Story highlights Mike Nichols remembers his formative years in the documentary "Becoming Mike Nichols"

The legendary director is one of the few members of the EGOT club

(CNN) Before there was Mike Nichols, award-winning director, there was Mike Nichols, terrified improviser.

The terror, remembered from his days with Chicago's Compass Players and with comedic partner Elaine May, came in handy. It helped make him the director he became.

"He was very well-liked by actors ... and having been through it, he knew what it was like to be directed by someone else," said Douglas McGrath, the director of a new documentary, "Becoming Mike Nichols." "He knew what it was like to have someone say something helpful to you and to have someone say something not helpful to you. Because he was an acutely observant person, I think he probably learned from those things pretty quickly."

"Becoming Mike Nichols" features Nichols, who died in 2014, talking about his formative years with a friend, director Jack O'Brien, both with and without an audience. The film airs Monday on HBO. (Like CNN, HBO is a unit of Time Warner.)

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There's also more Nichols to follow: 1967's "The Graduate," which Nichols believed was his best film, is being released in a newly restored 4K Blu-ray edition Tuesday.

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