adapted by by Anglia Television for ITV. These adaptations starred Roy Marsden as Dalgliesh. The BBC adapted the novels Death in Holy Orders and The Murder Room in 2003 and 2005 respectively. In the films Martin Shaw played Dalgliesh. The final Adam Dalgliesh novel, The Private Patient, was published in 2008.

She also wrote other books than those in the Adam Dalgliesh series. She wrote two novels featuring London private detective Cordelia Gray. The first, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, was published in 1972. The second, The Skull Beneath the Skin, was published in 1982.  Helen Baxendale played Cordelia Gray in the ITV series An Unsuitable Job for a Woman that aired on and off from 1997 to 2001.

P. D. James also wrote novels outside the mystery genre. Her 1992 novel Children of Men was dystopian science fiction set in a futuristic England where infertility has occurred on a massive scale. It was adapted as the film Children of Men (2006) by director Alfonso Cuarón. She also wrote a continuation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that places Austen's characters in a murder mystery, Death Comes to Pemberley. Death Comes to Pemberley was adapted as a three part serial by BBC One in 2013.

P.D. James was one of the most influential mystery writers of her time, and also one of the greatest as well. P. D. James continued the tradition of the gentleman detective with Adam Dalgliesh and her mysteries were very much in the tradition of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. At the same time, however, she brought the gentleman detective into the late 20th Century. Her novels not only featured complex characters, but often dealt with such modern problems as child abuse, drugs, and even radiation poisoning. Ultimately P.D. James was much more than a writer carrying on the tradition of such writers Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Quite simply, she took the gentleman detective mystery where it had never gone before.

The 110th Anniversary of Nancy Mitford's Birth

There was perhaps no more famous (or notorious) set of sisters in the 20th Century than the Mitford sisters. The daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale and Sydney Bowles, the Mitford sisters ranged from a celebrated beauty who married a British Fascist leader to a Communist who became a celebrated journalist and activist in the United States to a beloved duchess who was largely responsible for saving her husband's estate. While all of the Mitford sisters would attain some degree of fame (and, in some instances, infamy), perhaps the most famous of the sisters was also the eldest. Nancy Mitford would attain lasting fame as a novelist, biographer, and journalist. It was 110 years ago today that Nancy Mitford was born in London.

In many respects there was little wonder that Nancy Mitford should have a literary career. On her father's side she was descended from historian and author William Mitford as well as diplomat and author Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale (her grandfather). On her mother's side her grandfather was Thomas Gibson Bowles, journalist and founder of both the British Vanity Fair and The Lady. To say "writing is in one's blood" may be a bit of a cliché, but in the case of Nancy Mitford it might well have been true.

Nancy Mitford began her writing career in the late Twenties, writing short, anonymous pieces of gossip for the various society magazines. She soon moved onto writing articles for which she received a byline in magazines such as Vogue. It was in 1930 that she started writing weekly columns for the magazine that her maternal grandfather had founded, The Lady. While Miss Mitford made a nice amount of money writing articles, she had greater aspirations when it came to writing. Her first novel, Highland Fling, was published in 1931.

Nancy Mitford followed Highland Fling with Christmas Pudding in 1932, Wigs on the Green in 1935, and Pigeon Pie in 1940 before finding enormous success with The Pursuit of Love in 1945. The Pursuit of Love proved to be an international best seller. Nancy Mitford followed it with a companion novel, Love in a Cold Climate, in 1949. It proved equally successful. She followed the success of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate with The Blessing in 1951 and her final novel, Don't Tell Alfred, in 1960.

It was after Nancy Mitford had established herself as a best selling novelist that she also established herself as a biographer. Her first biography, Madame de Pompadour (about Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour), was published in 1954. It was followed by Voltaire in Love (dealing with the love affair between  Voltaire and the Marquise du Châtele) in 1957, The Sun King (dealing with Louis XIV) in 1966, and Frederick the Great in 1970. Miss Mitford wrote her biographies with much the same tone as her fiction, writing them as much to entertain as to educate. Like her later novels, her biographies also proved successful.

While Nancy Mitford's novels may have been her greatest claim to fame and her biographies remain popular, for many she may be best known for an essay "The English Aristocracy", first published in the magazine  Encounter in 1954 and later published in the collection Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry Into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy. "The English Aristocracy" was largely a Mitford tease, complete with a discussion of "U" (upper class) and "Non-U" (non-upper class or the lower classes) speech. Nancy Mitford did not invent the terms "U" and "Non-U" to denote the social dialects of Great Britain. It was British linguist Alan S. C. Ross, Professor of Linguistics in the University of Birmingham, who coined the terms in 1954 in his article "Linguistic Class-Indicators in Present Day English". Despite this Nancy Mitford would become the person most associated with the terms "U and Non-U". In fact, there were many who did not apparently get Miss Mitford's joke and the article stirred a bit of controversy with regards to the classes in Great Britain. There were even those who regarded Miss Mitford as an authority on the aristocracy, an insufferable snob, or both. While many today know that Nancy Mitford meant "The English Aristocracy" as a tease, she remains the person most closely associated with "U" and "Non-U" speech in most people's minds.

One hundred ten years after her birth Nancy Mitford remains one of the most popular authors to emerge from mid-20th Century Britain. Her works have even been adapted to film and television. Her novel The Blessing provided the basis for the 1959 comedy film Count Your Blessings. Her novels Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate were adapted as the 1980 Thames Television mini-series Love in a Cold Climate. In 2003 The Pursuit of Love was included in a list of "The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time" published in The Guardian.  Uncle Matthew from The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate was included in a list of the "Best Fictional Characters" published in The Independent in 2014.

If Nancy Mitford is still popular, it is perhaps because she was an immensely talented writer. She possessed a razor sharp wit which she put to good use in both her non-fiction articles and her novels. Although she has been accused of being an aristocratic snob, her novels are satires of the upper class. Particularly in The Pursuit of Love  and Love in a Cold Climate, Miss Mitford was always one to point out the absurdities of the aristocracy. The aristocracy were not the only targets of Nancy Mitford's satire. In Highland Fling and Christmas Pudding she sent up the Bright Young Things of her own generation. In Wigs on the Green she satirised the British Fascists so savagely that it created a rift between Nancy and her sister Diana (who was involved with and would later marry Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Fascist Union). Short of her friend Evelyn Waugh, no British writer was as good at satire as Nancy Mitford was.

Of course, much of  Nancy Mitford's success as a writer is also due to both her fiction and non-fiction being very readable. Even in her biographies Miss Mitford used a conversational style with a good deal of wit. None of her writing, from her articles to her novels to her biographies could ever be described as "dry" or "boring". She was also capable of creating very memorable characters. I suspect very few people who have read The Pursuit of Love  and Love in a Cold Climate will ever forget Uncle Matthew. As a writer Nancy Mitford was a unique combination of biting satire and readable prose that was easily adaptable to either fiction or non-fiction. It is little wonder that 110 years after her birth she continues to be popular.

Happy Thanksgiving 2014

I just wanted to wish my fellow Americans a happy Thanksgiving! It is my custom here at A Shroud of Thoughts to post vintage pinups every Thanksgiving. Here then are this year's pin ups!

Ann Sheridan carving her turkey.

Audrey Hepburn prefers feeding the turkeys to eating them.

Gloria De Haven offers the turkey some corn.

I don't think Dusty Anderson is with a real turkey....

Dona Drake prefers to hugging the turkey to eating him.

Virginia Dale also prefers hugging turkeys to eating them!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Birthday to Quelle of Out of the Past

If you're a regular reader of this blog you might also be familiar with the classic film blog Out of the Past. Well, today is the birthday of Quelle, who has run that blog for the past seven years. Out of the Past was one of the first classic film blogs I started reading and Quelle was one of the first classic film bloggers I befriended. She was the first person I ever followed on Twitter. In her blog she writes about a variety of film related topics, from films noirs to classic film stars. She regularly includes reviews of classic film related books. Quelle is the one of the most wonderful people I know and you would do well to read her blog!

Quelle shares her birthday with some other cool people, among them Ricardo Montalbán, who is one of my favourite actors of all time.

She also shares her birthday with Noel Neill, the first actress to play Lois Lane in a live action film (the serial Superman)!

Quelle even shares her birthday with the original captain of the starship Enterprise! Jeffrey Hunter played Captain Christopher Pike in the pilot for the TV show Star Trek, "The Cage", shot about a year before William Shatner assumed the role of Captain Kirk!

It seems that a lot of cool people were born on November 25, and Quelle is among the coolest of them. Here's wishing Quelle a very happy birthday!

Constantine

It is quite possible that John Constantine is the most successful supernatural character to emerge from DC Comics. For those unfamiliar with the character, Constantine is essentially an English, working class "master of the dark arts" who also finds himself sometimes playing the role of an occult detective. Constantine is cynical, sarcastic, and cunning, and can even be downright ruthless. At the same time, however, he is a humanist who is capable of kindness and someone who genuinely wants to do good in his life. The character first appeared over thirty years ago and his original title (Hellblazer) lasted twenty five years. John Constantine was popular enough that he provided the inspiration for a 2005 feature film starring Keanu Reeves entitled Constantine. The character's continued popularity would lead to the television series starring Matt Ryan currently airing on NBC.

The 2005 film Constantine departed considerably from the comic book version of the character, even though it took inspiration from the "Dangerous Habits" story arc from Hellblazer. While Constantine was still a cynical street magician who chain smoked, he was also an American who was played by the dark haired Keanu Reeves. What is more, while "Dangerous Habits" was set in Constantine's native England, the movie Constantine was set in Los Angeles. While the movie Constantine is entertaining on its own merits, given that Constantine's Englishness is an integral part of his character (an American Constantine would be something like an American Sherlock Holmes...), it is then hard to take the film seriously as a "John Constantine" movie. Fortunately that is not a problem with the new television series airing on NBC on Friday nights at 10:00 Eastern/9:00 Central.

While Matt Ryan is Welsh rather than English, he looks like John Constantine, so much so it's hard not to believe that he did not step out fully formed out of a Hellblazer comic book. More importantly, he sounds like John Constantine, down to Constantine's working class Scouse accent. Matt Ryan's John Constantine is cynical, snarky, and can be downright vicious when called upon to be so, but at the same time he possesses a compassionate streak and a desire to do what is right. The only thing missing from Matt Ryan's portrayal of Constantine is chain smoking, although given Constantine carrying around a lighter it can be assumed he is probably doing it off screen....

Not only is Matt Ryan's portrayal true to the character in the comic books, but the TV show has also retained the flavour of the comic books to a degree. This is largely helped by the supporting characters on the show, who are drawn from the pages of Hellblazer. Constantine's occasional sidekick and longest surviving friend from the comic books, Chas Chandler, is played by Charles Halford. While Chas has some abilities on the show that he does not have in the comic books, Charles Halford's portrayal of the character is still very close to that of the comic books. Angélica Celaya also plays psychic Zed Martin (who first appeared in Hellbazer #4, April 1988) very closely to the character who appeared in the comic books.

In addition to taking characters from the comic books, Constantine even adapted one of the stories from Hellblazer as an episode. The episode "A Feast of Friends", in which Constantine battles a hunger demon, is based on the first story from the pages of Hellblazer. While the other episodes so far have not been based on stories from the comic book, many of them easily could have been. Both "The Devil's Vinyl" (dealing with a demonic record) and  "Danse Vaudou" (dealing with the dead returning to wreak havoc on the living) could easily have been from the pages of Hellblazer. Not surprisingly both episodes featured another character from Hellblazer--Constantine's occasional enemy and occasional ally Papa Midnite. Like the primary stars of the show, Michael James Shaw plays the role of Papa Midnite as if he stepped right out of the comic books

Constantine does depart from the comic book in some ways.  While much of the run of Hellblazer is set in Britain, the TV series is set in the United States with Constantine having visited Atlanta, a small Pennsylvania mining town, and New Orleans so far. While Hellblazer fans might miss seeing Constantine in his native England, in some respects this is not that much of a departure, as plenty of stories and even story arcs in Hellblazer were set in the United States. Another departure from the comic book is the addition of the character Manny (played by  Harold Perrineau), an angel charged by Heaven to watch over Constantine. While Harold Perrineau does a great job of playing Manny, so far it doesn't seem to me the character adds a lot to the show beyond letting us know Heaven has an interest in John Constantine. That having been said, it seems likely that the writers of Constantine have plans for Manny that might not seem clear to viewers at the moment.

Of course, the obvious question is "Can Constantine be enjoyed by people who have never read the comic books and are wholly unfamiliar with the character of John Constantine. I think it can. That is not to say that the show did not have a bit of a rocky start. While enjoyable over all, the pilot episode "Non Est Asylum" seemed a bit choppy, as if they were trying to fit far too much into 45 minutes. Another problem was the character of Liv Aberdine, played by Lucy Griffiths. During the episode she came off as little more than a terrified damsel in distress. Curiously, Liv was originally meant to be one of the regular characters (the character was created for the series and does not appear in the comic books). Fortunately Liv was replaced by Zed, who is a much stronger character. Like the pilot, the second episode ("The Darkness Beneath") is also enjoyable but flawed. Over all "The Darkness Beneath" seems little different from a run of the mill episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural.

Fortunately Constantine hit its stride with its third episode, "The Devil's Vinyl". While Hellblazer fans will be happy that the show at last feels more like the comic book, the typical television viewer will be happy that the show has suddenly become something very different from other supernatural dramas on the air. With "The Devil's Vinyl" Constantine becomes much grittier, much darker, and much scarier. It also becomes much more character driven. The relationships between the characters on Constantine can be much more complicated than those seen on most television dramas. Constantine and Papa Midnite are hardly amicable (in fact, they seem to consider themselves enemies), but on occasion they must work together. Zed considers herself Constantine's ally, yet she sometimes finds herself disapproving of the things he does. Constantine can be enjoyed for interactions between the characters nearly as much as it can be for Constantine battling the forces of darkness.

Of course, the relationships between the characters would not be nearly so effective (or entertaining) if not for a very capable cast. I have already discussed Matt Ryan's performance as John Constantine, but the rest of the cast is good as well.  Angélica Celaya plays Zed as a strong, independent woman who is much more than window dressing (although as Constantine observes, she is easy on the eyes). As Chas, Charles Halford brings a strong counterpoint to John Constantine, playing the characters as a down-to-earth contrast to the Liverpudlian wizard. And, as pointed out earlier, Michael James Shaw plays Papa Midnite perfectly.

Ultimately the TV show Constantine is a different creature from the comic book Hellblazer, but it is shaping up as a TV show that fans of the comic books can enjoy. At the same time it is shaping up as a TV series that viewers who have never read an issue of Hellblazer can enjoy. After a bit of a rocky start, Constantine is becoming one of the best new shows of the season.

Godspeed Motown's Jimmy Ruffin

Jimmy Ruffin who had such hits as "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" and "Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got" for Motown on their Tamla label, died on 17 November 2014 at the age of 78. While an official cause has not been released, he had been recently hospitalised for pneumonia.

Jimmy Ruffin was born on 7 May 1936 in Collinsville, Mississippi. His mother Ophenia died when he was still a baby. His father Elias made a living as a truck driver and a sharecropper, but also served as a preacher in the Christian faith. He often preached at camp meetings in rural areas. Jimmy and his siblings (which include David Ruffin, who would later become lead singer of The Temptations) often sang gospel music on those occasions when Elias Ruffin preached. Eventually the Ruffin family would open for such gospel performers as  Mahalia Jackson and The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi.

Jimmy Ruffin moved from Mississippi to Detroit, Michigan in the late Fifties. There he got a job assembling cars in a Ford automotive factory. He sang at various local clubs, where he was discovered by Barry Gordy, the founder of Motown Record Corporation. He was signed to Motown's Miracle label in 1960. He sang on various sessions at Motown and in 1961 he released his first single, "Don't Feel Sorry For Me". His musical career would be interrupted in 1961 when he was drafted into the United States Army. He spent three years in the Army before returning to Detroit and Motown. For the next few years Mr. Ruffin continued to record for Motown, although to little success.

It was in 1966 that Jimmy Ruffin heard the song "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted", which had originally been written for The Spinners. Mr. Ruffin convinced the writers of the song (William Weatherspoon
Paul Riser, and James Dean) to let him record the song instead. "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" became Jimmy Ruffin's first major hit. It went to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and #10 on the UK singles chart. In 1967 Jimmy Ruffin followed it with two more hit songs: "I've Passed This Way Before" (which went to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100) and "Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got" (which went to #29 on the Billboard Hot 100). He also recorded two albums in 1967: Jimmy Ruffin Sings Top Ten and The Jimmy Ruffin Way.

Unfortunately Jimmy Ruffin's succeeding singles would not do as well. "Don't You Miss Me a Little Bit Baby"  only went to #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "I'll Say Forever My Love" only went to #77. For the next few years most of his singles failed to chart. He continued to record albums, with Ruff 'n' Ready in 1969 going to #196 on the Billboard albums chart. He released the album The Groove Governor  in 1970 before recording an album with his brother David Ruffin, I Am My Brother's Keeper, in 1971.In 1971 he would also have two hit singles in the United Kingdom, "Farewell is a Lonely Sound" and "It’s Wonderful (To Be Loved By You". Mr. Ruffin had considerably more success in the UK than he did the U.S., often touring the Northern Soul circuit to large audiences.

In 1974 Jimmy Ruffin left Motown for Polydor. Unfortunately he would see no more success there than he had at Motown and he left Polydor for Epic. Eventually he signed with RSO Records, which gave him his first hit in the United States in years. In 1980  "Hold On (To My Love)" went to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 on the UK singles chart. The next year Mr. Ruffin moved to London. In 1984 with Paul Weller of The Style Council he recorded the single Soul Deep" under the name The Council Collective to raise money for the families of striking miners. In 1986 he collaborated with the group Heaven 17 on the songs "A Foolish Thing To Do" and "My Sensitivity" . In the Eighties Mr. Ruffin also served as a presenter on the seven part series Jimmy Ruffin’s Sweet Soul Music on BBC Radio 2.

In 2012 Mr. Ruffin released what would be his final album, There Will Never Be Another You.

Jimmy Ruffin was one of the greatest vocalists to emerge from Motown, a recording company known for producing great vocalists. He had one of the label's most soulful voices, one that was capable of a wide range of emotion. It is curious that he did not have more success in the Untied States, as most of his songs number among the best R&B produced in the Sixties and the Seventies. I think it could be accurate to say that Jimmy Ruffin was one of the most underrated and under-appreciated singers to emerge from Motown. His songs are certainly ripe for rediscovery.

The Late Great Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols, who began his career as part of the legendary comedy team of Nichols and May with Elaine May and went onto a career as an acclaimed director, died yesterday at the age of 83. The cause was a heart attack.

Mike Nichols was born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany on 6 November 1931. On his mother's side his grandfather was anarchist Gustav Landauer and his grandmother was poet Hedwig Lachmann. Also through his mother's side, Albert Einstein was his third cousin twice removed. His family were Russian Jews who had migrated to Germany. With the Nazis in power, the family eventually left Germany for the United States. Young Mikhail's father left first and a few months later, in April 1939, Mikhail and his younger brother joined him. The family settled in New York City. Young Mikhail's mother, who had been ill,  joined them after escaping from Nazi Germany in 1940. In the United States Mikhail's father changed his name to Paul Nichols and established a medical practice in Manhattan.

Mike Nichols attended P.S. 87 on the Upper West Side and became a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1944. He graduated from Walden School in Manhattan and then attended New York University for a short time. He enrolled in the pre-medical programme at the University of Chicago in 1950. It was at the University of Chicago that he took an interest in theatre. Mike Nichols first encountered Elaine May, who would eventually be his partner in comedy, while there. He was acting in a student production of August Strindberg's play Miss Julie when he first took notice of her, a young woman who obviously hated the production and his performance. The two encountered each other a few more times before a fateful meeting in the Illinois Central Railroad station.

It was in 1953 that Mike Nichols joined the  the Playwrights Theatre Club, a forerunner of the Compass Players. He dropped out of the University of Chicago in 1954 to move to New York City to study acting under Lee Strasberg. He returned to Chicago in 1955, at which point he joined the cabaret revue show known as the Compass Players. It was there that Mike Nichols reconnected with Elaine May and the two of them formed a comedy team with Shelley Berman. The team was soon reduced to simply Mike Nichols and Elaine May.

Eventually Nichols and May were performing in New York City at various clubs. They also began to appear on television. They made their television debut on an edition of Omnibus in 1958, "The Suburban Show". Nichols and May appeared on The Steve Allen Plymouth Show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, the 11th Annual Emmy Awards, The Big Party, The Jack Paar Tonight Show, What's My Line, and Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall.  They also appeared in their own show on Broadway, An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and recorded the comedy albums Improvisations to Music, An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Mike Nichols & Elaine May Examine Doctors, as well as proving voices for animated commercials for Narragansett Brewing Company.

Unfortunately Mike Nichols and Elaine May's partnership could be volatile and the two not only argued off stage, but sometimes on stage as well. Eventually Miss May dissolved the partnership, and for a time their friendship ended as well. The two would reunite from time to time in the Sixties, appearing in the TV special President Kennedy's Birthday Salute and several editions of The Jack Paar Programme. Elaine May would have a cameo in Mike Nichols's film The Graduate (1967).

By his own admission Mike Nichols floundered for a time after the dissolution of his partnership with Elaine May. Fortunately in 1963 he was hired to direct a play written by Neil Simon that would eventually be titled Barefoot in the Park. Barefoot in the Park debuted on Broadway in 1963 and received widespread acclaim, with Mr. Nichols's direction often praised. Mike Nichols would direct several more high successful Broadway plays in the Sixties, including Luv, The Odd Couple, The Apple Tree, a revival of The Little Foxes, and Plaza Suite.

Mike Nichols also broke into directing films. His film debut was the 1966 adaptation of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The film was not only critically acclaimed, but was nominated in every single eligible category in the Academy Awards. In total it won five Oscars. If anything Mr. Nichols's next film would be even more successful. The Graduate (1967) would be the highest grossing film of its year and is still the 21st highest grossing film of all time when adjusted for inflation. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews and seven Oscar nominations. Mike Nichols won the Oscar for Best Director for the film. Mr. Nichols directed the short "Teach Me!" and then the 1970 adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22. While Catch-22 did not do well at the box office and was largely ignored by the various awards ceremonies, it has since become highly regarded.

Mike Nichols's film career slowed in the Seventies He directed the films Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Day of the Dolphin (1973), and The Fortune (1975), as well as co-directing a filmed version of Gilda Radner's Broadway show Gilda Live! (1980) with Lorne Michaels. He did a good deal of directing on Broadway, including The Prisoner of Second Avenue, a revival of Uncle Vanya, Streamers, Comedians, and The Gin Game. He had a great deal of popular success with the musical Annie. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for The Prisoner of Second Avenue and was nominated several more times during the decade.

The Eighties would see a revival of Mike Nichols's film career. Silkwood (1983) received a good deal of critical acclaim and was nominated for five Oscars. He directed Heartburn (1986) and Biloxi Blues (1988) before having a popular success with Working Girl (1988). The film did very well at the box office and received five Oscar nominations. He finished the decade with Postcards from the Edge (1980). Mr Nichols continued to work on Broadway, directing such productions as Lunch Hour, The Real Thing, Hurlyburly, and Social Security. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for The Real Thing.

Mike Nichols began the Nineties with the films Regarding Henry (1991) and Wolf (1994). He renewed his collaboration with Elaine May, with Miss May writing the screenplays for his films The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colours (1998). The Birdcage was an adaptation of the French film La Cage aux Folles and did very well at the box office. The film also received largely positive reviews. While Primary Colours did poorly at the box office, the film did receive largely positive reviews. Mike Nichols finished the decade with the science fiction comedy What Planet Are You From?. On Broadway Mr. Nichols directed the  production Death and the Maiden.

In the Naughts Mike Nicholas directed the television movie Wit and two episodes of the mini-series Angels in America. He also directed the films Closer (2004) and Charlie Wilson's War (2007). On Broadway he directed The Play What I Wrote, Spamalot, and revivals of The Apple Tree and The Country Girl. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for Spamalot. In the Teens he directed revivals of Death of a Salesman and Betrayal. He received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for Death of a Salesman.

The word "genius" is often applied liberally to various individuals, but the word might well have been accurate in describing Mike Nichols. As one half of the comedy team of Nichols and May, Mike Nichols created some of the most hilarious comedy sketches of all time. It was not enough that Mike Nichols and Elaine May were masters of improvisation, they could create memorable sketches off the cuff that also served as a commentary on American culture. Their classic sketch "$65 Funeral" pre-dated the Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death and Ruth Muvey Harner's The High Cost of Dying in attacking abuses on the part of the funeral home industry. Their classic "Mother and Son" sketch featured Elaine May as an overprotective mother nagging her aerospace engineer son. Their "At the Watercooler" sketch derived humour from two office workers discussing everything from the then current quiz show scandals to politicians. Nichols and May had a way of taking scenes from everyday life and turning them into a critique of American culture in a way that no other comedians ever had. They also found humour in subjects very few comedians would have ever tried tackling at the time, everything from funerals to hospitals.

Of course, Mike Nichols would go onto a very successful career as a director of both Broadway plays and films. For many his most lasting contribution to film may be The Graduate, the classic tale of a young man coming of age with no particular goals in life. There is no doubt that it is not only a highly regarded film, but one that has had a lasting impact on pop culture. There are very few people who would not recognise the name "Mrs. Robinson". That having been said, Mr. Nichols directed several great films in his career. While it did poorly at the box office and did not win many awards, Catch-22 is now somewhat better regarded. Indeed, seen now it holds up much better than what was at the time the more highly regarded and successful contemporary M*A*S*H. Mike Nichols sometimes pushed the envelope as to what was acceptable in his films. Although it might seem to hard believe now, in its time Carnal Knowledge was very controversial in its rather open portrayal of male sexuality. Although many of Mike Nichols's later films would not be as highly regarded as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or The Graduate, Mike Nichols was still capable of making fine films later in his career. Not only was The Birdcage one of the funniest Nineties in my opinion, but it was better than the original French film.

As both part of the comedy team May and Nichols and as a director Mike Nichols displayed a rare brand of talent. Both as an improvisational comedian and a director his contributions to popular culture will not soon be forgotten.