Fun Facts About Woody Allen

MISC:

- His real name is Allen Stewart Konigsberg and he chose his artist name from his idol, the clarinettist Woody Herman.

- He loves New York City. He was born and raised there and lived there his entire life.

- He has Jewish roots and speaks Hebrew and Yiddish.

- He is the son of a bookkeeper and a jewellery engraver and waiter.

- He has a talent for card and magic tricks.

- He was on psychoanalysis for more than 30 years, going up to three days a week, and stopped when he started dating his current wife.

- His first published joke, in a gossip column was: "Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O.P.S. prices—over people's salaries."

- After high school, he went to New York University (NYU) where he studied communication and film. He was expelled after failing a film course.

RELATIONSHIPS:

- He got married when he was 19 to a 16-year-old girl. The marriage lasted 5 years and he has been making fun of his wife openly on TV many times after the divorce, which lead her to sue him for $1 million for defamation.

- He married again in 1966, divorced in 1969 and did not marry again until 1997.

- Woody Allen and Mia Farrow were in a relationship for 12 years. They separated in 1992 after Farrow discovered nude photographs he had taken of Soon-Yi Farrow Previn, one of her adopted children.

- He continued his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn. At the time, Allen was 56 and Previn was 22. The got married in 1997, adopted 2 daughters and are still together.

- Although the whole story was really damaging to his career and reputation, he said it was "just one of the fortuitous events, one of the great pieces of luck in [his] life, a turning point for the better".

WORK:

- He is not only a film director. He is also a writer, comedian, actor and musician.

- He started earning money by writing jokes and cartoons for newspapers (like The New Yorker).

- He was discovered at 16 by a stand-up comic, Milt Kamen, who got him his first full-time writing job, for $75 a week.

- At 17, he started writing scripts for TV shows, making up to $1500 a week.

- In 1961, he started a career as a stand-up comedian.

- His first movie was “What's New, Pussycat?” in 1965. He was hired by Warren Beatty to re-write the script and appear in the movie. While rewriting, Beatty's part grew smaller and Allen's grew larger, leading Warren Beatty to quit the production.

- He became a successful playwright of Broadway and starred in some of them.

- He published short pieces, plays and books.

- The first movie he directed was "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" which was a Japanese spy movie that him and his friends re-dubbed in English with new and funny dialogue.

- His movie "Annie Hall" is nº35 on the American Film Institute' s "100 Best Movies" and nº4 on the AFI list of "100 Best Comedies".

- His favourite movies are "Purple Rose" (named one of the 100 best films of all time by Time Magazine), “Stardust Memories” and “Match Point” (although he defines them as "best" not in quality, but in how close they are to the original vision).

- His most expensive film to date is “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion” ($33 million).

- “Match Point” in 2005 was the first movie that wasn't filmed in NYC, followed by “Scoop”, “Cassandra's Dream” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”.

- Allen said that he "survives" thanks to the European market, particularly Spain and France.

JAZZ:

- He has a passion for jazz.

- He started playing clarinet when he was young, and performed publicly since the late 60's in small venues in NYC and various jazz festivals, with his first TV appearance in 1971.

- He performs at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan every Monday evening with his band.