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Quick Facts
- NAME: Ira Levin
- OCCUPATION: Author, Playwright
- BIRTH DATE: August 27, 1929
- DEATH DATE: November 12, 2007
- EDUCATION: Drake University, New York University
- PLACE OF BIRTH: New York, New York
- PLACE OF DEATH: New York
- Full Name: Ira Marvin Levin
Best Known For
Author Ira Levin wrote some of the gripping novels of the 1960s and 1970s, including Rosemary's Baby and The Boys from Brazil.
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Ira Levin - The Horror of Life
Ira Levin was the master of bringing horror into our everyday lives with novels such as "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Boys from Brazil." Click "buy Now" to learn more about books by Ira Levin. Video courtesy of Open Road Media.
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Play NowIra Marvin Levin. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 11:54, May 24, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/ira-levin-20703551.
Ira Marvin Levin. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/ira-levin-20703551 [Accessed 24 May 2013].
"Ira Marvin Levin." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 24 2013, 11:54 http://www.biography.com/people/ira-levin-20703551.
"Ira Marvin Levin," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/ira-levin-20703551 [accessed May 24, 2013].
"Ira Marvin Levin," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/ira-levin-20703551 (accessed May 24, 2013).
Ira Marvin Levin [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 24] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/ira-levin-20703551.
Ira Marvin Levin, http://www.biography.com/people/ira-levin-20703551 (last visited May 24, 2013).
Ira Marvin Levin. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/ira-levin-20703551. Accessed May 24, 2013.
The success of Rosemary's Baby triggered a wave of satanic-themed horror movies. The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976) also enjoyed great popularity with moviegoers. Levin, however, sought out other genres.
Contents
1970s Novels and Plays
Levin continued to thrive as a novelist with such best-selling works as The Stepford Wives (1972) and The Boys from Brazil (1976). In The Stepford Wives, he explored a disturbing suburban town where wives have been replaced by androids. Again working with fantasy, Levin imagined that Dr. Josef Mengele, a Nazi who experimented on concentration camp victims, tries to bring the Third Reich back to power in The Boys from Brazil. The book explores the way-ahead-of-its-time issue of cloning.
Both novels ignited the imagination of Hollywood. Katharine Ross starred as a new arrival to the town of Stepford in The Stepford Wives (1975), a role later played by Nicole Kidman in the 2004 remake. A Nazi hunter played by Laurence Olivier tries to foil Dr. Mengele's (Gregory Peck) plot in the 1978 film version of The Boys from Brazil.
That same year, Levin experienced his greatest theatrical triumph. The comedic mystery Deathtrap opened on Broadway, and it became a smash hit. Levin successfully fused humor and clever plot twists in this tale about a washed-up writer who plans to kill another for his play. Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve starred in the 1982 film.
Later Years
Never a prolific writer, Levin wrote only two more novels during his lifetime. Sliver (1991) told the story of a woman being watched by the owner of her high-tech apartment building, and was later turned into a movie starring Sharon Stone. In 1998, Levin tried to capitalize on his earlier success with Son of Rosemary: The Sequel to Rosemary's Baby, but it didn't capture readers' interest as much as the original.
Levin died at the age of 78 of a heart attack on November 12, 2007, in his New York City apartment. Even after his death, his books have remained popular. In 2010 Corsair Publishing reissued several of his novels in paperback, including Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives.
Personal Life
Levin had three sons, Adam, Jared and Nicholas, during his first marriage, to Gabrielle Aronsohn. After that union ended, Levin married Phyllis Finkel; they later divorced.
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