Today we say goodbye to one of the most iconic names in film history: Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols has passed away.

Hollywood director Mike Nichols died suddenly this Wednesday, November 19. He was 83.

Nichols was not only a husband, a father and a grandfather, but also one of the greatest directors of our time, having helmed some of the most celebrated movies of the last decade.

During his lengthy career, Nichols has directed such iconic classics as Working Girl, Silkwood and Death of a Salesman. He is probably best known for the 1967 masterpiece The Graduate, which won him an Oscar for Best Director, and arguably launched Dustin Hoffman’s career.

ABC News President James Goldston broke the news this morning, calling Nichols, “A true visionary … No one was more passionate about his craft than Mike.”

The director was one of the very few who have won an “EGOT,” meaning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.

And even at the age of 83, he was still working. Deadline reports that at the time of his death, Nichols was working on an HBO adaptation of Terrence McNally’s play Masterclass.

Deadline has also obtained a statement from Steven Spielberg, who calls Nichols “a friend, a muse, [and] a mentor.”

“Mike had a brilliant cinematic eye and uncanny hearing for keeping scenes ironic and real,” Spielberg writes.

“Actors never gave him less than their personal best — and then Mike would get from them even more. And in a room full of people, Mike was always the center of gravity. This is a seismic loss.”

Nichols was married to ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer, and leaves behind three children and four grandchildren.