Tony Roberts, Two-Time Tony Nominee and Sidekick in Woody Allen Movies, Dies at 85

Tony Roberts, a two-time Tony-nominated actor widely known for roles in Annie Hall and other Woody Allen films, died on February 7. The cause was complications of lung cancer, his daughter Nicole Burley said. Roberts was 85.

Born in Manhattan in 1939, Roberts attended the High School of Music & Art and Northwestern University. He made his Broadway debut in 1962 in Something About a Soldier, a role he followed up by replacing Robert Redford in Barefoot in the Park (1963).

In a Broadway career spanning nearly five decades, he starred in such diverse productions as Woody Allen’s Don’t Drink the Water (1966) and Play It Again, Sam (1969), Promises, Promises (arriving in 1970), Sugar (1972), Absurd Person Singular (1974), The Seagull (1992), Victor/Victoria (1995), Cabaret (1998), a revival of Barefoot in the Park (2006) and Xanadu (2007).

He earned Tony nominations for the musical comedy How Now, Dow Jones (1968) and Play It Again, Sam (1969), reprising the latter role in Allen’s movie version.

Roberts went on to star in several more of Allen’s films, mostly cast as a sidekick to Allen’s characters: Annie Hall, Stardust Memories, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, Hannah and Her Sisters and Radio Days. Beyond Roberts’ work with Allen, he starred in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Serpico and Amityville 3.D.

His last Broadway role was in The Royal Family (2009), while his last theatrically-released feature film role was in 2014’s The Longest Week.