Woody Allen

Born Allen Konigsberg in New York City in 1935, the author at the age of seventeen began using Woody Allen as a pen name for submitting jokes and one-liners to various newspapers. Allen has named Ingmar Bergman and the Marx Brothers as his two biggest influences. He sold his first jokes while in high school to a publicity firm, and later wrote for Sid Caesar and his own forty-four films, remarking in 1992, “I think being funny is not anyone’s first choice.” By the age of twenty-three, he was writing for Sid Caesar and had signed with managers Jack Rollins and Charles Joffe, who went on to produce most of his films. Take the Money and Run was released in 1969, Manhattan in 1979, and Crimes and Misdemeanors in 1989.