Ira Levin was born August 27, 1929 in the Bronx. When he was thirteen his family moved to the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The style and flavor of New York radiates through much of his work. Just as Damon Runyon gave us an insider's view of the wise guys and gamblers that populated Broadway, Ira Levin introduces us to the actors, the playwrights, the people who make Broadway tick.

His father, Charles Levin, was a toy importer and very successful in his field. Ira had a sister, Ellie, but he was the only boy. Naturally, his father wanted Ira to follow in his footsteps and take over the toy business when the time was right. Ira respected his father, but his dreams for the future were of other things. He was a solitary child, preferring to spend his time indoors, and preferring academic endeavors to socializing.

According to an interview that Alfredo Gillespie did for People Magazine, at age twelve Ira became interested in magic and was fascinated by the magicians that frequented Tannen's Magic Shop in Times Square. Considering that an important element in magic is to keep the audience in the dark about what's really taking place so that they will be dazzled by the result; it is likely that the foundations of Levin's skill as a master of mystery and suspense were laid at this early age, as he learned the joy of concealing reality behind illusion. There is always the feeling, while one is reading an Ira Levin story, that a sorcerer of highest rank is practicing slight-of-hand.

It was also at about this time that Charles and Beatrice Levin took their son to see his first play, Charlie's Aunt. He quickly developed a love for the theater. One might say that at this young age the course for the rest of Levin's life was already written in the stars.

The young Ira liked detective stories and began to acquire a collection of mystery books. He also became fond of anagrams. Anagrams would later play major roles in Rosemary's Baby and Son of Rosemary.

The transposition of letters for some reason has always played a part in the horror genre. In Son of Dracula, Lon Chaney Jr. plays Count Alucard (Dracula spelled backwards). In The Gold Bug, Edgar Allan Poe shows us the basics of cryptology as his characters search for the buried treasure of Captain Kidd. Levin continues the tradition.

In the 1991 Current Biography Yearbook, Levin is quoted as saying that he considered being a writer from the time he was fourteen or fifteen years old. "Before that I wanted to be a magazine illustrator - I probably would have painted Gothic scenes."

At his Bar Mitzvah, when he was thirteen, the cantor was Richard Tucker, who later became the tenor of the Metropolitan Opera. Levin is quoted as saying he was not from a religious family. His work would indicate that he's obviously given sufficient enough thought to the matter to realize that the superstitious aspects of religion have little to do with the true nature of the universe. A devil with horns and tiger eyes is a good subject for fiction, but if such a powerful and vicious creature truly existed would one really dare to write disparagingly of him?

Ira Levin attended the prestigious Horace Mann School and went on to attend Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, for two years. He then transferred to New York University where he majored in English and Philosophy and received an A.B. When Ira was in his final year at NYU, the CBS television network had a screen play writing contest for college seniors.

Ira's entry was The Old Woman, a half-hour teleplay about a young man and a nurse who conspire to do away with the young man's 103-year-old great grand-aunt. The old lady gets the best of the young whipper-snappers. Levin didn't win the contest, but he got a $200 runner-up prize. Then NBC offered him $400 for the script and turned it into an episode of their Lights Out television show. Ira Levin was on his way to achieving his goal.

Levin told interviewer, Mervyn Rothstein, of the New York Times, "I finally did work out a very good relationship with my father, but it was rough growing up. We had a lot of conflict, and I think it surfaced in many of my works." After Ira graduated he and his father agreed that his dad would subsidize him for two years while he tried to become a professional writer, but, if Ira did not succeed in that time, he would acquiesce to his father's wishes and join him in the toy business.

Ira Levin's magazine and TV credits were growing. Levin wrote Leda's Portrait, The Old Woman, and The Pattern for the television show Lights Out. He did the TV adaptation of Mac Hyman's novel No Time For Sargeants for The United States Steel Hour. He also did The Notebook Warrior for the Steel Hour. His short story, Sylvia, appeared in Manhunt magazine in 1953.

He wrote a delightful story called, The Underground Gourmet for The Ladies Home Journal. It appeared in January of 1954. The story dealt with a lady named Geraldine Willoughby who had won national awards for her delicious devil's food cake. When the devil hears of the lady's culinary acomplishments he decides that he must taste this wonderful cake and he pays her a visit. The story was adapted for TV (by someone else) and appeared on G.E. Theater, which was hosted by Ronald Reagan at the time.

Levin's first novel, A Kiss Before Dying was published in 1953. Kiss' won the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America as the year's best first mystery.

Later in 1953 Levin was drafted into the army. He served with the Signal Corps, but he still managed to work as a writer. He helped write and produce training films for the troops. He was stationed in Queens, NY, and he took advantage of his location to sell more scripts to the TV market. Timing and fate were kind to Ira Levin. Mac Hyman had just scored a big hit with his comic novel, No Time For Sergeants.

The Theater Guild owned the TV rights. So there was the young Ira Levin, in the army, with several successful screen plays already behind him, and somebody had to do the TV adaptation of No Time For Sergeants. Levin was given the job, but it got better yet. Maurice Evans, the owner of the stage rights, had seen Levin's adaptation for TV and he decided that Levin would be the perfect person to write the stage play.

According to F. Paul Driscoll, writing in Opera News of October 1997, Levin found an little-known law, dealing with seasonal workers, that got him released from the service three months early. Basically, it was a law designed to help farmers, so that ma won't have to hitch up the mule and plow the north 40 all by herself, while her sons were away in the service. However, the theater also has seasons and...Well, you get the picture.

No Time For Sergeants ran for 796 performances and Ira Levin, still in his mid-20's, was hailed as the toast of Broadway. But success can be a wayward mistress. Levin's next play, Interlock, starring Maximilian Schell, folded after only four performances. Then came Critic's Choice, starring Henry Fonda. It ran for three months. General Seeger, produced and directed by George C. Scott lasted for 2 performances. Drat! The Cat was Levin's only musical and he worked for 10 years on it. He still loves it dearly and many people who saw the production feel the same way. Unfortunately, it closed after 8 performances. Not only did Levin write the play, he also wrote the lyrics for the music, which were quite good. The song She Touched Me was changed to He Touched Me when Barbra Streisand recorded it and it became a big hit.

On August 20, 1960 Levin married Gabrielle Aronsohn. The had three children; Adam, Jared, and Nicholas. They divorced in January of 1968.

In 1967 Dr. Cook's Garden ran for only 8 performances. Levin had enjoyed as much of Broadway as he could possibly stand, at least for the time being. He turned back to writing novels and what a delightful turn it was!

Ira Levin - Rosemary's Baby

His wife was pregnant at the time. It also happened that Levin had attended a lecture where the speaker had talked about the various stages of life. The concurrence of these two events lead to the creation of Rosemary's Baby. Levin wouldn't let his wife read the book while she was pregnant. This is a wise precaution. I didn't let my daughters read Rosemary's Baby, or my novel,Intercourse With the Dead, while they were pregnant.

Rosemary's Baby sold over 5 million paperback copies in the U.S. alone and its been translated into many languages. At the time I worked in the bookstore, we ordered best sellers in lots of 50 books. Rosemary's Baby, we ordered in lots of 500 at a shot and we had a hard time keeping the shelves filled.

Besides becoming a horror classic, Rosemary's Baby was a milestone of sorts; a kind of turning point in horror fiction. Books and movies dealing with Satan were suddenly in vogue. The Omen and The Exorcist lead the vanguard of the assault. It's Alive, The Stranger Within, and many others soon followed.

People, who formerly had the good sense to realize that witchcraft was just a childish trapping of Halloween now started to worry that Satan and other demons might get them. In an article entitled 'The Art of Darkness', in the Los Angeles Times, Mary Mcnamara quotes Levin as saying that he feels somewhat responsible for the rise in Christian Fundamentalism, but "I didn't send back any of the royalty checks."

Levin's next novel was This Perfect Day. It was not the big hit that Rosemary's Baby was and it met with mixed reviews. But then came The Stepford Wives.

The Stepford Wives was published in 1972. Levin had lived in Wilton, Connecticut for several years, but he says none of the women there were like the Stepford Wives. He wrote the book while going through a divorce. Once again a convergence of events lead to the creation of a novel. Levin had read a popular book called Future Shock and he had become fascinated with its references to domestic robots. He was also fascinated by the animated figures in the Hall of Presidents at Disneyland. One plus one equals beautiful, docile, obedient wives. Peter Filichia, writing for TheaterMania.Com says that Levin told him that in his early drafts of the story it dealt with a man building an artificial woman in his basement. That got 'a little too creepy' and he decided to tell the story from the viewpoint of the woman.

In 1972 the Women's Lib Movement was at its zenith. Every time we turned around we were hearing about what today's women really wanted. In the midst of all this, Ira Levin popped up and, more or less, said, 'OK, now, here's what men want' and it was like the world came to a screeching halt. Feminists were up in arms. How dare men have demands of their own. And to replace American women with robots! Outrageous! Blasphemous!

Feminism was primarily an American phenomena. I recall being in a restaurant in Nogales, Mexico one day and over-hearing the conversation of three young mexican women at a nearby table. They were beautiful; immaculate hair and make-up, dresses, and high heels. They talked about how happy they'd be when they got married, what good wives they'd be, how they'd love their children, and how proud their husbands would be of them.

That same afternoon I was in Nogales, Arizona, at the Burger King that overlooks the border crossing. Three women of hispanic origin were seated there talking. They had a totally different look than the women I'd seen in the morning; No make-up, messy hair, sloppy, baggy clothes, and sandals. The conversation was totally different also. 'I'm never getting married. I'm going to par-r-r-dy.' 'I'm not going to let some man tell me what to do.' 'I don't want no little rug-rats running around my house.' What a difference in culture the border makes.

Levin's book touched a nerve in the American psyche and the events of the time made it very controversial. Controversy of course leads to sales and The Stepford Wives did very well.

The word 'Stepford' entered the common vocabulary, meaning anyone who allowed their role in society to be dictated to them by someone else. The thing that scares me is the 'Stepford Clerks'. I went into a convenience store one day to buy gas and the clerk greeted me with a big false smile, asked me how I was doing today, and was there anything he could help me find? I paid for the gas and returned to my car. Then I remembered I needed a cigarette lighter. When I re-entered the store the clerk greeted me with a big false smile, asked me how I was doing today, and was there anything he could help me find? He was like an automation. He didn't even realize that I'd been there only a minute before. I got my cigarette lighter, returned to my car, but I was intrigued by what had happened. I went in again just to see what would happen. Again we repeated the same ritual. I left wondering if 7-11 had the fellow's soul tucked away in a vault somewhere and it played a part in the creation of Ti Louis, with his little vault filled with souls, in my story, Intercourse With the Dead.

In 1973 Levin tried his luck on Broadway again. Veronica's Room, starring Eileen Heckart and Arthur Kennedy, had a good run of 76 performances. Break a Leg, which starred Julie Harris and ran only one night, but Levin's most triumphant success on Broadway would come later.

Today's headlines are full of stories about cloning but in 1976 it sounded like science fiction. I remember an issue of Esquire that had twenty or so identical and beautiful Brit Ekland's on the cover and a headline that, as best as I can recall it, read, 'Want your own Brit Ekland? Clone one!' I don't know if that was the article that attracted Ira Levin's attention or if it was another one, but he saw an article on cloning that included pictures of Mozart and Hitler. He had also toyed with the idea of doing a story about nazis for years. Levin decided to do a story about cloning Hitler (A good thing considering that, if he had chosen Mozart, we might have ended up with The Boys from the Barber Shop in Seville. Luckily, we got The Boys From Brazil instead.

It was not an entirely new idea. In 1963 Walter Stocker and Audrey Claire starred in a movie called They Saved Hitler's Brain. It was not academy award material. There were people then, and there are people now, who feel that Hitler is too serious a subject to be used for fiction, but Levin handled the task expertly. The asking of how and why a terrible event happened plays a part in preventing the re-occurrence of a similar event, or, at least, we would hope so. The fictional questions that Levin asked in 1976 are the very same questions that we are debating in reality today. 'Boys' sold very well.

In 1978 Levin gave us the play, Deathtrap, and it ran for a record-breaking 1,792 consecutive performances. Deathtrap starred John Wood and the audiences loved it. Once again he had conquered Broadway.

Levin's play,Cantorial, dealt with the ghost of a cantor who plagued a yuppie couple. It ran off-Broadway in 1988.

In 1979 Levin married Phyllis Finkel. They divorced in 1981.

In 1991 Levin gave us his first novel in fifteen years, Sliver. It was a delightfully wicked story of voyeurism and stalking set in a high-rise apartment building. Generally, it was quite well received.

Son of Rosemary did not do as well. Critics were hard on it. Its tough to follow a legend, more so when you, yourself, are that legend. None-the- less, Ira Levin has to be considered the absolute master of modern horror. He has twice won the Edgar Allan Poe award and he has received the Bram Stoker award for lifetime achievement from the Horror Writers Association.

Levin has often been accused of writing novels as though he was thinking ahead to the movie script. He denies this and says that actually he's a playwright at heart. It is actually the stage that is lurking in the background. Frankly, I consider this a virtue.

I recently read a novel where the hero and the villain got into a fist fight. During the malay the two of them fell down a well. Naturally, I wanted to know whether they lived or died, but that information was to be delayed. The author went on for several pages about the history of the well, why the well was built, etc., etc., etc. The one piece of actual drama that occurred in the story was interrupted by a history lesson. That sort of thing doesn't happen in an Ira Levin story. The action is straight- forward and engrossing. He always gives you a good reason to keep turning the pages. Ira Levin's work is fun to read. If that's a fault, I wish certain other authors would acquire the same defect.

Ira Levin died on November 12, 2007 from a heart attack. He will be missed.

Levin's stories have frequently been adapted into movies, or have became the inspiration for movies, some of them good, some of them God-awful. In 1956 Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward, and Jeffrey Hunter starred in A Kiss Before Dying. It was an excellent picture. It was remade in 1991 with Matt Dillon and Sean Young.

In 1971, Dr. Cook's Garden became a very good TV movie starring Bing Crosby, Blythe Danner, and Frank Converse.

The most acclaimed movie based on a Levin story was, of course, Rosemary's Baby in 1968. Produced by shock master, William Castle, and directed by Roman Polanski, it starred Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Maurice Evans, Sidney Blackmer, and Elisha Cook Jr. The movie, in my opinion, wasn't nearly as good as the book. Mia Farrow was very beautiful, very talented, and perfect for the part of Rosemary and Levin dedicated the sequel, Son of Rosemary, to her. But John Cassavetes was far too menacing from the beginning as Guy Woodhouse and the movie seemed to telegraph its punches. In the book Rosemary is an intelligent, reasonable person surrounded by very sneaky, hard-to-detect evil. In the movie the evil seems so over-powering that one can hardly miss it and the shock value that should come when the truth is revealed just isn't as strong.

Ruth Gordon won the academy award for best supporting actress and Roman Polanski was nominated for best adapted screen play. The Dakota Apartment Building filled in for the Bramford in the movie. The Dakota was home to many celebrities, including Mia Farrow, Woody Allen, and of course John Lennon.

There was a sequel, which Levin had nothing to do with, called Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby. At other times it dares to call itself Rosemary's Baby II. It starred Stephen McHattie as Adrian, Patty Duke and George Maharis as Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, and Ruth Gordon and Ray Milland as the Castevets. Tina Louise and Donna Mills were also in the cast. It was generally considered weak and not very faithful to the original.

ABC TV is currently planning to a four hour mini-series based on Rosemary's Baby that combines the original work with the sequel, Son of Rosemary. Barbara Lieberman will be the executive producer.

Levin was not particularly thrilled with the 1975 version of The Stepford Wives. It was directed by Bryan Forbes and starred Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Tina Louise, and Patrick O'Neal.

In 1980 we were given the TV movie, Revenge of the Stepford Wives. It was directed by Robert Fuest and written by David Wiltse. Sharon Gless played a reporter who came to town to do a story about the place with the lowest divorce rate in America. Arthur Hill, Don Johnson, and Julie Kavner also appeared in it.

1987 brought us The Stepford Children. This one was directed Alan J. Levi and written by William Bleich. Here we had Barbara Eden, Don Murray, Tammy Lauren, James Coco, and John Cameron Mitchell.

Wives - Children - What was missing? You guessed it. In 1996 The Stepford Husbands, directed by Fred Walton II, and written by the Wheat brothers, Ken and Jim, made its appearance. Donna Mills, Michael Ontkean, and Cindy Williams starred in it.

And had the little village of Stepford seen the worst that could happen to it? Not by a longshot. In 2004 we saw a remake of the original The Stepford Wives directed by Frank Oz. The screenplay was done by Paul Rudnick. It starred Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close, and Christopher Walken. One critic called this version, 'a lifeless clone'. That's being kind to it. It was absolutely awful.

In 1978 Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier starred in The Boys From Brazil. It was directed by Franklin Schaffner and in my humble opinion it was the best screen adaptation of a Levin novel.

Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, and Dyan Cannon starred in the movie version of Deathtrap in 1982. Sidney Lumet directed.

In 1993 Sharon Stone, William Baldwin, Tom Berenger, Polly Walker, and Martin Landau starred in Sliver. It was directed by Philip Noyce.

On October 12, 2003 the TV Movie, Footsteps, premiered. The movie was based on an unproduced play by Ira Levin. The TV version departed considerably from the original work. Candice Bergen, Bug Hall and Bryan Brown starred in it. John Badham directed.

LEVIN DIRECTORY

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