The Graduate director Mike Nichols passes away

Mike Nichols, award-winning director of 21 films, has died today at the age of 83. Nichols was best-known for his films The Graduate, The Birdcage, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Charlie Wilson’s War, and for a style that focused on the relationships between ordinary people in above-ordinary circumstances. Perhaps best loved for his second film, The Graduate, the Dustin Hoffman-starring ode to post-graduate life has never lost its edge; elsewhere, Nichols also boosted Robin Williams’ career in ’96 with The Birdcage, and garnered an astonishing 42 Oscar nominations for his films over his career. Like Milos Forman, Nichols represented the best of ’60s and ’70s era Hollywood, and how a director can please the crowds while leaving his personal touch intact.