Allan Stewart Konigsberg (also known as Woody Allen) is an American filmmaker, author, actor, screenwriter, playwright and jazz musician who was born in December 1, 1935, New York. His screwball sex comedies and his rapid production has made him a notable American filmmaker. Allen takes a part as an actor in his films that he wrote and made.
Allen's contribution and his passion for jazz appear when he was a teenager. He performed at various small venues in Manhattan and joined Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the New Orleans funeral Ragtime Orchestra (which provided the film score of his comedy Sleeper).
Allen started writing scripts for The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show at age 19 for Sid Caesar post "Caesar's Hour", and made $1500 a week. He started his stand up comedian career in 1961, debuting at Duplex Club. The popular Candid Camera television show was wrote by him. It is a successful gig on television. Then he started writing cartoon and short stories for magazines such as The New Yorker. There are four published short pieces and plays that accomplished by him, Getting Even, Without feathers, Side Effects and Mere Anarchy. The comedy monologue also brought his innovation; it has being the base training for every comic monologist.
Became a successful Broadway Playwright, as a filmmaker he started to write Don't Drink the Water for theatre in 1966. There was an adaptation directed by Howard Morris then, but he was not satisfied with his play, so Allen directed and starred the third version for television with Michael J. Fox and Mayim Bialik. Play it Again, Sam became next play for this filmmaker, which he also starred in.
All of this filmmaker's early films were formless comedies. Hired by Warren Beatty to re-write a script, What'sNew, Pussycat? became his first film in 1965, and his first directorial effort was What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) redubbed in English by Allen and his friend. He also acted in Casino Royale, and directed Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas, Everything You Always Wanted toKnow About Sex, Sleeper, and Love and Death.
Became American Film Institute's "100 Best Movies" and ranked 4 on the AFI list of "100 Best Comedies", Manhattan (released in 1979), is a black and white film, which is another version of Manhattan Murder Mystery, focusing in the romantic comedy's side between Allen's character, and Mariel Hemingway's character. This film increased this filmmaker's prestige scale.
Some great films which were made by this filmmaker such as Stardust Memories and September are influenced by the Europeans directors. Allen believes that Stardust Memories is one of his best movies. He played as a successful filmmaker in it.
As a talented American filmmaker, it is proper for him to be nominated for his performances. He has been nominated 21 times; 14 as a screenwriter, 6 as director, and 1 as an actor. Allen, as a filmmaker, also counted as a screenwriter who has more screenwriting Academy Award nominations than other screenwriters, and all of that is in the "Best Original Screenplay" category.
