Tony Roberts, ‘Annie Hall’ Star, dead at 85
American actor Tony Roberts, best known for his roles in six Woody Allen films, including Annie Hall, has passed away at the age of 85.
Roberts, a Tony-award-nominated theatre performer who appeared in a long string of cinematic releases from 1971 to 2017, reportedly died due to complications from lung cancer in his Manhattan home on February 7th, 2025.
The actor’s long and diverse career both on stage and on screen also involved the close association and friendship with writer and director Woody Allen, often playing his sidekick.
Roberts’ role in Annie Hall, a 1977 satirical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Allen, was a notable standout of his career for many fans. He described the film as “the story of everybody who falls in love, and then falls out of love and goes on”.
Born in Manhattan in 1939, Roberts later attended the High School of Music & Art and Northwestern University, and made his Broadway debut in 1962 in Something About A Soldier.
In 2015, the actor published an anecdotal memoir titled Do You Know Me? that spanned his then fifty-something-year career as a performer. In its pages, he wrote: “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.
“I’ve never been particularly lucky at card games. I’ve never hit a jackpot. But I have been extremely lucky in life.”
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