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Ira Levin

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Born: August 26 1929

Died: 1111 11 20072007

Levin graduated from the Horace Mann School and New York University, where he majored in philosophy and English.

After college, he wrote training films and scripts for television.

Levin's first produced play was No Time for Sergeants , a comedy about a hillbilly drafted into the United States Air Force that launched the career of Andy Griffith. The play was turned into a movie in 1958, and co-starred Don Knotts, Griffith's long-time co-star and friend. No Time for Sergeants is generally considered the precursor to Gomer Pyle, USMC.

Levin's first novel, A Kiss Before Dying, was well received, earning him the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. A Kiss Before Dying was turned into a movie twice, first in 1956, and again in 1991.

Levin's best known play is Deathtrap, which holds the record as the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway and brought Levin his second Edgar Award. In 1982, it was made into a film starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine.

Levin's best known novel is Rosemary's Baby, a horror story of modern day satanism and the occult, set in Manhattan's Upper West Side. It was made into a film starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes. Ruth Gordon won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance. Roman Polanski, who wrote and directed the film, was nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

Other Levin novels were turned into movies, including The Boys from Brazil in 1978; The Stepford Wives in 1975 and again in 2004; and Sliver in 1993.

Stephen King has described Ira Levin as "the Swiss watchmaker of suspense novels, he makes what the rest of us do look like cheap watchmakers in drugstores." Chuck Palahniuk, in , calls Levin's writing "a smart, updated version of the kind of folksy legends that cultures have always used."

Ira Levin died from a heart attack at his home in Manhattan, on 12 November 2007. He was seventy-eight at the time of his death.

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Ira Levin

Ira Levin

Books from Ira Levin

The Stepford Wives

This Perfect Day

Son of Rosemary

Sliver

Deathtrap

Rosemary's Baby

A Kiss Before Dying

The Boys from Brazil

Veronica's Room

Great Horror Film Stories, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, Salem's Lot

The Picador Book Of Crime Writing

The Boys from Brazil (Level 4 Reader)

Reader's Digest Condensed Books; 1973 #1, Volume 92: The Stepford Wives / The Odessa File / A Day No Pigs Would Die / Stanfield Harvest / P.S. Your Not Listening

Three By Ira Levin: Rosemary's Baby / This Perfect Day / The Stepford Wives

No Time for Sergeants and Other Plays (Scope Play Series)

Привидение. Попутчик. Ребенок Розмари

Bädda för död / Rosemarys baby / Fruarna i Stepford

Reader's Digest Condensed Books; 1976 #3, Volume 109: Liberty Tavern / The Pilot / Touch Not the Cat / The Boys from Brazil

miNatura 87

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