Woody Allen - real name Allen Stewart Konigsberg - son of Martin and Nettea Cherrie Konigsberg was born in Brooklyn New York USA on Dec. 1, 1935. He was brought up as an Orthodox Jew, his mother was a book-keeper in a flower shop while his father floated from job to job and even reportedly became envolved with organised crime for a while.
At the age of three young Allen went to see 'Snow White and the 7 dwarfs' and fell in love with the magic of movies. As a young boy he would always making up stories and at the age of 8, after watching a movie called 'The Black Swan' he decided he was going to make movies.
As a teenager Allen and his friends would go off to the movies (having a choice of over 25 cinemas within walking distance to choose from), they preffered to watch the European movies as they were more grown up. He became more aware of what a directors role was and interested in movie history.This is probably why at the age of 15 he decided to change his name to Woody Allen, he felt that he would be taken more seriously.
At 16, while still at college he was hired to write jokes for radio and television artists. In 1957 he became a member of Sid Caesars' cast.
While working in a nightclub as a stand-up comedian Woody was approached by a producer who asked him to write a film script and in 1965 he both wrote and starred in 'Whats up Pussycat'. But the producers had taken his script and alterred it into what Woody found a very unfunny one. He vowed from that day that he would never write another script unless he was the director.The next film Woody made was 'Casino Royale' and it did well for him although he only had a small part in it. His next movie 'Whats up Tiger Lilly?' almost never made it to the screen as Woody threatened to sue the producers if they released it because he disliked it so much. After recieving rave reviews he dropped the case.
United Artists signed him up after he made his directorial debut with 'Take the Money and Run' and told him to do as he pleased. A statement they soon regretted when his first script was not for a comedy but a serious piece entitled the 'Jazz baby'. They rejected it and as a compromise Woody came up with the script for 'Bananas'
After this came 'Play it Again Sam' 'Everything You Aways Wanted....' and 'Sleepers' all of them good money spinners. In 1986 after many more comedies and dramas Woody made the hugely successful 'Hannah and her Sisters' which won him Academy Award praise. He has made many movies since, none of them recieving as good reviews as 'Hannah..' but all doing well at the box office. His private life has been dragged through the Courts with his ex-wife Mia Farrow accusing him of incestual advances towards his step-daughter, but this aside Woody is still regarded, quite rightly, as an excellent director, actor, writer etc.
