Mike Nichols, the iconic director of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Working Girl, Angels in America, Spamalot, and much more, died suddenly yesterday at the age of 83. "No one was more passionate about his craft than Mike," says the president of ABC News, which employs Nichols' wife, Diane Sawyer, and announced his death. "He was a true visionary." Nichols wore many hats—he also wrote, produced, and found much success on Broadway in addition to Hollywood—and his resumé carried awards including Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
He's one of only 12 people to have won all four, notes the BBC, which adds that ABC staff were told Nichols died of cardiac arrest. Nichols was born in Germany, and came to the United States at age 7 when his family fled the Nazis. His last film was Charlie Wilson's War, but he was working on an HBO adaptation of Master Class that was to star Meryl Streep. (More Mike Nichols stories.)