Born George Alberti Nicholls on May 5, 1897 in San Francisco, his father was the American actor and director George Nichols, and his mother was the actress Viola Alberti. While his father was working at Biograph Studios, Nicholls made his film debut, acting in shorts during the 1910s.
Born to show business parents, he entered the film industry at the tail end of the silent film era, working as an editor for the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation. After moving to Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures in 1933, Nicholls shortly began directing films by the end of the year. His career was cut short when he died in a car accident while driving to the location of his final film.
In 1912, as a child actor he had the lead in the comedy short Pa"s Medicine at the Thanhouser Film Corporation.
He returned to the film industry behind the camera in 1928, as the editor on the Paramount film Wife Savers, directed by Ralph Ceder, and starring Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, ZaSu Pittsburgh Foreign the next five years he worked primarily at Paramount as an editors
While at Paramount, he went by George Nichols, Junior. When he moved to Radio-Keith-Orpheum in 1933, he began using the original spelling of his last name, and became known as George Nicholls, Junior.
His first film at his new studio was Sweepings, directed by John Cromwell.
The following year he would make his directorial debut, co-directing Finishing School with Wanda Tuchock (who was also directing her first film). Foreign the remainder of the decade, he worked consistently as a director at Radio-Keith-Orpheum, although occasionally loaned out to other studios such as Republic and 20th-Century. He directed several notable films, including: Anne of Green Gables (1934), starring Anne Shirley (who took her stage name from this point on from the character she portrayed in this film) and Tom Brown.
1935"s The Return of Peter Grimm, starring Lionel Barrymore, Helen Mack, Edward Ellis, and Donald Meek.
The 1936 sound remake of the 1918 silent film of the same name, M"liss, starring Anne Shirley again, this time with John Beal. And the 1939 Western, Manitoba of Conquest, starring Richard Dix.
Nicholls directed the retakes on the John Ford film, The Plough and the Stars in 1937. In 1939 he was working on the action film The Marines Fly High.
On November 13, while driving to the film"s location shoot at Lake Sherwood, his car ran off the road on Coldwater Canyon Drive, killing him instantly.
