Woody Allen is an American treasure and the quintessential New Yorker. A musician, writer, director, actor and standup comedian he has since the late 60’s entertained us with his unique brand of self-depreciating humour, neuroticism and observations on relationships and human behaviour.
Woody Allen is an American treasure and the quintessential New Yorker. A musician, writer, director, actor and stand-up comedian, he has since the late 60’s entertained us with his unique brand of self-depreciating humour, neuroticism and observations on relationships and human behaviour.
This month he’s our celebrated director in Rialto Channel’s Directors Showcase, with films from the maestro playing every Sunday evening at 8.30pm throughout March.
Just in case your Pub quiz master is a Woody Allen fan, here’s a few quirky facts that might come in handy.
- His real name is Allen Stewart Konigsberg and he chose his artist name from his idol, the clarinetist Woody Herman.
- Woody Allen started playing the clarinet when he was young, and to this day performs at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan every Monday evening with his band.
- He has Jewish roots and speaks Hebrew and Yiddish.
- He was discovered at 16 by a stand-up comic, Milt Kamen, who got him his first full-time writing job.
- He started earning money by writing jokes and cartoons for publications like The New Yorker.
- At 17, he started writing scripts for TV shows.
- After high school, he went to New York University (NYU) where he studied communication and film. He was suspended after failing a film course.
- In 1961, he started a career as a stand-up comedian.
- In 1960 - 61 he also wrote for the television show Candid Camera.
- His first movie was “What's New, Pussycat?” in 1965. He was hired by Warren Beatty to re-write the script and star in the movie. While re-writing, Beatty's part apparently grew smaller and Allen's grew larger, leading Warren Beatty to quit the production. Peter Sellers took over from Beatty, and hustled back all the good lines.
- Woody Allen has been nominated for an Oscar 23 times and has won 4 times (Best Director for Annie Hall, Best Original Screenplay for Annie Hall, Best Original Screenplay for Hannah and her Sisters, and Best Original Screenplay for Midnight in Paris)
- He has more Academy Award nominations (14) for writing than anyone else; all of them are in the Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen category.
- He was apparently in psychoanalysis for more than 30 years, often going up to three days a week, and stopped when he started dating his current wife.
- His current wife just happens to be his previous long-term girlfriend Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. When Mia Farrow found naked photos of Soon-Yi Previn in Allen’s possession, Allen was 56 and Previn was 22. They married in 1997, adopted 2 daughters and are still together.
- The Seinfeld character George Constanza was originally planned to be a caricature of Woody Allen
- Woody Allen provided the voice of the neurotic ant known as K-4195 in the movie Antz.
- He refuses to watch any of his movies once released. I suppose that’s our job.
To learn more about this fascinating auteur don’t miss our re-run of Woody Allen: A Documentary, which screens April 1st, 10th and 21st – it’s a wonderful documentary and provides an extraordinary insight into the life and work of this very private man.