Mike Nichols -- award-winning stage, TV and film director -- dead at 83

NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Stage, film and television director Mike Nichols, who was married to ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer since 1988, died Wednesday in New York at the age of 83.

Among the highlights of his more than half-a-century-long career is an Oscar for helming Dustin Hoffman in the movie The Graduate. Nichols won his eighth Tony Award in 2012 for directing a Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman. His previous Tonys were for the plays Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and The Real Thing, as well as for the musicals Annie and Spamalot.

His contributions to the big screen include the films Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Heartburn, Biloxi Blues, Working Girl, The Birdcage, Primary Colors and Closer. He also won Emmy Awards for his television adaptations of the plays Wit and Angels in America, and he was presented with the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 2010.

Born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky in Germany, Nichols moved to the United States when he was 7 and first found success as half the comic duo Nichols and May, with Elaine May. The pair shared a Grammy Award in 1961 for Best Comedy Album for An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May. "He was a true visionary, winning the highest honors in the arts for his work as a director, writer, producer and comic and was one of a tiny few to win the EGOT -- an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony in his lifetime," ABC News President James Goldston said in a statement. "No one was more passionate about his craft than Mike."