Mike Nichols, one of the most acclaimed writers and directors in the history of stage, TV and film, was Jewish, and many of his more prominent and successful plays and films had strong Jewish content.

Born in Germany in 1931, Nichols died of cardiac arrest in Manhattan last week at the age of 83. He broke into show business by teaming up with Elaine May, who was also Jewish, in a highly successful and popular run as Nichols and May. Their improv comedy helped pave the way for Second City, the Compass Players and “Saturday Night Live.” 

Nichols and May were frequent performers at the Crystal Palace in Gaslight Square, the legendary nightclub owned by the Jewish Landesman family of St. Louis. The duo rose to prominence at the same time that Jackie Mason, Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl gained national attention and who also played at the Crystal Palace.

Among the many and varied successful films directed by Nichols was “The Graduate,” in which the Jewish Dustin Hoffman starred as Benjamin Braddock, who was seduced into an affair by the legendary Mrs. Robinson, played so expertly by Anne Bancroft.  

Nichols once famously described “The Graduate” as being “about a Jewish kid with gentile parents.” While “The Graduate” is not listed as a “Jewish” movie in most film reference books, there can be no mistake that Hoffman’s version of Benjamin Braddock is clearly Jewish, a fact that Hoffman has confirmed in several interviews over the years. Nichols won an Oscar for best director for the film.

“The Graduate” was also memorable for its soundtrack, voiced by the Jewish duet of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

Many of the screenwriters and playwrights whose works were directed on screen and stage by Nichols also were  Jewish, though their subject matter was not always identified as specifically Jewish in theme or content.

Among these are Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” which Nichols directed on Broadway in 1965.The main characters were originally written as specifically Jewish 〝 Oscar Madison was originally Oscar Magidson 〝 but under pressure from nervous producers, the characters were de-Judaized.

Joseph Heller, who is also Jewish, was the author of the famous Kafka-like World War II novel “Catch-22,” the screen version of which was directed by Nichols. Garfunkel makes an appearance in that film, which starred Alan Arkin, who also was a Jewish veteran of Second City and the Crystal Palace.

Nichols is one of only a few directors to win all four major entertainment awards: an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. His final Tony Award was for directing a 2012 revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” the Jewishness of which is implied but not explicitly stated in the script. Miller, in a 1980 interview with the Jewish Light, affirmed that he conceived of Willy Loman as Jewish, “but from the particular you get the universal” qualities of the character, he said.

Nichols directed the film “Heartburn,” based on the acerbic novel by the late Nora Ephron, who was Jewish, about her real-life failed marriage to Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein, who also is Jewish. 

Likewise, “Postcards from the Edge,” another Nichols-directed film, was based on a novel by Carrie Fisher, daughter of the Jewish Eddie Fisher and the non-Jewish Debbie Reynolds. 

In sum, while Nichols was indeed Jewish and many of his works were connected with famous Jewish writers and playwrights, he is not usually listed among the more intensely Jewish writers and directors such as Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Barry Levinson. The Jewish content of many of Nichols’ most memorable and successful works does not always jump out at the audience, but it is there to see for anyone who wants to find it.

Certainly, the German-born Jewish boy, who was sent to the United States at age 7 with his younger brother to flee the Nazis, compiled a career that is beyond legendary.