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Woody Allen b. 1935

Born Allen Stewart Konigsberg, Woody Allen is the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Germany. A lifelong resident of New York, Allen wrote scripts for The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, and Sid Caesar's Caesar's Hour by the age of seventeen. A hit as a stand-up comic, he became a successful Broadway playwright in the 1960s but today is most famously known as a prolific screenwriter and film director, often acting in his own movies or creating characters many believe represent Allen himself. His romantic comedy Annie Hall won four Academy Awards in 1977, and many of his movies incorporate Jewish themes and neuroses, though this is seldom acknowledged by Allen.