Respected Broadway producer of quality plays such as Edward Albee's "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe", "Annie", "I'm Not Rappaport" and "Tru") who entered films in the early 1960s with film adaptations of stage works ("The Connection" 1961, "The Balcony" 1963, "Fortune and Men's Eyes" 1971). Often off-beat, controversial or simply interestingly artistic, Allen's films rarely play it safe, but rather maintain the same high standards found in his theater productions. He produced both film versions of "Lord of the Flies" (1963 and 1990). Since 1955, he has been married to screenwriter-producer Jay Presson Allen whose plays and screenplays he has often produced.