MAY, ELAINE

MAY, ELAINE (1932– ), U.S. screenwriter, director, and actress. Born Elaine Berlin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Yiddish theatrical actor Jack and actress Jeannie Berlin, May began acting on stage as a child in the Yiddish theater run by her father. She married Marvin May in May 1949; the couple had one daughter together, Jeannie Berlin, before divorcing. May studied at the University of Chicago and Playwrights Theater   in 1950. She then joined the Compass Players in 1953 and began working with fellow member mike nichols in 1955. Along with alan arkin , Barabara Harris, and Paul Sills, Nichols and May went on to found the improvisational group the Second City. In 1957, the pair developed a nightclub act based on sophisticated parodies of popular culture and mock interviews. Nichols and May spent the next few years appearing in cabaret shows, on television programs, and on Broadway with their show An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May (1960). The pair produced several albums together, even winning a Grammy in 1961, the same year they amicably brought their partnership to an end. In 1967, May appeared in the films Bach to Bach, Enter Laughing, and Luv. May honed her playwriting through the 1960s, and in 1969 produced her one-act play Adaptation. Her first credited screenplay was A New Leaf (1971), which she costarred in and directed. In 1972, May directed Neil Simon's The Heartbreak Kid (1972). When May came in over budget and past deadline on a film she wrote and directed, Mikey and Nicky (1976), Paramount tried to remove her from the project. Her next screenplay, Heaven Can Wait (1978), an update of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), was cowritten with its star Warren Beatty. While the film received mixed reviews, it did well at the box office and received an Academy Award nomination. But May won the Oscar that year as best supporting actress in California Suite (1978). While uncredited, May helped rewrite Reds (1981) and Tootsie (1982). May and Beatty reunited for Ishtar (1987), a project so marred by cost overruns that it became one of the largest financial failures in motion picture history. May wrote the screenplay for The Birdcage (1996), an adaptation of La Cage aux Folles directed by Nichols, and the pair teamed up again for Primary Colors (1998), which earned May another Oscar nomination. In 2000, she appeared in the Woody Allen film Small Time Crooks. (Adam Wills (2nd ed.)