Woody Allen
Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935)[a] is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many accolades, including the most nominations (16) for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has won four Academy Awards, ten BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for a Emmy Award and a Tony Award.[13] Allen was awarded an Honorary Golden Lion in 1995, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1997, an Honorary Palme d'Or in 2002, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2014. Two of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
For the jam band bass guitarist, see Allen Woody.
Woody Allen
- Filmmaker
- writer
- actor
- comedian
- musician
1956–present
-
Harlene Susan Rosen(m. 1956; div. 1962)
- Diane Keaton (1970–1971)
- Mia Farrow (1980–1992)
5, including Ronan Farrow and Moses Farrow
Letty Aronson (sister)
Allen began his career writing material for television in the 1950s, alongside Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon. He also published several books of short stories and wrote humor pieces for The New Yorker. In the early 1960s, he performed as a stand-up comedian in Greenwich Village, where he developed a monologue style (rather than traditional jokes) and the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish.[14] During this time, he released three comedy albums, earning a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album nomination for the self-titled Woody Allen (1964).[15]
After writing, directing, and starring in a string of slapstick comedies, such as Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971), Sleeper (1973), and Love and Death (1975), he directed his most successful film, Annie Hall (1977), a romantic comedy-drama featuring Allen and his frequent collaborator Diane Keaton. The film won four Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress for Keaton.[16] Allen has directed many films set in New York City, including Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).
Allen continued to garner acclaim, making a film almost every year, and is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of auteur filmmakers whose work has been influenced by European art cinema.[17] His films include Interiors (1978), Stardust Memories (1980), Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987), Husbands and Wives (1992), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Match Point (2005), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Midnight in Paris (2011), and Blue Jasmine (2013).[18]
In 1979, Allen began a professional and personal relationship with actress Mia Farrow. Over a decade-long period, they collaborated on 13 films. The couple separated after Allen began a relationship in 1991 with Mia's and Andre Previn's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. Allen married Previn in 1997. They have two adopted daughters.[19] In 1992, Farrow publicly accused Allen of sexually abusing their adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.[20][21] The allegation gained substantial media attention, but Allen was never charged or prosecuted, and vehemently denied the allegation.
Career
1955–1959: Comedy writer and television work
Allen began writing short jokes when he was 15,[40] and the next year began offering them to various Broadway writers for sale.: 539 One of them, Abe Burrows, co-author of Guys and Dolls, wrote, "Wow! His stuff was dazzling." Burrows wrote Allen letters of introduction to Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, and Peter Lind Hayes, who immediately sent Allen a check for just the jokes Burrows included as samples.[41]
As a result of the jokes Allen mailed to various writers, he was invited, then age 19, to join the NBC Writer's Development Program in 1955, followed by a job on The NBC Comedy Hour in Los Angeles. He was later hired as a full-time writer for humorist Herb Shriner, initially earning $25 a week.[37] He began writing scripts for The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, specials for Sid Caesar post-Caesar's Hour (1954–1957), and other television shows.[42] By the time he was working for Caesar, he was earning $1,500 a week. He worked alongside Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon. He also worked with Danny Simon, whom Allen credits for helping form his writing style.[37][43] In 1962 alone, he estimated that he wrote twenty thousand jokes for various comics.[44] Allen also wrote for Candid Camera and appeared in several episodes.[45]
He wrote jokes for the Buddy Hackett sitcom Stanley and The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and in 1958 he co-wrote a few Sid Caesar specials with Larry Gelbart.[46] After writing for many of television's leading comedians and comedy shows, Allen was gaining a reputation as a "genius", composer Mary Rodgers said. When given an assignment for a show he would leave and come back the next day with "reams of paper", according to producer Max Liebman.[46] Similarly, after he wrote for Bob Hope, Hope called him "half a genius".[46] His daily writing routine could last as long as 15 hours, and he could focus and write anywhere necessary. Dick Cavett was amazed at Allen's capacity to write: "He can go to a typewriter after breakfast and sit there until the sun sets and his head is pounding, interrupting work only for coffee and a brief walk, and then spend the whole evening working."[47] When Allen wrote for other comedians, they would use eight out of ten of his jokes. When he began performing as a stand-up, he was much more selective, typically using only one out of ten jokes. He estimated that to prepare for a 30-minute show, he spent six months of intensive writing.[47] He enjoyed writing, despite the work: "Nothing makes me happier than to tear open a ream of paper. And I can't wait to fill it! I love to do it."[47]
Allen started writing short stories and cartoon captions for magazines such as The New Yorker; he was inspired by the tradition of New Yorker humorists S. J. Perelman, George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley, and Max Shulman, whose material he modernized.[48][49][50][51][52][53] His collections of short pieces include Getting Even, Without Feathers, Side Effects, and Mere Anarchy. His early comic fiction was influenced by the zany, pun-ridden humor of S.J. Perelman. In 2010 Allen released audio versions of his books in which he read 73 selections entitled, The Woody Allen Collection. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.[54]
Theater
While best known for his films, Allen has also had a successful theater career, starting as early as 1960, when he wrote sketches for the revue From A to Z. His first great success was Don't Drink the Water, which opened in 1968 and ran for 598 performances on Broadway. His success continued with Play It Again, Sam, which opened in 1969, starring Allen and Diane Keaton. The show played for 453 performances and was nominated for three Tony Awards, although none of the nominations were for Allen's writing or acting.[201]
In the 1970s, Allen wrote a number of one-act plays, such as God and Death, which were published in his 1975 collection Without Feathers. In 1981, Allen's play The Floating Light Bulb opened on Broadway. It was a critical success and a commercial flop. Despite two Tony Award nominations, a Tony win for the acting of Brian Backer (who won the 1981 Theater World Award and a Drama Desk Award for his work), the play only ran for 62 performances.[202]
In 1995, after a long hiatus from the stage, Allen returned to theater with the one-act Central Park West,[203] an installment in an evening of theater, Death Defying Acts, that also included new work by David Mamet and Elaine May.[204]
For the next few years, Allen had no direct involvement with the stage, but productions of his work were staged. God was staged at The Bank of Brazil Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro,[205] and theatrical adaptations of Allen's films Bullets Over Broadway[206] and September[207] were produced in Italy and France, respectively, without Allen's involvement.
In 2003, Allen returned to the stage with Writer's Block, an evening of two one-acts, Old Saybrook[208] and Riverside Drive,[209][203] that played Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theatre.[210] The production marked his stage-directing debut[211] and sold out the entire run.[212]
In 2004, Allen's first full-length play since 1981, A Second Hand Memory,[213] was directed by Allen and enjoyed an extended run Off-Broadway.[212] In June 2007 it was announced that Allen would make two more creative debuts in the theater, directing a work he did not write and an opera—a reinterpretation of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi for the Los Angeles Opera[214]—which debuted at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on September 6, 2008.[215] Of his direction of the opera, Allen said, "I have no idea what I'm doing." His production of the opera opened the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, in June 2009.[216]
In October 2011, Allen's one-act play Honeymoon Motel premiered as one in a series of one-act plays on Broadway titled Relatively Speaking.[217] Also contributing to the series were Elaine May and Ethan Coen; John Turturro directed.[218]
It was announced in February 2012 that Allen would adapt Bullets over Broadway into a Broadway musical. It ran from April 10 to August 24, 2014.[219] The cast included Zach Braff, Nick Cordero and Betsy Wolfe. The show was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, known for directing the stage and film productions of Mel Brooks's The Producers. The show drew mixed reviews from critics but received six Tony Award nominations, including one for Allen for Best Book of a Musical.[220]
Influence
Allen has said that he was enormously influenced by comedians Bob Hope, Groucho Marx, Mort Sahl, Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields,[230] playwright George S. Kaufman and filmmakers Ernst Lubitsch and Ingmar Bergman.[231]
Many comedians have cited Allen as an influence, including Louis C.K.,[232] Larry David,[233] Jon Stewart,[234] Chris Rock,[235] Steve Martin,[236] John Mulaney,[237] Bill Hader,[238] Aziz Ansari,[239] Sarah Silverman,[240] Conan O'Brien,[241] Seth MacFarlane,[242] Seth Meyers,[243] Richard Ayoade,[244] Bill Maher,[245] Albert Brooks,[246] John Cleese,[239] Garry Shandling,[247] Bob Odenkirk,[248] Richard Kind,[249] Rob McElhenney,[250] and Mike Schur.[251]
Many filmmakers have also cited Allen as an influence, including Wes Anderson,[252] Greta Gerwig,[253] Noah Baumbach,[254] Luca Guadagnino,[255] Nora Ephron,[256] Whit Stillman,[257] Mike Mills,[258] Ira Sachs,[259] Richard Linklater,[260] Charlie Kaufman,[261] Nicole Holofcener,[262] Rebecca Miller,[263] Tamara Jenkins,[264] Alex Ross Perry,[265] Greg Mottola,[266] Lynn Shelton,[267] Lena Dunham,[268] Lawrence Michael Levine,[269] Olivier Assayas,[270] the Safdie brothers,[271] and Amy Sherman-Palladino.[272]
Directors who admire Allen's work include Quentin Tarantino, who called him "one of the greatest screenwriters of all time",[273] as well as Martin Scorsese, who said in Woody Allen: A Documentary, "Woody's sensibilities of New York City is one of the reasons why I love his work, but they are extremely foreign to me. It's not another world; it's another planet". Stanley Donen stated he liked Allen's films, Spike Lee has called Allen a "great, great filmmaker" and Pedro Almodóvar has said he admires Allen's work.[274][275][276] In 2012, directors Mike Leigh, Asghar Farhadi, and Martin McDonagh respectively included Radio Days (1987), Take the Money and Run (1969), and Manhattan among their Top 10 films for Sight & Sound.[277][278][279] Other admirers of his work include Olivia Wilde and Jason Reitman, who staged live readings of Hannah and Her Sisters and Manhattan respectively.[280][281] Filmmaker Edgar Wright listed five of Allen's films (Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper, Annie Hall) in his list of 100 Favorite Comedy films.[282]
Bill Hader cited Allen's mockumentary films Take the Money and Run and Zelig as the biggest inspirations of the IFC series Documentary Now![283]
Film critics including Roger Ebert and Barry Norman have highly praised Allen's work.[284][285] In 1980, on Sneak Previews, Siskel and Ebert called Allen and Mel Brooks "the two most successful comedy directors in the world today ... America's two funniest filmmakers."[286] Pauline Kael wrote of Allen that "his comic character is enormously appealing to people partly because he's the smart, urban guy who at the same time is intelligent, is vulnerable, and somehow by his intelligence, he triumphs".
