Who is Woody Allen ?(1/3)

Stupid question, isn't it ? Most of us knows this person as a famous film director, probably even have seen at least one of his movies. What I would like to present here during my week would be a bit more information than complete list of his well known comedies (don't worry, there will be much about them to, but not today ;) ). Let's start from the beginning.

The beginning

Allen Stewart Konigsberg was born on December 1st, 1935 in Brooklyn New York. He is a son of Martin and Nettea Cherrie Konigsberg. His parents were both orthodox Jews, grandparents were Yiddish- and German-speaking immigrants. Father had many jobs over the years (waiter, driver, etc.), mother worked as as a book-keeper. Young Allen have got his first education in Hebrew school, which he attended for eight years. He lived in a lower-middle class section of Brooklyn. He very early started making up stories, even before started reading. Allen wasn't too good at school, only subject that really interested him was English Composition. There were many theaters in his neighborhood so he quickly become interested in movies. After watching “The Black Swan” age of 7 or 8 it occurred to him that he could make a film. In his teens he became very devoted to European cinema. As as adult he will create udner influence of European directors like Ingmar Bergman or Fredrico Fellini.

The show business

While still in school, Allen started to write jokes for a local paper. It was later when he was hired to write them for radio and television performers (The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, Caesar's Hour ). His first public performance was at the age of 16 doing magic tricks at a Catskills resort. Year later he changed his name to Woody Allen. He studied communication and film for one semester at New York University, but he was expelled after failing a film course. Feeling that his jokes were being wasted by other performers in early 60's Woody himself started to work as a stand-up comedian.

His screen-writing and acting debut was in 1965 in the film “What’s New, Pussycat?” After producers and rearranged his original script he was very unhappy. At that time that he realized that what he really need is a control over film production from a director chair.

In 1966 in New York, Woody made his first film “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” Originally this was a Japanese movie which was dubbed into English. The story was completely changed and from 007 alike story he made a comedy about the search for the best egg salad recipe.

Three years later he directed and played in his first 'full' movie called “Take the Money and Run”. It's script was co-written with his childhood friend Mickey Rose. That year also Allen become popular enough to appear on the cover of “Life” magazine.

Today I won't write about rest of Woody's films, but it's worth to mention that with them he has won many awards – including three Academy Awards, Career Golden Lion and 82 other awards. He is also known from not attending to awards ceremonies.

The Private Life

His first wife was Harlene Rosen. The marriage was a complete mistake and lasted only five years from 1954 to 1959.

Second marriage with Louise Lasser started seven years later and was also short, ended in 1969. Probably it wasn't that bad as Louise starred in four Allen films after the divorce.

Between 1970 and 1971 Woody had a relationship with Diane Keaton whom he get to his Broadway play “Play It Again, Sam”. After broke up she continued to star in a number of his films. It is said that role in Allen's “Annie Hall” was written especially for her.

In 1980 Allen began a relationship with Mia Farrow - actress who had leading roles in several of his movies. Although they didn't married, they adopted two children together: Dylan Farrow and Moshe Farrow. They separated in 1992 after Farrow discovered that Allen had taken nude photographs of her adopted daughter Soon-Yi.

Allen continued his relationship with Soon-Yi. They married in 1997 and adopted two children.