Tony Roberts, who appeared in Woody Allen films including “Annie Hall” while enjoying a long, bountiful career on Broadway, died Friday due to complications of lung cancer. He was 85 years old.
Roberts’ death was confirmed to The New York Times by his daughter, Nicole Burley.
Roberts appeared in six film directed by Woody Allen: “Play It Again, Sam” (1972), “Annie Hall” (1977), “Stardust Memories” (1980), “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy” (1982), “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986) and “Radio Days” (1987).
The actor had a long career on Broadway in which he was twice Tony-nominated: for best actor in a musical in 1968 for “How Now, Dow Jones” and for featured actor in a play in 1969 for Woody Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam.” (He repeated the role of Dick Christie in the Herbert Ross-directed feature adaptation of “Play It Again, Sam” in 1972.)
Roberts had most recently appeared in the 2017 television film adaptation of “Dirty Dancing.” He had most also appeared on television in a 2010 episode of “Law & Order” in which he played a U.S. senator. (In 1998, Roberts and Jill Clayburgh appeared on an episode to play divorce attorneys whose rivalry becomes so hostile that the Clayburgh character resorts to murder.)
The actor had most recently appeared on Broadway in a 2009 revival of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s 1920s piece “The Royal Family,” about a Broadway acting dynasty whose business manager Roberts portrayed. The New York Times said: “Mr. Roberts, a confident veteran of stage and film, gave a likable, restrained performance.”
He had appeared about a year earlier in “Xanadu,” Douglas Carter Beane’s cleverly meta adaptation of the cheesy 1980 film starring Olivia Newton John and Gene Kelly, which ran for 512 performances from July 2007 to September 2008. Roberts played the Kelly part of Danny McGuire but also (Beane’s addition) the Greek god Zeus, who declares: “The muses are in retreat. Creativity shall remain stymied for decades. The theater? They’ll just take some stinkeroo movie or some songwriter’s catalog, throw it onstage and call it a show.” The Times’ Charles Isherwoood said: “Mr. Roberts possesses a polished deadpan style.”
Other highlights of his Broadway career include Woody Allen play “Don’t Drink the Water”; musical comedy “Sugar,” an adaptation of Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot”; Alan Ayckbourn’s “Absurd Person Singular”; “Victor/Victoria”; and “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.”
Of “Victor/Victoria” the New York Times said: “Yet Ms. Andrews is not alone on the stage. She’s surrounded by a first-rate cast. Tony Roberts, Woody Allen’s long-time straight man, plays Cornell Todd, called Toddy, the self-styled ‘aging queen’ who has the inspiration to transform the waiflike Victoria into Victor, a cabaret performer described as ‘the rage of Poland.’ It’s not easy stepping into the role that proved to be the brilliant climax of Robert Preston’s screen career. Mr. Roberts won’t make you forget Preston, but he’s good and he’s game.”
Whether he was starring from the get-go or coming in as a replacement, Roberts almost always appeared on Broadway in successful, high-profile productions.
Over the course of his six-film run in Woody Allen films, he usually played the Allen character’s best friend, as in “Play It Again, Sam” (in which Humphrey Bogart appears in order to give advice to the Bogart-obsessed Allen character), “Annie Hall” and “Stardust Memories.” In Allen’s farce “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982), Allen played a wacky inventor and Roberts a doctor who sees nothing wrong with sleeping with his patients. In “Hannah and Her Sisters,” Roberts went uncredited as Norman, the ex-partner of Allen’s Mickey. In the nostalgic “Radio Days,” which included reenactments of old radio shows being performed, Roberts played the host of a game show called “Silver Dollar.”
David Anthony Roberts was born in New York City, the son of radio and television announcer Ken Roberts and one of the founding members of AFTRA. He graduated from the High School of Music and Arts (which merged with the High School of Performing Arts to become LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center); there he studied theater and acting with Alvina Krause. He attended Northwestern University.
Roberts made his Broadway debut as a replacement in Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron’s original hit comedy “Take Her, She’s Mine,” starring Art Carney, in the early ’60s.
After the brief-running “Something About a Soldier” (in which, as in many of early films, he was credited as Anthony Roberts) and Saul Bellow’s “The Last Analysis,” the actor replaced Robert Reed, who had replaced Robert Redford, in the role of Paul in Neil Simon’s hit comedy “Barefoot in the Park” in 1965 (the show ran from 1963-67). Decades later, in 2006, the actor appeared in a revival of “Barefoot in the Park” as the neighbor.
He secured his first starring role in Woody Allen’s “Don’t Drink the Water” despite apparently failing to impress Allen in no fewer than four auditions. It was a lucky break — the show ran for 598 performances from 1966-68.
Roberts next appeared in the successful “How Now, Dow Jones,” for which he received his first Tony nomination, then appeared onstage with Allen for the only time in Allen’s comedy “Play It Again, Sam,” earning his second Tony nomination. It was during this period, when they were appearing onstage together, that the long-standing friendship between Allen and Roberts began.
After that show ended its run in 1970, Roberts served as a replacement in a far bigger hit, “Promises, Promises,” a musical based on Billy Wilder’s classic film “The Apartment.” He starred with Robert Morse and Elaine Joyce in original musical comedy “Sugar,” based on Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot”; it ran for 505 performances in 1972-73. He starred with Richard Kiley and Geraldine Page in another success, Alan Ayckbourn’s play “Absurd Person Singular,” which ran from 1974-76. He was a replacement in Neil Simon’s hit musical “They’re Playing Our Song.” He starred with John Cullum, Ron Leibman and Austin Pendleton in David Wiltse’s original play “Doubles” in 1985-86.
In a revival of “Arsenic and Old Lace” in 1986-87, Roberts starred as Mortimer, the New York drama critic with the homicidal aunts who was played by Cary Grant in Frank Capra’s 1944 film adaptation.
Stepping Off Broadway for a spell, Roberts played a “delightful” Luther Billis (in the words of the New York Times) in New York City Opera’s 1987 production of “South Pacific,” which featured both opera singers and Broadway stars.
Roberts was a replacement in the very successful original musical revue “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” appeared in revival of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” along with Laura Linney and Ethan Hawke in 1992-93 and served as a replacement for star Robert Klein in Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosensweig.”
Roberts starred in the adaptation of “Victor Victoria” in which Julie Andrew reprised her starring role from the film, Roberts starred as Carroll Todd, Victoria’s mentor and the architect of her gender-bending transformation. The hit show ran for 734 performances from 1995-97.
He starred with Linda Lavin and Michelle Lee in Charles Busch’s original comedy “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife,” which ran for 777 performances from 2000-2002.
He was a replacement as Herr Schultz in the hugely successful revival of “Cabaret,” starting in the show in September 2003.
Roberts made his film debut in Disney comedy “The Million Dollar Duck” (1971), then starred opposite Sandy Duncan in “Star-Spangled Girl,” a 1971 comedy based on a relatively obscure Neil Simon play. He had a supporting role in “Serpico,” appeared in classic thriller “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” (1974) as the deputy mayor and in Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s screwball comedy “Le Sauvage” (1975), starring Catherine Deneuve and Yves Montand; had a supporting role in Sidney Lumet’s romantic comedy “Just Tell Me What You Want” (1980) starring Ali MacGraw and Alan King; and Blake Edwards’ 1991 fantasy-comedy “Switch,” starring Ellen Barkin and Jimmy Smits.
Roberts tried series regular television with the 1977 legal drama “Rosetti and Ryan,” in which he starred with Squire Friddell, but the NBC show lasted only seven episodes, and tried again with “The Four Seasons” (1984), an adaptation of the film written and directed by Alan Alda, but the CBS show also had only a brief run. He was also a series regular on CBS’ brief “The Lucie Arnaz Show” (1985) and ABC sitcom “The Thorns” (1988).
Roberts served on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity Association. He was president of Theatre Authority, an organization established by the entertainment unions to oversee benefit performances.
In 2016, Roberts’ memoir “Do You Know Me?” was published. The title was an allusion to the fact that despite his presence in the films of Woody Allen on Broadway and on TV, strangers would come up to the actor uncertain of why they recognized him.
Roberts was married to Jennifer Lyons from 1969 until their divorce in 1975. He is survived by his daughter, Nicole.
