Mike Nichols has died

Mike Nichols, 83, the legendary film and theater director who won an Oscar for the classic American movie The Graduate, has died, US media reported on Thursday.

ABC television reported that Nichols died of cardiac arrest late Wednesday.

The German-born US director helmed a number of iconic films like Working Girl, The Remains of the Day, Silkwood, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which he received Oscar nominations for.

Nichols was one of only 12 stars to win all four major US entertainment awards – an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

ABC News reported that the director went died of cardiac arrest late last night (Wednesday) and ABC News president James Goldston told staff the news.

Describing him as "a true visionary", Goldston said: "No one was more passionate about his craft than Mike."

"In a triumphant career that spanned over six decades, Mike created some of the most iconic works of American film, television and theatre."

Nichols last film was Charli Wilson’s War starring Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. He was reportedly working on a HBO film adaptation of Master Class – the Terrence McNally play about opera star Maria Callas – with Meryl Streep in the lead role.

The film was to reunite the director with Streep, having previously worked together on 1983’s Silkwood and on stage in a 2001 production of The Seagull.

Nichols was married to ABC News presenter Diane Sawyer – his fourth wife – whom he wed in 1988.