Allen spoke German quite a bit during his early years. His childhood was not particularly happy: his parents did not get along, and he had a rocky relationship with his stern, temperamental mother. Allen has a sister, Letty, who was born in 1943, and was raised in Midwood, Brooklyn. Both of his parents were born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

His family was Ashkenazi Jewish his grandparents were immigrants from Russia and Austria, who spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, and German. Early life File:Woody Allen HS Yearbook.jpegĪllen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in The Bronx and raised in Brooklyn, NY, the son of Nettie (born Cherrie Novem– January 27, 2002), a bookkeeper at her family's delicatessen, and Martin Konigsberg (Decem– January 13, 2001), a jewelry engraver and waiter. Īllen also performs regularly as a jazz clarinetist at small venues in Manhattan, including the Carlyle Hotel on Monday nights. Critic Roger Ebert described Allen as 'a treasure of the cinema'. Some of the best-known of his over 40 films are Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011). Allen often stars in his own films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup. He is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late '70s. īy the mid-1960s Allen was writing and directing films, first specializing in slapstick comedies before moving into more dramatic material influenced by European art cinema during the 1970s. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen in fourth place on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics, while a UK survey ranked Allen as the third greatest comedian. As a comic, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which he insists is quite different from his real-life personality. In the early 1960s, Allen started performing as a stand-up comic, emphasizing monologues rather than traditional jokes. He began as a comedy writer in the 1950s, penning jokes and scripts for television and also publishing several books of short humor pieces. Video:Woody Allen plays clarinet at the Carlyle Cafe - NYC

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