Woody Allen one
of the most prolific American filmmakers of his
generation
Allan Stewart Konigsberg was
born in the Bronx on December 1, 1935. He got
hooked on movies at the age of three, after his
mother took him to see Snow White. He
attended Hebrew school for eight years, and then
public schools. Although he was a very
intelligent child and was placed in accelerated
classes from his first year of school, he hated
school and was a rather rebellious student. He
was also a pretty good athlete, playing
basketball, stickball, football, and baseball; at
one time he even trained as a boxer, but his
parents made him stop.
When he was about 15 years old
Allan auditioned for the TV show The Magic
Clown. He did a magic trick called the
Passe-Passe Bottles, but because the trick
featured a liquor bottle he didn't appear on the
show.
In 1952 Allan began sending
jokes to major New York newspapers in the hopes
of getting them used by gossip columnists. A shy
lad, he didn't want his classmates to see his
name if the jokes appeared, so he changed his
name to Woody Allen. His jokes soon became a
regular part of "Earl's Pearls," a
column written by Earl Wilson of the New York
Post. On November 25, 1952, Woody got his
first credit as a writer, at the end of Wilson's
column.
In 1953 Woody enrolled in
motion picture production at New York University,
but he lacked enough enthusiasm to attend classes
regularly and was thrown out after the first
semester as a failed student.
Early Career
Allen got his first real job as
a writer in 1955, when he was hired by NBC as
part of their writer's development program. He
subsequently went to Hollywood to join a writers
group for The Colgate Comedy Hour. In
the summers of 1956-1958, he gained invaluable
experience in writing and directing at the
Tamiment theater. In November 1958, he began
co-writing with Larry Gelbart for The Chevy
Show on NBC, starring Sid Caesar.
From 1960 to 1968 worked as a
stand-up comedian. In 1960 he was making an
average of $75 per week, but by 1964 he was an
estblished comic making $5,000 a week.
In 1964, Allen entered the film
industry when he was hired to do the screenplay
for What's New, Pussycat? (1965). He
directed his first film a year later, What's
Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), and his career
skyrocketed from there.
Selected Filmography
One of the most prolific American filmmakers
of his generation, Woody Allen has written,
directed, and, more often than not, starred in a
film just about every year since 1969.
Many of Allen's films are about either a
director making films or a writer, with Allen
himself in the lead role.
Nearly all of his films start and end with
white-on-black credits, set in the Windsor
typeface, set to jazz music, without any
scrolling.
Almost all of his films are set in New York City.
What's New, Pussycat? (1965--writer,
actor)
What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966--writer,
director)
Casino
Royale (1967--actor)
Take the Money and Run (1969--writer,
director, actor)
Bananas
(1971--writer, director, actor)
Play
It Again, Sam (1972--writer, actor)
Everything
You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were
Afraid to Ask (1972--writer, director,
actor)
Sleeper (1973--writer, director, actor)
Love
and Death (1975--writer, director,
actor)
The Front (1976--actor)
Annie
Hall (1977--writer, director, actor)
Interiors
(1978--writer, director, actor)
Manhattan
(1979--writer, director, actor)
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
(1982--writer, director, actor)
Zelig (1983--writer, director, actor)
Broadway
Danny Rose (1984--writer, director,
actor)
The
Purple Rose of Cairo (1985--writer,
director, actor) [his personal favorite]
Hannah
and Her Sisters (1986--writer, director,
actor)
September (1987--writer, director,
actor)
Radio
Days (1987--writer, director, actor)
Another Woman (1988--writer, director,
actor)
New York Stories (1989--writer,
director, actor)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989--writer,
director, actor)
Alice (1990--writer, director, actor)
Shadows and Fog (1992--writer, director,
actor)
Husbands
and Wives (1992--writer, director,
actor)
Manhattan
Murder Mystery (1993--writer, director,
actor)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994--writer,
director)
Mighty Aprodite (1995--writer, director,
actor)
Everyone Says I Love You (1996--writer,
director, actor) [his only musical]
Deconstructing Harry (1997--writer,
director, actor)
Antz
(1998--voice)
Sweet and Lowdown (1999--writer,
director)
Small
Time Crooks (2000--writer, director,
actor)
Match Point (2005--writer, director)
Scoop (2006--writer, director, actor)
Honors and Awards
Allen has more Academy Award nominations for
writing than anyone else -- 14 in the Best
Original Screenplay category and another 7 for
acting and directing. He won the Best Director
and Best Original Screenplay awards in 1977 for Annie
Hall, and the Best Original Screenplay award
for Hannah and Her Sisters in 1986. In
addition, he has directed 14 different actors in
Oscar-nominated performances: Diane Keaton,
Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Mariel
Hemingway, Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest, Martin
Landau, Judy Davis, Chazz Palminteri, Jennifer
Tilly, Mira Sorvino, Sean Penn, Samantha Morton,
and himself. Keaton, Caine, Wiest and Sorvino all
won Oscars for their performances in one of his
movies.
He has been nominated or won 136 awards, more
than Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold
Lloyd combined.
the O. Henry Award for his short story
"The Kugelmass Episode," published in The
New Yorker on May 2, 1977 (1978)
the Caesar Award for Best Foreign Film, for Manhattan
(1980)
the Caesar Award for Best Foreign Film, for The
Purple Rose of Cairo (1986)
the Career Golden Lion for lifetime achievement
from the Venice Film Festival (1995)
a lifetime achievement award from the Directors
Guild of America (1996)
an honorary Fellowship from the British Academy
of Film and Television Arts (1997)
Cannes Film Festival Palm of Palms award for
lifetime achievement (2002) [the only other
recipient of this award is Ingmar Bergman]
the Prince of Asturias Award (2002)
Relationships and
Children
Harlene Rosen -- married March
15, 1956 -- divorced 1962
Louise Lasser -- married February 2, 1966 --
divorced 1969
Diane Keaton -- never married
Mia Farrow -- never married -- three children
(Moses Farrow [adopted], Dylan O'Sullivan Farrow
[adopted], Satchel Farrow [born 1988])
Soon-Yi Previn (adopted daughter of Mia Farrow
and André Previn) -- married December 22, 1997
-- two children (Bechet Dumaine [adopted December
1998], Manzie Tio Allen [adopted February 2000])
Other Information
Allen started playing the
clarinet at age 15, and has played it daily ever
since.
He has been wearing his
"trademark" thick black glasses since
the 1960's.
He has never watched one of his
movies after release.
Allen is also an established
playwright -- Dont' Drink the Water
(1966) and Play It Again, Sam (1969),
both of which appeared on Broadway, are two of
his best known works.
Internet Movie Database www.imdb.com/name/nm0000095/
Woody Allen Fan Site www.woodyallen.com
Charlie Chaplin
Buster Keaton
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