Elaine May | |
|---|---|
 May performing in 1959 | |
| Born | Elaine Iva Berlin (1932-04-21)April 21, 1932 (age 93) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Other names | Esther Dale, Elly May |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1955–present |
| Known for |
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| Spouses | |
| Partner | Stanley Donen (1999–2019; his death) |
| Children | Jeannie Berlin |
| Awards | Full list |
| Signature | |
 | |
Elaine Iva May (néeBerlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and director. She first gained fame in the 1950s for herimprovisational comedy routines withMike Nichols before transitioning her career, regularly breaking the mold as a writer and director of several critically acclaimed films. She has receivednumerous awards, including aBAFTA Award, aGrammy Award, and aTony Award. She was honored with theNational Medal of Arts from PresidentBarack Obama in 2013, and anHonorary Academy Award in 2022.[1][2][3][4][5]
In 1955, May moved to Chicago and became a founding member of theCompass Players, an improvisational theater group. She began working alongside Nichols and in 1957, they both quit the group to form their own stage act,Nichols and May. In New York, they performed nightly in clubs inGreenwich Village alongsideJoan Rivers andWoody Allen, as well as on theBroadway stage. They also made regular appearances on television and radio broadcasts. They released multiple comedy albums and received fourGrammy Award nominations, winningBest Comedy Album forAn Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May in 1962. Their collaboration was covered in thePBS documentaryNichols and May: Take Two (1996).
May infrequently acted in films, includingLuv,Enter Laughing (both 1967),California Suite (1978), andSmall Time Crooks (2000). She became the first female director with a Hollywood deal sinceIda Lupino when she directed the 1971 black screwball comedyA New Leaf.[6] Experimenting with genres, she directed the dark romantic comedyThe Heartbreak Kid (1972), the gangster filmMikey and Nicky (1976), and adventure comedyIshtar (1987). May later earned acclaim writing the screenplays forWarren Beatty'sHeaven Can Wait (1978), and Mike Nichols'The Birdcage (1996) andPrimary Colors (1998).Heaven Can Wait andPrimary Colors each earned her a nomination for theAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, while the latter won her theBAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.[7]
May returned to acting inWoody Allen'sAmazon Prime seriesCrisis in Six Scenes (2016) and onBroadway in the revival of theKenneth Lonergan playThe Waverly Gallery (2018)[8] the latter of which earned her theTony Award for Best Actress in a Play.[9][10] The win made May the second-oldest performer behindLois Smith to win a Tony Award for acting.[11] In 2022, theAcademy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gave May anHonorary Academy Award for her "bold, uncompromising approach to filmmaking, as a writer, director, and actress".[2][3][4][5]
Elaine Iva Berlin was born on April 21, 1932, inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Jewish parents, theater director and actor Jack Berlin and actress Ida (Aaron) Berlin.[12]: 39 [13] As a child, May performed with her father in his travelingYiddish theater company, which he took around the country. Her stage debut on the road was at the age of three, and she eventually played the character of a generic little boy named Benny.[14]
Because the troupe toured extensively, May had been in over fifty schools by the time she was ten, having spent as little as a few weeks enrolled at any one time. May said she hated school and would spend her free time at home reading fairy tales and mythology.[15]: 331 Her father died when she was eleven years old, and then she and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where May later enrolled inHollywood High School. She dropped out when she was fourteen years old. Two years later, at the age of sixteen, she married Marvin May, an engineer and toy inventor. They had one child,Jeannie Berlin (born 1949), who became an actress and screenwriter. The couple divorced in 1960, and she married lyricistSheldon Harnick in 1962; they divorced a year later. In 1964, May married her psychoanalyst, David L. Rubinfine; they remained married until his death in 1982.[15]: 332
May's long-time companion was directorStanley Donen, from 1999 until his death in 2019.[16] Donen said he proposed marriage "about 172 times".[17]
After her marriage to Marvin May, she studied acting. She also held odd jobs during that period, such as a roof salesman, and tried to enroll in college. She learned, however, that colleges in California required a high school diploma to apply, which she did not have.[12]: 39 After finding out that theUniversity of Chicago was one of the few colleges that would accept students without diplomas, she set out with seven dollars and hitchhiked to Chicago.[14]
Soon after moving to Chicago in 1950, May began informally taking classes at the university byauditing, sitting in without enrolling. She nevertheless sometimes engaged in discussions with instructors and once started a huge fight after saying that Socrates' apology was a political move.Mike Nichols, who was then an actor in the school's theatrical group, remembers her coming to his philosophy class, making "outrageous" comments, and leaving.[15]: 324 They learned about each other from friends, eventually being introduced after one of his stage shows. The directorPaul Sills brought May to Nichols and said, "Mike, I want you to meet the only other person on the campus of the University of Chicago who’s as hostile as you are: Elaine May." Six weeks later, they bumped into each other at a train station in Chicago and soon began spending time together over the following weeks as "dead-broke theatre junkies."[15]: 324f
In 1955, May joined a new, off-campus improvisational theater group in Chicago, TheCompass Players, becoming one of its charter members. The group was founded by Sills andDavid Shepherd. Nichols later joined the group, wherein he resumed his friendship with May. At first, he was unable to improvise well on stage, but with inspiration from May, they began developing improvised comedy sketches together.[15]: 333 Nichols remembered this period:
From then on it became mostly pleasure because of Elaine's generosity. The fact of Elaine—her presence—kept me going. She was the only one who had faith in me. I loved it... We had a similar sense of humor and irony... When I was with her I became something more than I had been before.[15]: 333
ActressGeraldine Page recalled they worked together with great efficiency, "like a juggernaut."[15]: 336 Thanks in part to Nichols and May, the Compass Players became an enormously popular satirical comedy troupe. They helped the group devise new stage techniques to adapt the freedom they had during the workshop.[18]: 16
May became prominent as a member of the Compass's acting group, a quality others in the group observed. Bobbi Gordon, an actor, remembers that she was often the center of attention: "The first time I met her was at Compass... Elaine was this grande dame of letters. With people sitting around her feet, staring up at her, open-mouthed in awe, waiting for 'The Word'."[15]: 330f A similar impression struck Compass actor Bob Smith:
May would hold court, discussing her days as a child actor in the Yiddish theater, as men hung on her every word. Every guy who knew her was in love with her. You'd have been stupid not to have been.[15]: 329
As an integral member of their group, May was open to giving novices a chance, including the hiring of a black actor and generally making the group "more democratic". And by observing her high level of performance creativity, everyone's work was improved. "She was the strongest woman I ever met," adds Compass actor Nancy Ponder.[15]: 330
In giving all her attention to acting, however, she neglected her home life. Fellow actressBarbara Harris recalled that May lived in a cellar with only one piece of furniture, a ping-pong table. "She wore basic beatnik black and, like her film characters, was a brilliant disheveled klutz."[15]: 330
Group actor Omar Shapli was "struck by her piercing, dark-eyed, sultry stare. It was really unnerving", he says. Nichols remembers that "everybody wanted Elaine, and the people who got her couldn't keep her." Theater criticJohn Lahr agrees, noting that "her juicy good looks were a particularly disconcerting contrast to her sharp tongue."[15]: 329
"Elaine was too formidable, one of the most intelligent, beautiful, and witty women I had ever met. I hoped I would never see her again."
May's sense of humor, including what she found funny about everyday life, was different from others' in the group. NovelistHerbert Gold, who dated May, says that "she treated everything funny that men take seriously... She was never serious. Her life was a narrative."[15]: 329 Another ex-boyfriend, James Sacks, says that "Elaine had a genuine beautiful madness." Nevertheless, states Gold, "she was very cute, a lot likeDebra Winger, just a pretty Jewish girl."[15]: 329
May was considered highly intelligent. "She's about fifty percent more brilliant than she needs to be," says actor Eugene Troobnick. Those outside their theater group sometimes noticed that same quality. British actorRichard Burton, who was married toElizabeth Taylor at the time, agreed with that impression after he first met May while he was starring inCamelot on Broadway.[15]: 331
Nichols was personally asked to leave the Compass Players in 1957 because he and May became too good, which threw the company off balance, noted club manager Jay Landsman. Nichols was told he had too much talent.[15]: 338 Nichols then left the group in 1957, with May quitting with him. They next formed their own stand-up comedy team,Nichols and May. After contacting some agents in New York, they were asked to audition forJack Rollins, who would later becomeWoody Allen's manager and executive producer. Rollins said he was stunned by how good their act was:
Their work was so startling, so new, as fresh as could be. I was stunned by how really good they were, actually as impressed by their acting technique as by their comedy... They were totally adventurous and totally innocent, in a certain sense. That's why it was accepted. They would uncover little dark niches that you felt but had never expressed... I'd never seen this technique before. I thought, My God, these are two people writing hilarious comedy on their feet![15]: 340
By 1960, they made their Broadway debut withAn Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, which later won a Grammy. After performing their act a number of years in New York's various clubs, and then on Broadway, with most of the shows sold out, Nichols could not believe their success:
We were winging it, making it up as we went along. It never even crossed our minds that it had any value beyond the moment. It was great to study and learn and work there. We werestunned when we got to New York... Never for a moment did we consider that we would do this for a living. It was just a handy way to make some money until we grew up.[15]: 333
His feelings were shared by May, who was also taken aback by their success, especially having some real income after living in near-poverty. She told aNewsweek interviewer, "When we came to New York, we were practically barefoot. And I still can't get used to walking in high heels."[15]: 343
The uniqueness of their act made them an immediate success in New York. Their style became the "next big thing" in live comedy.Charles H. Joffe, their producer, remembers that sometimes the line to their show went around the block. That partly explains whyMilton Berle, a major television comedy star, tried three times without success to see their act.[15]: 341 Critic Lawrence Christon recalls his first impression after seeing their act: "You just knew it was a defining moment. They caught the urban tempo, like Woody Allen did."[15]: 343 They performed nightly at mostly sold-out shows, in addition to making TV program and commercial[19][20] appearances and radio broadcasts.[15]: 346 Their relatively brief time together as comedy stars led New York talk show hostDick Cavett to call their act "one of the comic meteors in the sky". Woody Allen said, "the two of them came along and elevated comedy to a brand-new level".[21]
Technique
Among the qualities of their act, which according to one writer made them a rarity, was that they used both "snob and mob appeal", which gave them a wide audience. Nachman explains that they presented a new kind of comedy team, unlike previous comedy duos which had an intelligent member alongside a much less intelligent one, as withLaurel and Hardy,Fibber McGee and Molly,Burns and Allen,Abbott and Costello, andMartin and Lewis.[15]: 322
What differentiated their style was that their stage performance created "scenes," a method very unlike the styles of other acting teams. Nor did they rely on fixed gender or comic roles, but instead adapted their own character to fit a sketch idea they came up with. They chose real-life subjects, often from their own life, which were made into satirical and funny vignettes.[15]: 322
This was accomplished by using subtle joke references which they correctly expected their audiences to recognize, whether through clichés or character types. They thereby indirectly poked fun at the new intellectual culture which they saw growing around them. They felt that young Americans were taking themselves too seriously, which became the subject of much of their satire.[15]: 321
Nichols structured the material for their skits, and May came up with most of their ideas.[14] Improvisation became a fairly simple art for them, as they portrayed the urban couple's "Age of Anxiety" in their sketches, and did so on their feet.[22] According to May, it was simple: "It's nothing more than quickly creating a situation between two people and throwing up some kind of problem for one of them."[14]
Nichols noted that after coming up with a sketch idea, they would perform it soon after with little extra rehearsal or writing it down. One example he remembered was inspired simply from a phone call from his mother. I called Elaine and I said, "I've got a really good piece for us tonight." They created a six-minute-long, mostly improvised, "mother and son" sketch, which they performed later that night.[15]: 335 [23]
May helped remove the stereotype of women's roles on stage. ProducerDavid Shepherd notes that she accomplished that partly by not choosing traditional 1950s female roles for her characters, which were often housewives or women working at menial jobs. Instead, she often played the character of a sophisticated woman, such as a doctor, a psychiatrist, or an employer.[15]: 337 Shepherd notes that "Elaine broke through the psychological restrictions of playing comedy as a woman."[15]: 322
May and Nichols had different attitudes toward their improvisations, however. Where Nichols always needed to know where a sketch was going and what its ultimate point would be, May preferred exploring ideas as the scene progressed. May says that even when they repeated their improvisations, it was not rote but came from re-creating her original impulse. Such improvisational techniques allowed her to make slight changes during a performance.[14] Although May had a wider improvisational range than Nichols, he was generally the one to shape the pieces and steer them to their end. For their recordings, he also made the decision of what to delete.[15]: 323
Team break-up
Audiences were still discovering May and Nichols in 1961, four years after they arrived. However, at the height of their fame, they decided to discontinue their act that year and took their careers in different directions: Nichols became a leading Broadway stage and film director; May became primarily a screenwriter and playwright, with some acting and directing. Among the reasons they decided to call it quits was that keeping their act fresh was becoming more difficult. Nichols explained:
Several things happened. One was that I, more than Elaine, became more and more afraid of our improvisational material. She was always brave. We never wrote a skit, we just sort of outlined it: I'll try to make you, or we'll fight—whatever it was. We found ourselves doing the same material over and over, especially in our Broadway show. This took a great toll on Elaine.[15]: 349
"Nichols and May are perhaps the most ardently missed of all the satirical comedians of their era. When Nichols and May split up, they left no imitators, no descendants, no blueprints or footprints to follow. No one could touch them."
Nichols said that for him personally the breakup was "cataclysmic", and he went into a state of depression: "I didn't know what I was or who I was." It was not until 1996, thirty-five years later, that they would work together again as a team, when she wrote the screenplay and he directedThe Birdcage. It "was like coming home, like getting a piece of yourself back that you thought you'd lost," he said.[15]: 353 He adds that May had been very important to him from the moment he first saw her,[15]: 325 adding that for her "improv was innate," and few people have that gift.[15]: 359
DirectorArthur Penn said of their sudden breakup, "They set the standard and then they had to move on."[15]: 351 To New York talk show hostDick Cavett, "They were one of the comic meteors in the sky."[15]: 348
They reunited for aMadison Square Garden benefit forGeorge McGovern for President in June 1972. The event, titled "Together Again for McGovern," also featured two musical groups that had recently broken up,Simon and Garfunkel andPeter, Paul and Mary, as well as singerDionne Warwick.[citation needed]
May has also acted in comedy films, includingEnter Laughing (1967), directed byCarl Reiner, andLuv (1967), costarringPeter Falk andJack Lemmon. The latter film was not well received by critics, although Lemmon said he enjoyed working alongside May: "She's the finest actress I've ever worked with," he said. "And I've never expressed an opinion about a leading lady before... I think Elaine is touched with genius. She approaches a scene like a director and a writer."[14] Film scholarGwendolyn Audrey Foster notes that May is drawn to material that borders on dry Yiddish humor. As such, it has not always been well received at the box office. Her style of humor, in writing or acting, often has more to do with traditional Yiddish theater than traditional Hollywood cinema.[24]
Following the break-up, May wrote several plays. Her greatest success was the one-actAdaptation (1969). Other stage plays she has written includeNot Enough Rope,Mr Gogol and Mr Preen,Hotline (which was performed off-Broadway in 1995 as part of the anthology playDeath Defying Acts),After the Night and the Music,Power Plays,Taller Than A Dwarf,The Way of All Fish, andAdult Entertainment. In 1969, she directed the off-Broadway production ofAdaptation/Next.
May made her film writing and directing debut in 1971 withA New Leaf, a black comedy based on a short story which she read in anAlfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine calledThe Green Heart which the authorJack Ritchie would later retitleA New Leaf. The unconventionalromance withWalter Matthau as a Manhattan bachelor faced with bankruptcy, also starred May herself as the awkward botanist-heiress, Henrietta Lowell, who Matthau cynically woos and marries to salvage an extravagant lifestyle. Director May originally submitted a 180-minute work toParamount, but the studio cut it back by nearly 80 minutes for release. The film has since become a cult classic.Vincent Canby cited the two-reelers of the 1930s and Depression-era screwball comedies when he called it "a beautifully and gently cockeyed movie that recalls at least two different traditions of American film comedy... The entire project is touched by a fine and knowing madness." May received aGolden Globe nomination for her portrayal of the shy botanist in the project from which she fought studio execRobert Evans, unsuccessfully, to have her name removed.[25]
May quickly followed her debut film with 1972'sThe Heartbreak Kid. She limited her role to directing, using a screenplay byNeil Simon, based on a story by Bruce Jay Friedman. The film starredCharles Grodin,Cybill Shepherd,Eddie Albert, and May's own daughter,Jeannie Berlin. It was a major critical success, and holds a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2000, it was listed at No. 91 onAFI's100 Years... 100 Laughs list.[26] May followed the two comedies by writing and directing the gangster filmMikey and Nicky, starringPeter Falk andJohn Cassavetes. Budgeted at $1.8 million and scheduled for a summer 1975 release, the film cost $4.3 million and was not released until December 1976.[citation needed] May ended up in a legal battle with Paramount Pictures over post-production costs, at one point hiding reels of the film in her husband's friend's Connecticut garage and later suing the company for $8 million for breach of contract.[27] May worked withJulian Schlossberg to get the rights to the film and released a director's cut in 1980. In 2019, May worked withThe Criterion Collection to create the newest director's cut. The film has gained appreciation by many critics and audiences in recent years.[28][29]
InHerbert Ross'sCalifornia Suite (1978), written byNeil Simon, she was reunited withA New Leaf co-star Walter Matthau, playing his wife Millie.[30] In addition to writing three of the films she directed, May received an Oscar nomination for updating the 1941 filmHere Comes Mr. Jordan asHeaven Can Wait (1978). May reunited with Nichols for a stage production ofWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? inNew Haven in 1980. She contributed (uncredited) to the screenplay for the 1982 megahitTootsie, notably the scenes involving the character played byBill Murray.
Warren Beatty worked with May on the comedyIshtar (1987), starring Beatty andDustin Hoffman. Largely shot on location inMorocco, the production was beset by creative differences among the principals and had cost overruns. Long before the picture was ready for release, the troubled production had become the subject of numerous press stories, including a long cover article inNew York magazine. Some of the opposition to the film came fromDavid Puttnam, the studio head,[31][32] makingIshtar a prime example of studio suicide. The advance publicity was largely negative[33] and, despite some positive reviews from theLos Angeles Times andThe Washington Post, the film was a box office disaster.[34][35] The filmIshtar has been positively re-evaluated in the 21st century by multiple publications including theLos Angeles Times,Slate,Indiewire, andThe Dissolve.[36][37][38][39][40] Richard Brody ofThe New Yorker calledIshtar a "wrongly maligned masterwork" and raved, "There's a level of invention, a depth of reflection, and a tangle of emotions inIshtar which are reached by few films and few filmmakers."[41]
May acted in the filmIn the Spirit (1990), in which she played a "shopaholic stripped of consumer power"; Robert Pardi has described her portrayal as a "study of fraying equanimity [that] is a classic comic tour de force."[42] She also contributed to the screenplay for the dramaDangerous Minds (1995).[43] May reunited with her former comic partner,Mike Nichols, for the 1996 filmThe Birdcage, an American adaptation of the classic French farceLa Cage aux Folles. Their film relocated the story from France toSouth Beach, Miami. It was a major box office hit. May received her second Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay when she again worked with Nichols on the 1998 filmPrimary Colors.
She appeared inWoody Allen'sSmall Time Crooks (2000) where she played the character May Sloane, which Allen named after May when he wrote it, and with May being his first choice for the part.[44] For her acting, she won theNational Society of Film Critics award for Best Supporting Actress.[45] Allen spoke of her as a genius, and of his ease of working with her: "She shows up on time, she knows her lines, she can ad-lib creatively, and is willing to. If you don't want her to, she won't. She's a dream. She puts herself in your hands. She's a genius, and I don't use that word casually."[44] Nearly 15 years later, Allen ended up casting her to play his wife, Kay Munsinger, in hisAmazon limited series,Crisis in Six Scenes, which was released in 2016.[46]
In 2002,Stanley Donen directed her musical playAdult Entertainment withJeannie Berlin andDanny Aiello at Variety Arts Theater inManhattan.[47] May wrote the one-act playGeorge Is Dead, which starredMarlo Thomas and was performed on Broadway from late 2011 into 2012 as part of the anthology playRelatively Speaking along with two other plays byWoody Allen andJoel Coen, directed byJohn Turturro.Charles Isherwood ofThe New York Times praised May's entry describing it as "a delicious study in the bliss of narcissism".[48][49] David Rooney ofThe Hollywood Reporter concurred describingGeorge is Dead as the "Strongest entry".[50] Before he died in 2019, Donen was reported to be in pre-production for a new film, begun December 2013, to be co-written with May and produced by Nichols. Atable reading of the script for potential investors included such actors asChristopher Walken,Charles Grodin,Ron Rifkin, and Jeannie Berlin.[51]
When May's lifelong collaborator Nichols died in 2014, May stepped up to poignantly direct the 2016 TV documentaryMike Nichols: American Masters.[52] That same year, she returned to acting, her first role since 2000, starring alongside her friendWoody Allen in his seriesCrisis in Six Scenes onAmazon Prime,[53] Tim Goodman ofThe Hollywood Reporter praised their chemistry together writing, "The best episodes are the last two, whenCrisis in Six Scenes becomes a full-blown farce and we get to see Allen and May playing accidental aging radicals, shuffling around Brooklyn".[54]
In 2018, aged 86, May returned to Broadway after 60 years in aLila Neugebauer-directed revival ofKenneth Lonergan's playThe Waverly Gallery oppositeLucas Hedges,Joan Allen, andMichael Cera. The play ran at theJohn Golden Theatre, the same theatre where Nichols and May had started out almost 60 years earlier.[8] May received rapturous reviews for her performance as the gregarious, dementia-ridden elderly gallery owner Gladys Green, with many critics remarking that she was giving one of the most extraordinary performances they had ever seen onstage. The show received a nomination for theTony Award for Best Revival of a Play,[9] while May herself won theTony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance.[10] She became the second oldest performer to win a Tony Award for acting.[11]
In 2019, it was announced that May is set to direct her first narrative feature in over thirty years. Little is known about the project other than its title,Crackpot, and that it is set to starDakota Johnson, who announced the project at the 2019Governors Awards.[55][56] In 2024, Johnson stated that the film is still in development and she serves as the film's producer and star with May still set to direct.[57] Later that year,Sebastian Stan was also attached to co-star, and said the primary impediment to production at that point was the film's insurers seeking a backup director, due to May's age, who could shadow the production and complete it if May was unable to.[58]
Nichols and May created a new "Age of Irony" for comedy, which showed actors arguing contemporary banalities as a key part of their routine. That style of comedy was picked up and further developed by later comics such asSteve Martin,Bill Murray, andDavid Letterman.[15]: 323 According to Martin, Nichols and May were among the first to satirize relationships. The word "relationship," notes Martin, was first used in the early sixties: "It was the first time I ever heard it satirized."[15]: 323 He recalls that soon after discovering their recorded acts, he went to sleep each night listening to them. "They influenced us all and changed the face of comedy."[15]: 324
InVanity Fair,Woody Allen declared, "Individually, each one is a genius, and when they worked together, the sum was even greater than the combination of the parts—the two of them came along and elevated comedy to a brand-new level."[59]
Lily Tomlin was also affected by their routines and considers May to be her inspiration as a comedian: "There was nothing like Elaine May, with her voice, her timing, and her attitude," says Tomlin.[60]: 43 "The nuances of the characterizations and the cultured types that they were doing completely appealed to me. They were the first people I saw doing smart, hip character pieces. My brother and I used to keep their 'Improvisations to Music' on the turntable twenty-four hours a day."[15]: 324
In an interview withPitchfork Magazine, standup comedianJohn Mulaney describedMike Nichols & Elaine May Examine Doctors (1961) as one of his favorite comedy albums of all time.[61] Mulaney stated, "I got this album for Christmas when I was in junior high. The last track, 'Nichols and May at Work,' is an outtake from recording the album, they were just improvising dialog in a studio. They’re trying to do a piece where a son goes to his mother and says that he wants to become a registered nurse. It’s something you just have to experience, because two people that funny laughing that hard is really, really, really funny. I think it might be the happiest thing ever recorded."[61]
Filmmaker and film historianPeter Bogdanovich covered Elaine's filmography in his bookMovie of the Week (1999). Bogdanovich praised all of her films and concluded with "Long live Elaine! Would that she could act and direct again in pictures. In 1998 I saw her perform off-Broadway in a couple of one-act plays she wrote (Power Plays), and her performances matched the comic genius of the writing."[62] Other admirers of May's work include comedianPatton Oswalt, and directorsBen and Josh Safdie who both detailed their admiration for her and her work, in particular her filmMikey and Nicky (1976) throughThe Criterion Channel.
May's work as a director has been given a closer look in recent years with David Hudson, a writer forThe Criterion Collection declaring her as a "criminally underappreciated moviemaker".[63] In 2017 thePhiladelphia Film Critics Circle created an award in her name given "to a deserving person or film that brings awareness to women’s issues".[64]
May's life and career are detailed inMiss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius written byCarrie Courogen, which was released in June 2024 bySt. Martin's Press, and was nominated for the 2024National Book Critics Circle's best first book prize.[65][66] The book takes its title from May's biographical blurb, as it appears on the back ofImprovisations to Music.
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Actress | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Enter Laughing | No | No | Yes | Angela Marlowe | |
| 1967 | Luv | No | No | Yes | Ellen Manville | |
| 1967 | The Graduate | No | No | Uncredited | Girl with note for Benjamin | |
| 1967 | Bach to Bach | No | Yes | Yes | Woman | Short film |
| 1971 | A New Leaf | Yes | Yes | Yes | Henrietta Lowell | Directorial debut |
| 1971 | Such Good Friends | No | Yes | No | — | Under pseudonym, Esther Dale |
| 1972 | The Heartbreak Kid | Yes | No | No | — | |
| 1976 | Mikey and Nicky | Yes | Yes | Uncredited | Woman on TV (voice) | |
| 1978 | Heaven Can Wait | No | Yes | No | — | |
| 1978 | California Suite | No | No | Yes | Millie Michaels | |
| 1981 | Reds | No | Uncredited | No | — | |
| 1982 | Tootsie | No | Uncredited | No | — | |
| 1986 | Labyrinth | No | Uncredited | No | — | |
| 1987 | Ishtar | Yes | Yes | No | — | |
| 1990 | In the Spirit | No | No | Yes | Marianne Flan | |
| 1994 | Wolf | No | No | Uncredited | Operator (voice) | |
| 1995 | Dangerous Minds | No | Uncredited | No | — | |
| 1996 | The Birdcage | No | Yes | No | — | |
| 1998 | Primary Colors | No | Yes | No | — | |
| 2000 | Small Time Crooks | No | No | Yes | May | |
| 2021 | The Same Storm | No | No | Yes | Ruth Lipsman | |
| TBA | Crackpot | Yes | TBA | No | — |
| Year | Title | Credit(s) | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1958 | Omnibus | Performer | Herself | Episode: "The Suburban Review" |
| 1958 | DuPont Show of the Month | Actor | Candy Carter | Episode: "The Red Mill" |
| 1959–60 | The Tonight Show with Jack Paar | Herself | Guest | 5 episodes |
| 1960 | What's My Line? | Herself | Mystery Guest | Episode: "Elaine May &Mike Nichols" |
| 1962 | President Kennedy's Birthday Salute | Performer | Herself | Television special |
| 1964–65 | The Jack Paar Program | Herself | Guest | 6 episodes |
| 1966 | The Merv Griffin Show | Herself | Guest | Episode: "Peter Falk, Elaine May, & Mike Nichols" |
| 1967 | The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour | Performer | Herself | Episode: #1.9 |
| 1996 | Nichols and May: Take Two | Herself | Archival footage | American Masters documentary |
| 2008 | AFI: Tribute to Warren Beatty | Performer | Herself | Television special |
| 2010 | AFI: Tribute to Mike Nichols | Performer | Herself | Television special |
| 2016 | American Masters: Mike Nichols | Director | — | Television documentary |
| 2016 | Crisis in Six Scenes | Actor | Kay Munsinger | 6 episodes |
| 2021 | The Good Fight | Actor | Ruth Bader Ginsburg | 2 episodes |
| Year | Title | Credit(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May | Playwright, Performer | John Golden Theatre,Broadway |
| 1962 | 3 x 3 | Playwright | Maidman Playhouse,Off-Broadway |
| 1966 | The Office | Performer | Henry Miller's Theatre, Broadway |
| 1969 | Adaptation | Playwright, Director | Greenwich Mews Theatre, Off Broadway |
| 1980 | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Performer (Martha) | Long Wharf Theatre |
| 1991 | Mr. Gogol and Mr. Preen | Playwright | Newhouse Theatre, Off Broadway |
| 1992 | Mike Nichols and Elaine May Together Again | Playwright, Performer | Brooks Atkinson Theatre, Broadway |
| 1995 | Death Defying Acts: Hotline | Playwright | Variety Arts Theatre, Off Broadway |
| 1998 | Power Plays | Playwright, Performer | Promenade Theatre, Off Broadway |
| 2000 | Taller Than a Dwarf | Playwright | Longacre Theater, Broadway |
| 2002 | Small Talks on the Universe | Playwright | Eugene O'Neill Theatre, Broadway |
| 2002 | Adult Entertainment | Playwright | Variety Arts Theatre, Off Broadway |
| 2005 | After the Night and the Music | Playwright | Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Broadway |
| 2011 | Relatively Speaking: George is Dead | Playwright | Brooks Atkinson Theatre, Broadway |
| 2018 | The Waverly Gallery | Performer (Gladys Green) | John Golden Theatre, Broadway |
For her acting in films, May's accolades include a nomination for aGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Comedy or Musical forA New Leaf (1971),[69] and winning theNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role inSmall Time Crooks (2000).[45] On stage, May won theTony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Gladys in theBroadway revival ofKenneth Lonergan'sThe Waverly Gallery in 2019.[70] She also received a Drama League Award nomination and won aDrama Desk Award and anOuter Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play.[71] That same year, May's filmA New Leaf was selected by theLibrary of Congress for preservation in theNational Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[72]
May was awarded theNational Medal of Arts for her lifetime contributions to American comedy by PresidentBarack Obama, in a ceremony in the White House on July 10, 2013. She was awarded for her "groundbreaking wit and a keen understanding of how humor can illuminate our lives, Ms. May has evoked untold joy, challenged expectations, and elevated spirits across our Nation."[73]
In January 2016, theWriters Guild of America-West announced that May would receive its 2016Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement at theWriters Guild of America Award ceremony in Los Angeles on February 13.[74][75][76]
In 2021, she was chosen to receive theHonorary Academy Award by theBoard of Governors of theAcademy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, receiving the award for her "bold, uncompromising approach to filmmaking, as a writer, director and actress". She was honored at the annualGovernors Awards alongsideSamuel L. Jackson,Liv Ullmann, andDanny Glover on March 25, 2022.[3][4][5][77]Bill Murray presented her with the award crediting her with "saving his life on multiple occasions professionally".[78]
Since She and Mike Nichols Broke Up Their Famous Comedy Team, She has had Flops, Problems and Now, at Last, a New Success.
Subtitle: Famed director Stanley Donen, the subject of a retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive, visits this week.
Subtitle: The last of the golden-age Hollywood directors still believes in romance.
Good acting is pretty common to the American stage and screen; bad acting, perhaps, even more so… / A master class in this delicate art is now being offered by Jeannie Berlin, who is appearing in Elaine May'sAdult Entertainment, the often very funny, overstretched comedy sketch that opened last night at the Variety Arts Theater under the direction of Stanley Donen.
Mothers come in for some serious savaging in "Relatively Speaking," a reasonably savory tasting platter of comedies by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen that opened on Thursday night at the Brooks Atkinson Theater… / These plays are not going to do anything much in the way of reputation burnishing for their three celebrated authors — and certainly none is required — but they are packed with nifty zingers and have been directed by John Turturro with a boisterous flair for socking home the borscht-belt humor. / Ms. May's "George Is Dead" is, for most of its running time, a delicious study in the bliss of narcissism… Marlo Thomas plays a pampered princess named Doreen who comes …that her husband has just been killed.
Comedy screenwriter-director-actress Elaine May will receive the WGAW's 2016 Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement at the WGA Awards L.A. ceremony on February 13.
Elaine May will receive the Writers Guild of America West's Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement to honor her career and body of work.
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