NEW YORK– Oscar-winning screenwriter Marshall Brickman, whose wide-ranging career included a number of these films Woody Allen ‘s best movies, the Broadway musical “Jersy sweaters” and some of Johnny Carson’s most beloved sketches have passed away. He was 85.
Brickman, his daughter Sophie Brickman, died Friday in Manhattan told The New York Times. No cause of death was mentioned.
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 praised as one of the funniest comedies. It earned 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 here a week and I still feel guilty when I turn right at a red light.”
“If the movie is worth anything,” Brickman says told Vanity Fair in 2017 “it gives a very specific picture of what it was like to live in New York at that time in that specific socio-economic stratum.”
Brickman and Allen had met in the early 1960s, when Allen was breaking through as a stand-up comedian. Brickman was brought in to write jokes for him. At the time he played banjo for the folk group the Tarriers. In one of the many twists in Brickman’s career, it was an album he and his roommate Eric Weissberg recorded that later provided the soundtrack to 1972’s “Deliverance,” including “Dueling Banjos.”
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Brickman was the son of Jewish socialists Abram (who fled Poland during World War II) and Pauline (Wolin) Brickman, who came 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 Tarriers. He replaced Alan Arkin in the group.
“One of the reasons I was asked to join was because they needed someone to be on the cutting edge and able to talk while everyone else was tuning in,” Brickman told the Writers Guild in 2011. “And so I started developing little jokes and routines and things like that.”
By the late 1960s, Brickman was head writer for Carson’s “The Tonight Show.” One of his most enduring contributions were the sketches of Carnac the Magnificent, in which Carson played a “mystic from the East” who could guess answers to unseen questions. Brickman’s other TV stints included “Candid Camera,” “The Dick Cavett Show” and “The Muppet Show.”
When Brickman and Allen began writing together, they found a natural chemistry, with Brickman playing a supporting role in Allen’s semi-autobiographical material.
“We didn’t write any scenes together. I think this is the death of any collaboration,” Brickman told the Writers Guild. “I don’t think there really is such a thing as an equal partnership. I think that in any collaboration one person, one personality and one point of view should dominate.”
Brickman wrote and directed the 1980 film “Simon,” starring Arkin as a psychology professor brainwashed into believing he came from outer space. He also directed 1983’s “Lovesick,” starring Alec Guinness as the ghost of Sigmund Freud, and 1986’s “The Manhattan Project,” about a high school student who builds a nuclear weapon for a school project.
While Rick Elice wrote the music, Brickman wrote the Broadway musical “Jersey Boys,” about the 1960s rock group The Four Seasons. The film ran on Broadway for twelve years from 2005. He and Elice also wrote the 2010 musical “The Addams Family.”
Brickman is survived by his wife Nina, daughters Sophie and Jessica, and five grandchildren.