Woody Allen is a writer, director, actor and comedian whose work has appeared in multiple faculties, film, theatre, television and publications. With breaking into show business as a teenager, he has become a prominent and controversial figure in American media.
Woody Allen Net Worth: $80 Million
Woody Allen, a writer, director, actor and comedian whose work spans film, theatre, and television, has a current net worth believed to be $80 million.
The Early Years
Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York in 1935. It was by age 15 when he started going by “Woody Allen,” which was also when he “started” his career in comedy, sending his jokes to Broadway writers to test the waters. On such writer was Abe Burrows, who even sent Allen a check after using some of his jokes as samples. Proving successful, he eventually joined the NBC Writer’s Development Program at the age of 19, which, in turn, got him a job for The NBC Comedy Hour in Los Angeles, also writing for shows like Candid Camera and publications like The New Yorker, according to Boomsbeat.
1960-1969
In the Sixties, Allen first started his career as a stand-up comedian to help supplement his work as a comedy writer. During this time period, he also took an interest in playwrighting, writing the play, Don’t Drink the Water and Play It Again, Sam, the latter of which he appeared in himself. By the end of the decade, he appeared on the cover of Life magazine. This was also the decade he started his career in film, writing the screenplay for What’s New Pussycat? in 1965, in which he also appeared in.
1970-1979
Allen’s film career flourished in the 1970s, including a film adaptation of Play It Again, Sam. Some of his well-known films that rounded out the decade included The Front in 1976, Annie Hall in 1977, which won four Academy Awards, and the 1979 Manhattan.
1980-1989
Some of his films from the 80’s include Stardust Memories, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy and Hannah and Her Sisters. Another popular film of his from this decade, The Purple Rose of Cairo, was named one of the 100 best films of all time by Time.
1990-1999
Some of his films from the 80’s include Shadows and Fog (1991), Husbands and Wives (1992), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) and Bullets over Broadway (1994). In a controversial move in his personal life, during this decade, he divorced his then-wife, actress Mia Farrow, after it was discovered that he was having a relationship with her adopted daughter, Soon Yi Previn, who he married in 1997. During this time, Allen had also been the subject of sexual harassment claims concerning then-7-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow. Towards the decade, Allen also appeared in animated form, as the main character in 1998’s Antz.
2000-2009
At the start of the decade, Allen came out with Small Time Crooks. His most successful film of the decade was 2005’s Match Point, which starred Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson and earned over $23 million domestically. He also collaborated with Johansson again with the 2006 film, Scoop. Other films of his from this decade include Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2008 and Whatever Works in 2009, the latter of which had been in development hell since the 1970’s, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
2010-Present
Although it had been filmed the year prior, Allen started the decade with the release of the film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Other films from Allen during this period included To Rome with Love, Irrational Man and Blue Jasmine. However, this decade also saw a change in medium for Allen, as he wrote and directed his first television series for Amazon Studios, Crisis in Six Scenes. A few laters, he also filmed Wonder Wheel, which became the first movie self-distributed to theaters by Amazon Studios. In 2018, the controversy concerning Dylan Farrow resurfaced when she discussed the allegations with CBS This Morning‘s Gayle King. As she said during the interview:
“I was taken to a small attic crawl space in my mother’s country house in Connecticut by my father. He instructed me to lay down on my stomach and play with my brother’s toy train that was set up and he sat behind me in the doorway, and as I played with the toy train, I was sexually assaulted… As a 7-year-old I would say, I would have said he touched my private parts.”
