Tony Roberts made confidence useful in comedy, giving Woody Allen’s anxious characters a friend who seemed capable of getting through the day. We value his calm, companionable supporting work, even when the parts became too familiar.
Fi1m perspective
Tony Roberts’s Rob in Annie Hall (1977) seems comfortable with himself, which gives Allen’s anxious character something to react against. Roberts plays the friend as affable and level-headed, without competing to be the most conspicuous person in the scene. We laughed at the contrast: his composure makes Allen’s self-examination seem more absurd. It is supporting acting we rate highly, because the easy chemistry makes the jokes feel like exchanges between people who know each other.
The partnership took shape on stage in Play It Again, Sam (1969), with Roberts playing Dick Christie, before the film version followed in 1972. His other 1970s screen work put that air of competence to different uses. As Bob Blair in Sidney Lumet’s Serpico (1973) and Warren LaSalle in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), he played men with professional responsibilities. These parts drew on his ability to look as though he knew what he was doing.
In Annie Hall, that steadiness matters because the film sometimes lets another joke interrupt a feeling it ought to stay with. Diane Keaton supplies much of its warmth; Roberts helps keep the comic exchanges companionable, giving Allen someone who does not share his nervousness. We would not make Rob the centre of a film whose romance works so well, but neither would we dismiss him as someone simply feeding the lead his lines. The friendship is convincing enough that Roberts’s apparent ease becomes easy to overlook.
In Stardust Memories (1980), he played a brash actor, a less reassuring use of that confidence. Yet the six-film association with Allen became hard to escape; Roberts discussed being typecast in a 1997 interview. We would have liked more screen roles that asked something different of him; the dependable friend can become predictable casting. For Roberts, start with Annie Hall, and notice how calmly he lets Allen make a fuss.
Biography
Tony Roberts was an American actor known for his work on stage and screen. He made his Broadway debut in 1962 in the play Something About a Soldier and received two Tony Award nominations for his supporting roles in the musical How Now, Dow Jones (1968) and Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam (1969). He studied at Northwestern University.
Roberts appeared in six films directed by Woody Allen, most notably as Rob, the best friend of Allen’s character, in Annie Hall (1977). His other Allen credits include Play It Again, Sam (1972), Stardust Memories (1980), A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Radio Days (1987). He also had roles in films such as Serpico (1973) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974).
Born David Anthony Roberts in Manhattan, New York City, on 22 October 1939, he died there on 7 February 2025.
