Jack Rollins, Iconic Comedy Producer and Manager (1915-2015)

jack rollins

Jack Rollins, one of the most influential comedy managers and producers of the last half-century, died last night. He was 100 years old.

Rollins, known for partnering with Charles Joffe, ran a small New York agency that developed and honed some of the biggest names in comedy.

He helped develop the team of Mike Nichols & Elaine May, brought Lenny Bruce to New York to establish himself as a comedian, and signed some other clients with talent early in their careers, including Billy Crystal, Dick Cavett, Robert Klein, Robin Williams, and David Letterman. Rollins was executive producer for NBC’s Late Night with David Letterman.

Rollins and Joffe are perhaps best-known for their impact shaping the career of Woody Allen. Allen first visited their offices in the late 1950s, hoping the two would help him boost his career as a television writer. “Well, we just thought he had the potential to be a triple threat, like Orson Welles — writer, director, actor,” Rollins told The New York Times in 1985.

Allen credits Rollins with helping develop both his stand-up act and his on-screen persona. “He pushed me to always be deeper, more complex, more human, more dramatic — and not to rest comfortably,” Allen said to Eric Lax in the book, Woody Allen: A Biography.

Rollins and Joffe produced or executive produced nearly all of Allen’s films over the next 50 years. Rollins was also the model for the titular old-school showbiz manager character in Allen’s film, Broadway Danny Rose.