June 12, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Stars gathered at the Sony Pictures Studios to honour director Mike Nichols. The legendary director, who is one of the few people, to win all major American Awards, was honored with an AFI Life Achievement Award.

The show was opened by Michael Douglas and featured a performance by Simon and Garfunkel. The singer duo sang “Mrs. Robinson’, from the director’s 1967 film The Graduate. He was presented with the award by Meryl Streep, who read a poem that she wrote for the occasion.

Other top stars who graced the evening were Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts etc. Toasting Nichols, Roberts said that Tony was an EGOT i.e. one who has received all major awards like the Emmy, Grammy and Oscar. There were very few people who qualified as an EGOT.

Nichols received an Oscar nomination as the best director for his first film, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in 1966. He lost the award to Fred Zinnemann, who won it for A Man for All Seasons. The very next year, Nichols won the Oscar for The Graduate, which starred Dustin Hoffman. He went on to make films like The Fortune, Wolf, Working Girl, Closer etc. His 2007 film Charlie Wilson’s War, starring Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks was based on the real life story of Congressman Charlie Wilson. He won the Emmy awards twice for Wit in 2001 and Angels in America in 2003.

-Sampurn Wire