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Tony Roberts, a versatile, Tony Award-nominated theatre performer at home in both plays and musicals and who appeared in several Woody Allen movies – often as Allen’s best friend – has died. He was 85. Roberts’ death was announced to the New York Times by his daughter, Nicole Burley.
Roberts had a genial stage personality perfect for musical comedy and he originated roles in such diverse Broadway musicals as How Now, Dow Jones (1967); Sugar (1972), an adaptation of the movie Some Like It Hot; and Victor/Victoria (1995), in which he co-starred with Julie Andrews when she returned to Broadway in the stage version of her popular film. He also appeared in campy roller-disco Xanadu in 2007 and The Royal Family in 2009.
“I’ve never been particularly lucky at card games. I’ve never hit a jackpot. But I have been extremely lucky in life,” he wrote in his memoir, Do You Know Me? “Unlike many of my pals, who didn’t know what they wanted to become when they grew up, I knew I wanted to be an actor before I got to high school.”
Roberts appeared on Broadway in Woody Allen’s 1966 comedy Don’t Drink the Water, repeating his role in the film version, and in Allen‘s Play It Again, Sam (1969), for which he also appeared in the movie. Other Allen films in which Roberts appeared were Annie Hall (1977), Stardust Memories (1980), A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Radio Days (1987).
Roberts first met Allen backstage when he was starring in Barefoot in the Park, having replaced Robert Redford. Roberts had unsuccessfully auditioned four times for Allen’s first Broadway play, Don’t Drink the Water. Seeing Roberts perform in Barefoot in the Park convinced Allen that Roberts was worth casting. According to his memoir, Allen told him, “You were great. How come you’re such a lousy auditioner?”
“Roberts’ confident onscreen presence – not to mention his tall frame, broad shoulders and brown curly mane – was the perfect foil for Allen’s various neurotic characters, making them more funny and enjoyable to watch,” the Jewish Daily Forward wrote in 2016.
In Eric Lax’s book Woody Allen: A Biography, Roberts recalled a complicated scene in A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy that Allen shot over and over – even after the film had been edited – to get his intended effect. “When you go back to see [Allen‘s work] two, three, four times, you begin to see the amazing amount of art in it, that nothing is accidental,” Roberts said.
Among his other movies were Serpico (1973) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). He was nominated twice for a Tony Award — for How Now, Dow Jones and Play It Again, Sam, when he was billed as Anthony Roberts.
One of Roberts’ biggest Broadway successes was Charles Busch’s hit comedy The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (2000), in which he played the title character’s husband.
Roberts made his Broadway debut in 1962 in the short-lived Something About a Soldier, and was a replacement in some of its longest-running hits including Barefoot in the Park, Promises, Promises, They’re Playing Our Song, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, The Sisters Rosensweig and the 1998 Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Cabaret.
“I was lucky enough to get in on the last years of the Golden Age of Broadway. In that era there was a lot more going on that seemed to have high quality about it and great conviction,” he told Broadway World in 2015.
In London, he starred with Betty Buckley in the West End production of Promises, Promises, playing the Jack Lemmon role in this stage version of The Apartment.
Roberts’ television credits include the short-lived series The Four Seasons (1984) and The Lucie Arnaz Show (1985) as well as guest spots on such well-known shows as Murder, She Wrote and Law & Order.
Roberts was born in New York on 22 October 1939, the son of radio and television announcer Ken Roberts. “I was raised in the middle of a lot of actor talk,” he told the AP in 1985. “My cousin was Everett Sloane, who was a very fine actor. My father’s friends were mostly actors. I’m sure that in some way I needed to prove myself in their eyes.”
He attended the High School of Music and Art in New York and graduated from Northwestern University in Illinois. His marriage to Jennifer Lyons ended in divorce. He is survived by his daughter, actor Nicole Burley.
