Biography

Jack Rollins and his longtime business partner, Charles Joffe, who died in 2008, liked to find young talent to nurture. "Rollins," Joan Rivers told the Tribune in 1986, "could take a grain of sand and make it into an industry." That was never more true than with Woody Allen, who came to Jack Rollins' Manhattan office in the late 1950s because he wanted to write for Nichols and May, the hip comedy act of the era. That wouldn't work out because the duo created their own material, but Jack Rollins and Charles Joffe saw something in the young TV writer. "He'd be dead serious when he read a sketch of his, but it hit us funny," Rollins told the New York Times in 1985. "Woody didn't know why we were laughing. He'd give a 'what's so funny?' look." Jack Rollins and Charles Joffe encouraged the deadpan Allen to do stand-up. Painful at first, "The first 18 months as a stand-up comedian were horrendous,' Rollins said in the 1986 Tribune interview. "Woody was the worst comedian you can possibly imagine -- zero grace as a performer." Finally the tide turned. "Woody got a smile, then a laugh, and then a cult." Woody Allen never forgot the manager who stuck by him. Allen continued to list Rollins as a producer on his films -- including "Irrational Man," -- long after the manger retired. "Jack Rollins had not been involved with his films for many years," Robert Weide, director of the 2012 film "Woody Allen: A Documentary," said in an interview, "I'm not sure if they even talked much." Weide asked Allen why he continued to give Rollins the credit. "Because without Jack," Allen replied, "I wouldn't have a career. Rollins was one of the very few people in my life who lived up to the hype about him. All the stories about how great Jack Rollins was are true".

Co-produced nearly all of Woody Allen films ever since 1969, except Love and Death (1975).

He was a producer and talent manager whose clients included Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Lenny Bruce, and the comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May.

He was drafted into the Army during WWII. He spent most of the war in India, decoding communications. One of his commanding officers was movie star Melvyn Douglas, who staged shows for troops in the China-Burma-India theater. He helped Rollins with contacts to get started as a producer after the war.

His father, a blacksmith from Kyiv, became a garment worker in New York.