What is the best acting role of Woody Allen?

For decades Allen played neurotic, philosophical, romantically hapless New Yorkers — yet each film found a fresh angle on the eternal intellectual in crisis. Which version of Woody is the definitive one?

Alvy Singer (Annie Hall)

A neurotic New York stand-up comedian reflecting on love and loss in the Oscar-winning Annie Hall (1977).

1/14

Isaac Davis (Manhattan)

A twice-divorced TV writer navigating romance and moral compromise in 1970s New York in Manhattan (1979).

2/14

Leonard Zelig (Zelig)

A human chameleon who transforms to match whoever surrounds him in the mock-documentary Zelig (1983).

3/14

Miles Monroe (Sleeper)

A health food store owner awakened 200 years in the future in the sci-fi comedy Sleeper (1973).

4/14

Allan Felix (Play It Again, Sam)

A neurotic film critic guided by the ghost of Humphrey Bogart in Play It Again, Sam (1972).

5/14

Boris Grushenko (Love and Death)

A reluctant 19th-century Russian coward swept up in Napoleonic war in Love and Death (1975).

6/14

Sandy Bates (Stardust Memories)

A celebrated filmmaker plagued by adoring fans and existential dread in Stardust Memories (1980).

7/14

Fielding Mellish (Bananas)

A hapless New Yorker who accidentally becomes a South American revolutionary leader in Bananas (1971).

8/14

Virgil Starkwell (Take the Money and Run)

An inept, lifelong criminal whose hapless career is documented in Take the Money and Run (1969).

9/14

Danny Rose (Broadway Danny Rose)

A small-time theatrical manager fiercely loyal to his struggling clients in Broadway Danny Rose (1984).

10/14

Cliff Stern (Crimes and Misdemeanors)

A documentary filmmaker in a loveless marriage confronting moral ambiguity in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

11/14

Howard Prince (The Front)

A cashier who becomes a front for blacklisted screenwriters during McCarthyism in The Front (1976).

12/14

Sid Waterman (Scoop)

A bumbling magician helping a journalism student investigate a serial killer in Scoop (2006).

13/14

Ray Winkler (Small Time Crooks)

An ex-con who plots a cookie shop front to tunnel into a bank vault in Small Time Crooks (2000).

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