Woody Allen - Biography

Last Editor: KeliGurl537				Woody Allen Biography -   Name : Woody Allen Birth date : December 1, 1935 Birth place : Brooklyn, New York Height : 5' 5" Birth name : Allen Stewart Konigsberg Occupation : Actor, composer, director, writer, producer Spouse(s) : Harlene Rosen (1956-1962), Louise Lasser (1966-1969), Soon-Yi Previn (1997-present)

Woody Allen Trivia -

He was ranked #43 in Empire (UK) magazine's Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list in October 1997. His adopted daughter Bechet Dumaine, named after Sidney Bechet, was born in December 1998. After his separation from Mia Farrow, they started a long public legal battle for their three children which was eventually won by Farrow. Allen was denied visitation rights with Dylan O'Sullivan Farrow and could only see his biological son, Satchel, under supervision. Moses Farrow chose not to see his father. He refuses to watch any of his movies once released. He and former lover Mia Farrow had three children: Moses Farrow (adopted son, aka Misha), Dylan O'Sullivan Farrow (adopted daughter, aka Mallone), and Satchel Farrow (biological son, b. 1988, aka Ronan). He was suspended from New York University. He loves Venice, and helped to raise funds to rebuild the Venetian theater La Fenice, which was destroyed by a fire. He was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#89) in 1995. He was once invited to appear with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Stanley Kubrick also considered casting him in Sydney Pollack's part in Eyes Wide Shut in 1999. He is one of the most prolific American directors of his generation, he has written, directed, and more often than not starred in a film just about every year since 1969. He accused British interviewer Michael Parkinson of having a morbid interest in his private life and rejected questions about the custody battle for his children during his appearance on the BBC's "Parkinson" (1971) in 1999. Despite the advancement of sound technology, all of his films are mixed and released in monaural sound, although later ones have a mono Dolby Digital mix. Wrote the concept for the film Hollywood Ending (2002) on the back of a matchbook. Years later, he found the matchbook with the notes for the film on it and made the film. He attended the Cannes Film Festival for the first time to receive the Palm of Palms award for lifetime achievement in 2002. In addition to being a comedian, musician and filmmaker, he is also a respected playwright. He was voted the 19th greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. He has been nominated or won 136 awards, more than Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd combined. He was ranked #4 in Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comedians of All Time. Directed 15 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest, Martin Landau, Judy Davis, Chazz Palminteri, Jennifer Tilly, Mira Sorvino, Sean Penn, Samantha Morton, Penelope Cruz, and himself. Keaton, Caine, Wiest, Sorvino, and Cruz won Oscars for their performances in one of his movies. He was ranked #10 in Empire (UK) magazine's Greatest Directors Ever! poll in 2005. He directed only one movie in which both of his longtime companions Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow appear in "Radio Days" (1987). He and Mia Farrow made 13 movies together: Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Alice (1990), Another Woman (1988), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), September (1987), Husbands and Wives (1992), A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), New York Stories (1989), Radio Days (1987), Shadows and Fog (1991) and Zelig (1983). He married to Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, from her second marriage with Andre Previn. Four of his movies brought home his actresses Academy Awards: Annie Hall (1977) for Diane Keaton, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994) both for Dianne Wiest, Mighty Aphrodite (1995) for Mira Sorvino and _Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)_ for Penelope Cruz. A life-size statue of him was erected in the Spanish city of Oviedo in 2002.

Woody Allen Detailed Biography -

American motion-picture director, screenwriter, actor, and author, best known for his bittersweet comic films containing elements of parody, slapstick, and the absurd. He was also known as a sympathetic director for women, writing strong and well-defined characters for them. Among his featured erformers were Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow. Much of Allen's comic material derives from his urban Jewish middle-class background. Intending to be a playwright, Allen began writing stand-up comedy monologues while still in high school. His introduction to show business came a few years later when he was hired to write material for such television comedians as Sid Caesar and Art Carney. In the early 1960s, after several false starts, he acquired a following on the nightclub circuit, performing his own stand-up comedy routines. His comic persona was that of an insecure and doubt-ridden person who playfully exaggerates his own failures and anxieties. Allen's subsequent films contained a paradoxical blend of comedy and philosophy and a juxtaposition of trivialities with major concerns. The critical and commercial failure of the bleakly serious drama Interiors (1978) was followed by the highly acclaimed seriocomedy Manhattan (1979). In such later films as Stardust Memories (1980), Zelig (1983), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Side Effects (1989) and Alice (1990) .