Jack Rollins

Known primarily as a producer on nearly all the films directed by Woody Allen, Jack Rollins was also a talent manager with several famous comedians as clients. Additionally, he veered into TV as a talk show producer. Rollins's most famous work was as one of Allen's producers, and he helped the auteur throughout his cinematic career. This collaboration started early, with Allen's 1969 directing debut, "Take the Money and Run," a wild comedy about an inept criminal (played by the director, of course). Among the many other films the two combined to make were a pair of Academy Award winners--the sprawling comic romance "Annie Hall" (1977) and the more dramatic family saga "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986). Rollins also helped produce Allen's diversions into serious drama with films like 1978's "Interiors." For the most part, however, Rollins was a comedy man. As a manager, he had big-name clients like talk show host Dick Cavett and standup comic/actor Robert Klein. Rollins also put in time in the TV world as an executive producer in the early years of the durable and popular talk/comedy show "Late Night With David Letterman" (1983). During Rollins's tenure on the series it garnered a string of Emmy nominations, although it didn't win any of the awards.