Joffe's prowess as a negotiator helped Allen gain total artistic control over his movies. Joffe died Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was 78.
Joffe and his business partner, Jack Rollins, were considered the deans of comedy management, who nurtured many young comics through their small New York City agency. According to Allen biographer Eric Lax, Rollins and Joffe were the first to bring Lenny Bruce to New York and helped develop the team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May.
They signed Allen when he was writing comedy sketches for others and nudged him into the spotlight to perform his own material, helping him find success as a stand-up comic before he broke into films. It was Joffe who brokered Allen's first movie deal, to write and play a part in the 1965 box-office hit “What's New Pussycat?" He began producing Allen's films in 1969 with “Take the Money and Run," the first movie Allen wrote and directed.
