Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote ’Annie Hall’ with Woody Allen, dies at 85

Marshall Brickman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter, whose wide-ranging career spanned some of Woody Allen’s best films, the Broadway musical Jersey Boys, and a number of Johnny Carson’s most beloved sketches, has died

Marshall Brickman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter, whose wide-ranging career spanned some of Woody Allen’s best films, the Broadway musical Jersey Boys, and a number of Johnny Carson’s most beloved sketches, has died. He was 85.

Brickman died Friday in Manhattan, his daughter Sophie Brickman told The New York Times. No cause of death was cited.

Brickman was best known for his extensive collaboration with Allen, beginning with the 1973 film Sleeper. Together, they co-wrote Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). The loosely structured script for Annie Hall, in particular, has been hailed as one of the wittiest comedies. It won Brickman and Allen an Oscar for best original screenplay.

In his acceptance speech (Allen skipped the ceremony), Brickman referenced one of the film’s many oft-quoted lines, saying: “I’ve been out here a week, and I still have guilt when I make a right turn on a red light.”

“If the film is worth anything,” Brickman told Vanity Fair in 2017, “it gives a very particular specific image of what it was like to be alive in New York at that time in that particular social-economic stratum.”

Brickman and Allen had met in the early 1960s, when Allen was breaking through as a stand-up comedian. Brickman was brought on to write jokes for him. At the time, he had been playing banjo for the folk group the Tarriers. In one of the many twists of Brickman’s career, it was an album he and his college roommate Eric Weissberg recorded that later made the soundtrack to 1972’s Deliverance, including “Dueling Banjos.”

Brickman, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was the son of Jewish socialists Abram (who fled Poland during WWII) and Pauline (Wolin) Brickman, who was from New York. They later moved to the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, where Brickman grew up. His start in show business, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in science and music, came with the Terriers. He replaced Alan Arkin in the group.