Marshall Brickman, Co-Writer of ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘Jersey Boys,’ Dead at 85
Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote hit films with Woody Allen including Annie Hall, and the musical Jersey Boys, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 85. His daughter Sophie Brickman confirmed the news to The New York Times.
Born in Rio de Janeiro and raised in Brooklyn, Brickman originally wanted to be a musician and graduated from University of Wisconsin with degrees in science and music. He was in the folk group the Tarriers, playing alongside Eric Weissberg and they scored the hit single, “Dueling Banjos.” Several of their songs from their 1963 album New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass were featured on the soundtrack of the 1972 film, Deliverance.
More from Rolling Stone
He was also a member of the Journeyman beginning in 1964 with John Phillips and Michelle Phillips, where he played banjo. Following Brickman’s departure from the group, the couple partnered with Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty to form the Mamas & the Papas. While he may have appeared to have bad timing for a big breakout in his music career, a few years later, luck was very much on his side. In 1969, Brickman famously turned down an invitation to a party at Sharon Tate’s house. Five people, including Tate, were murdered by the Manson family that night.
While working on music, he had also begun writing for Hollywood, writing for the first season of Allen Funt’s Candid Camera in 1960 and by decade’s end became head writer The Tonight Show where he helped develop bits, including Johnny Carson’s Carnac the Magnificent. He also worked on The Dick Cavett Show in the early Seventies. It was at this time, that he met Allen.
“We would work on jokes. After a couple of hours, his housekeeper would bring a plate of tuna fish sandwiches, and we’d take a break. I don’t even know what we talked about during the break,” Brickman told Classic Television Showbiz of Allen in 2016. “Together we wrote a lot of his early stand-up act, which he ultimately recorded. When he got a couple of specials on television, he did one for Monsanto, one for Libby’s, these one-off variety shows, we wrote those together. And then we started to write movies.”
Brickman’s first film team-up with Allen was on the script for 1973’s Sleeper. They went on to write the Oscar-winning film Annie Hall for their second project. The 1977 film also topped the Writers Guild of America’s list of 101 Funniest Screenplays of All Time. The rom-com starring Diane Keaton and Allen, took home Oscars for Best Actress (Keaton), Best Director (Allen), and Original Screenplay.
Allen did not attend the Oscars that year; Brickman accepted their screenplay award for both of them.
“Half of this little piece of tin, if not much more, belongs to Woody, who is probably the greatest collaborator anyone could ever wish for,” Brickman said during his acceptance speech. “He does a lot of brilliant work. He takes our script and makes it into what you saw. He picks up my lunch check for about five months, and [today] he refuses to come out of his apartment.”
The pair continued their fruitful collaboration on the screenplay for 1979’s Manhattan, the black-and-white comedy that featured the controversial relationship between a middle-aged man and a high school girl, played by Mariel Hemingway. It won BAFTAs, the British film and television awards, for Best Film and Best Screenplay; they also took home the Best Foreign Film at France’s Césars. He partnered once more with Allen for 1993’s Manhattan Murder Mystery.
In the Seventies, he co-wrote the pilot The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, which after significant revision became The Muppet Show, and he also contributed parodies to The New Yorker magazine.
In the Eighties, he began directing films, including 1980’s Simon starring Alan Arkin, 1983’s Lovesick starring Dudley Moore, and 1986’s The Manhattan Project — serving both as a director and writer or co-writer for the films. His last film script was 1994’s Intersection starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone.
His vast repertoire included an award-winning run on Broadway. He partnered with Rick Elice to pen the book for the musical Jersey Boys; they also wrote the screenplay for the 2014 film adaptation. The musical opened in November 2005 and won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In 2010, he and Elice teamed up for the 2010 stage musical, The Addams Family.
Brickman’s award-winning writing over a five-decade career wasn’t intentional; when he was in his twenties he told The Times in 1986: “I made a lot of decisions based on how late I could sleep in the morning.”
By his early thirties, he acknowledged one contributing factor to his success. He received a call from his accountant at the time who told him the banjo album had been released again and he had a $180,000 check for him. “It’s important to be lucky,” he said.
Best of Rolling Stone
Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
