Italian
Marshall Brickman, who won an Oscar for writing “Annie Hall” alongside Woody Allen and also collaborated with him on “Sleeper,” “Manhattan” and “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” died Friday in Manhattan. He was 85.
His daughter Sophie confirmed his death to the New York Times.
Brickman also co-wrote Broadway musicals “Jersey Boys” and “The Addams Family” and started out writing for “Candid Camera” and “The Tonight Show,” where he developed the famous Johnny Carson character “Carnac the Magnificant.” He also worked on the pilot for “The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence,” which later became “The Muppet Show.”
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brickman was raised in Brooklyn and played in folk groups before starting his TV writing career. Brickman was a founder of the New Journeyman with John and Michelle Phillips, which became the Mamas & the Papas after Brickman left.
Popular on Variety He tried his hand at directing with “Simon,” “Lovesick” and “The Manhattan Project,” also writing the screenplays for all three.
Among the other films he wrote were “For the Boys” and “Intersection.”
He was honored by the Writers Guild in 2006, and explained to Variety at the time why he had gravitated to the stage after writing movie screenplays.
“Part of the reason for his Hollywood hiatus, he says, is that he found it difficult to do the kind of films that gave him his name. ‘”Annie Hall’ is a weird movie that could probably never get made today,’ he says. ‘It was just too culturally specific.’ It survived in the mid-’70s, he says, because ‘United Artists was this oasis between the old decaying studio system and the new corporate Hollywood,’” he said in 2006.
In addition to his daughter Sophie, Brickman is survived by his wife Nina, an editor and producer, daughter Jessica and five grandchildren.
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