Woody Allen

American writer, actor and film director whose highly personal films are often satirical portraits of neurotic urban characters obsessed with love and death. Born in the Bronx, New York, on December 1, 1935, Allan Stewart Konigsberg, a dreadful student, began writing jokes for newspaper columnists at age fifteen under the pen name Woody Allen. He later wrote for radio and television performers and joined the team of TV comedian Sid Caesar after finishing high school. From 1961 to 1964, he worked as a comedian in nightclubs, where he was discovered and hired by film producer Charles K. Feldman to write and act in Clive Donner's What's New, Pussycat? (1965). His first film as a director was Take the Money and Run (1966), followed by Bananas (1969), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (1971), Sleeper (1972) and Love and Death (1973), always with Allen in his trademark role as a clumsy, bewildered antihero. He tackled more serious themes in his next films: Interiors (1975) and Annie Hall (1977), which won four Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and Lead Actress), both starring Diane Keaton, who paired with Allen in most of his films from this period. He then made Interiors (1978), a bleak psychological drama, Manhattan (1979), which marked his return to comedy, Stardust Memories (1980), a clearly autobiographical work, and A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), the first film with Mia Farrow, his future partner, from whom he separated in 1994. Other films by Woody Allen include: Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987), September (1987), Another Woman (1988), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Alice (1990), Shadows and Fog (1991), Husbands and Wives (1992), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), Bullets Over Broadway (1994) and Mighty Aphrodite (1995). He has also written and acted in two stage plays: Central Park West (1966, adapted for film in 1969) and Don't Drink the Water (1969, film in 1972). He has also published two collections of humorous short stories, Getting Even (1971) and Without Feathers (1976). The account of his personal and professional life, written by Eric Lax, was published in 1991 under the title Woody Allen, the biography.