Marshall Brickman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter whose extensive career included some of Woody Allen’s greatest films, the Broadway musical Jersey Boys and many of Johnny Carson’s best-loved sketches, has died. He was 85 years old.

Brickman died Friday in Manhattan, his daughter Sophie Brickman told The New York Times. No cause of death was given.

Brickman was known for his extensive collaborations with Allen, beginning with the 1973 film Sleeper. Together, they co-wrote Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). Annie Hall’s loosely structured script in particular has been recognized as one of the wittiest comedies. It won Brickman and Allen the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

In his acceptance speech (Allen skipped the ceremony), Brickman referenced one of the film’s oft-quoted lines: “I’ve been out here a week, and when I turn right at the red light “I still feel guilty.”

Brickman told Vanity Fair in 2017, “If the film is worth anything, it gives a very specific image of what it was like to survive in New York at that time, in that particular socio-economic stratum.”

Brickman and Allen met in the early 1960s, when Allen was emerging as a stand-up comedian. Brickman was brought in to write jokes for them. At the time, he was playing banjo for the folk group Tarrier. In one of many turning points in Brickman’s career, this was an album he recorded with his college roommate Eric Weisberg, who later created the soundtrack for 1972’s “Deliverance”, which also included “Dueling Banjos”.

Brickman was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the son of Jewish socialists Abram (who had fled Poland during World War II) and Pauline (Wolin) Brickman, who was from New York. They later moved to the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, where Brickman grew up. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in science and music, he got his start in show business with the Terriers. He replaced Alan Arkin in the group.

Brickman told the Writers Guild in 2011, “One of the reasons I was asked to join was that they needed someone to be at the front of the group and talk while everyone was ready.” He.”

By the late ’60s, Brickman was the head writer for Carson’s “The Tonight Show.” There, one of his most enduring contributions were the Carnac the Magnificent sketches, during which Carson played “a mystic of the East” who could give divine answers to unseen questions. Brickman’s other TV appearances include “Candid Camera,” “The Dick Cavett Show” and “The Muppet Show.”

When Brickman and Allen began writing together, they found a natural chemistry, with Brickman playing a supporting role in Allen’s semi-autobiographical material.

“We didn’t write scenes together. “I think this is the death of any collaboration,” Brickman told the Writers Guild. “I don’t think there’s really any such thing as equal collaboration. I believe that any collaboration should be dominated by one person, one personality, one vision.”

Brickman wrote and directed the 1980 film Simon, in which Arkin played a psychology professor who comes to believe he is from outer space. He also directed Lovesick, starring the ghost of Sigmund Freud, in 1983 with Alec Guinness, and The Manhattan Project in 1986, about a high school student who creates a nuclear weapon for a school project.

With Rick Ellis writing the music, Brickman wrote the Broadway musical “Jersey Boys” about the 1960s rock group The Four Seasons. It ran on Broadway for 12 years, beginning in 2005. He and Ellis also wrote the 2010 musical “The Addams Family.”

Brickman is survived by his wife Nina, daughters Sophie and Jessica, and five grandchildren.