It isn\u2019t hard to figure out what made Mr. Nichols so competitive. Born in Berlin in 1931, he got out of Germany at the age of 7, mere steps ahead of the Holocaust. After that, nobody had to tell him that Jews got no favors. Characteristically, he claimed that it was an advantage. \u201cThe thing about being an outsider,\u201d\u009d he said in 2012, \u201cis that it teaches you to hear what people are thinking because you\u2019re constantly looking for the people who just don\u2019t give a damn.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Mr. Nichols made his name in the \u201950s by improvising supremely sharp-witted comedy routines with Elaine May. The lightning-quick timing that he cultivated on nightclub stages served him well when he took up directing in 1963. During a rehearsal for the Broadway premiere of Neil Simon\u2019s \u201cThe Odd Couple,\u201d\u009d he got into a shouting match with Walter Matthau. \u201cYou\u2019re emasculating me!\u201d\u009d the actor shouted. \u201cGive me back my balls!\u201d\u009d \u201cCertainly,\u201d\u009d Mr. Nichols replied, then snapped his fingers to summon the stage manager. \u201cProps!\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Mr. Nichols\u2019s work was unshowy, even self-effacing. \u201cIt\u2019s not a filmmaker\u2019s job to explain his technique, but to tell his story the best way he can,\u201d\u009d he said. Hence no one will ever think of him as a groundbreaker, a radically original creative artist. He was, rather, an interpreter, and in the studio he almost always did his best work with familiar material like Edward Albee\u2019s \u201cWho\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?\u201d\u009d (his first film) and the TV version of Tony Kushner\u2019s \u201cAngels in America,\u201d\u009d both of which clearly convey the visceral impact of the plays on which they were based. Few of his other films will be as well remembered. Even 1967\u2019s \u201cThe Graduate,\u201d\u009d which vaulted him into the pantheon of Hollywood superstars, now looks like a period piece, a carefully posed snapshot of a key moment in postwar American culture.<\/p>\n
But the fact that Mr. Nichols did make films means that he himself will likely be remembered longer than any other American stage director of his generation.<\/p>\n