Marshall Brickman obit

Marshall Brickman, Woody Allen’s Co-Writer on Hit Films, Dies at 85

The duo won an Oscar for “Annie Hall.” Mr. Brickman went on to write Broadway shows, including “Jersey Boys,” and make movies of his own. 

He was not on the list.

Marshall Michael Brickman (August 25, 1939 – November 29, 2024) was an American screenwriter and director, best known for his collaborations with Woody Allen, with whom he shared the 1977 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Annie Hall. He was previously the head writer for Johnny Carson, writing scripts for recurring characters such as Carnac the Magnificent. He is also known for playing the banjo with Eric Weissberg in the 1960s, and for a series of comical parodies published in The New Yorker.

Marshall Michael Brickman was born on August 25, 1939, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to American parents Pauline (née Wolin) and Abram Brickman. His parents were Jewish. His father was a Polish immigrant. The family returned to the United States, and Brickman grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn. After attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he studied science and music and briefly aspired to be a doctor, he became a member of folk act the Tarriers in 1962, recruited by former classmate Eric Weissberg. Following the disbanding of the Tarriers in 1965, Brickman joined the New Journeymen with John Phillips and Michelle Phillips, who later had success with the Mamas & the Papas.

Brickman left the New Journeymen to pursue a career as a writer, initially writing for television in the 1960s, including Candid Camera, The Tonight Show,[5] and The Dick Cavett Show. It was during this time that he met Allen, with whom he would collaborate on three completed film screenplays during the 1970s: Sleeper (1973), Annie Hall (1977, which won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar), and Manhattan (1979). In 2015, members of the Writers Guild of America voted Annie Hall as the funniest screenplay ever written.

Brickman directed several of his own scripts in the 1980s, including Simon, Lovesick, and The Manhattan Project, as well as Sister Mary Explains It All, a TV adaptation of the play by Christopher Durang. His script with Allen for Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) had been put aside some years earlier when the project was later revived.

With partner Rick Elice, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical Jersey Boys, about 1960s rock 'n' roll group The Four Seasons. The two collaborated again in 2009 to write the book for the musical The Addams Family.

Brickman's "Who's Who in the Cast," a parody of a Playbill cast list, was published in the July 26, 1976, issue of The New Yorker, and drew so much attention that it was republished in the special theatre issue of May 31, 1993. His Other pieces for The New Yorker include "The Recipes of Chairman Mao" (August 27, 1973) and "The New York Review of Gossip" (May 19, 1975).

 

Filmography

Year     Title            Director           Writer

1973    Sleeper            No            Yes

1974    Ann in Blue     No            Yes

1975    The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence            No            Yes

1977    Annie Hall      No            Yes

1979            Manhattan        No            Yes

1980    Simon            Yes            Yes

1983            Lovesick          Yes            Yes

1986    The Manhattan Project Yes            Yes

1991    For the Boys    No            Yes

1993            Manhattan Murder Mystery            No            Yes

1994            Intersection       No            Yes

2014    Jersey Boys    No            Yes

Theatre

Year     Title            Notes            Venue

1975    Straws in the Wind            Sketches, Book            Off-Broadway

2005    Jersey Boys    Book (with Rick Elice). Nominated Best Book of a Musical Tony Award  August Wilson Theatre

2010    The Addams Family            Book (with Rick Elice)    Lunt-Fontanne Theatre