By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL Associated Press
February 13, 2021
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Inspiration and talent don’t always travel together. How many young men and women electrified by director Elia Kazan’s Broadway productions of “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1947 and “Death of a Salesman” in 1949 went on to achieve their own success in the performing arts?
One who did was a teenage Mike Nichols, whose career in the theater and in film would rival Kazan’s in critical and popular acclaim. Nichols directed across six decades, hits like “The Odd Couple” (1965), “The Real Thing” (1984) and “Spamalot” (2005) on Broadway and “The Graduate” (1967) and “The Birdcage” (1996) on film. A Mike Nichols credit always made the heart race with anticipation.
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