Marshall Brickman

Marshall Jacob Brickman (August 25, 1939 – November 29, 2024) was an American screenwriter and director, best known for his collaborations with Woody Allen, with whom he shared the 1977 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for ''Annie Hall''. He was previously the head writer for Johnny Carson, writing scripts for recurring characters such as Carnac the Magnificent. He is also known for playing the mandolin and banjo with Eric Weissberg in the 1960s, and for a series of comical parodies published in ''The New Yorker''.

Background

Marshall Jacob Brickman was born on August 25, 1939, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to American parents Pauline (née Wolin) and Abram Brickman. His parents were Jewish. His father immigrated from Poland. The family returned to the United States in 1943, and Brickman grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Brickman was a 1956 graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School, where he was an honor roll student and a participant in WNYE. After attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he studied science and music and briefly aspired to be a doctor, he became a member of folk act the Tarriers in 1962, recruited by former classmate Eric Weissberg. A banjo album that he and Weissberg recorded around this time was later re-licensed as the bulk of the soundtrack to the 1972 film ''Deliverance''. Following the disbanding of the Tarriers in 1965, Brickman joined the New Journeymen with John Phillips and Michelle Phillips, who later had success with the Mamas & the Papas.

Career

Brickman left the New Journeymen to pursue a career as a writer, initially writing for television in the 1960s, including '' Candid Camera'', '' The Tonight Show'', and '' The Dick Cavett Show''. It was during this time that he met Allen, with whom he would collaborate on three completed film screenplays during the 1970s: '' Sleeper'' (1973), ''Annie Hall'' (1977, which won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar), and ''Manhattan'' (1979). In 2015, members of the Writers Guild of America voted ''Annie Hall'' as the funniest screenplay ever written.

Brickman directed several of his own scripts in the 1980s, including '' Simon'', '' Lovesick'', and '' The Manhattan Project'', as well as '' Sister Mary Explains It All'', a TV adaptation of the play by Christopher Durang. His script with Allen for '' Manhattan Murder Mystery'' (1993) had been put aside some years earlier when the project was later revived.

With partner Rick Elice, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical '' Jersey Boys'', about 1960s rock 'n' roll group The Four Seasons. The two collaborated again in 2009 to write the book for the musical '' The Addams Family''.

Brickman's "Who's Who in the Cast," a parody of a ''Playbill'' cast list, was published in the July 26, 1976, issue of ''The New Yorker'', and drew so much attention that it was republished in the special theatre issue of May 31, 1993. His other pieces for ''The New Yorker'' include "The Recipes of Chairman Mao" (August 27, 1973) and "The New York Review of Gossip" (May 19, 1975).

Personal life and death

In 1973, Brickman married Nina Feinberg, with whom he had two daughters. He had previously been married to Michelle Phillips' sister, Russell Ann Gilliam. He died in Manhattan on November 29, 2024, at the age of 85.

Filmography

Theatre

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brickman, Marshall
1939 births
2024 deaths
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American screenwriters
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American screenwriters
American country banjoists
American male screenwriters
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners
Best Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
Film directors from New York City
Hugo Award–winning writers
Jewish American screenwriters
People from Flatbush, Brooklyn
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Manhattan
20th-century American folk musicians
People from Rio de Janeiro (city)