Tony Roberts, Broadway Star & Woody Allen Trouper, Dies at 85

Tony Roberts, who appeared in six Woody Allen films and who acted on Broadway more than two dozen times between 1961 and 2009, died Friday at 85.

The cause was lung cancer, his daughter Nicole Burley confirmed to The New York Times.

Born October 22, 1939, Roberts, a native New Yorker, debuted on Broadway in "Take Her, She's Mine" in 1961. He replaced Robert Redford in the original production of "Barefoot in the Park" 1963), also appearing in "Don't Drink the Water" (1966), "Promises, Promies" (1968), "Play It Again, Sam" (1969), "Sugar" (1972), "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1986), "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" (1989), "The Sisters Rosensweig" (1993), "Victor/Victoria" (1995), "Cabaret" (1998), and "Xanadu" (2007), among others, earning two Tony nominations along the way.

Off-Broadway, he acted in a revival of "Morning's at Seven" in 2021.

As busy as he was on the stage, the actor was successful on TV's "The Edge of Night" (1965-1966) and played characters who were usually Woody Allen's best buddies in the films "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).

Outside his work with Allen, he acted in "The Million Dollar Duck" (1971), "Serpico" (1973), "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974), "Just Tell Me What You Want" (1980), "Amityville 3-D" (1983), and "Switch" (1991).

More recently, he gave his final TV performance in the remake of "Dirty Dancing" in 2017.

Roberts published a memoir, "Do You Know Me?", in 2015, self-publishing it after refusing to give major publishers any dish on Allen's personal life.

He is survived by his daughter.