Ira Levin

Nov 19 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

WHEN he was 12, the year before his Bar Mitzvah, the little boy was drawn to Tannen’s Magic Shop on Times Square, New York, where he saw how reality could be hidden behind illusion.

Yes, he thought, that’s the way it works – at the front is the innocent, welcoming smile; behind is the terror.

So he became, in the words of his fellow writer Stephen King, “the Swiss watchmaker of suspense novels”.

That understanding was realised in two great movies adapted from his novels. Under the superb direction of Roman Polanski, Rosemary’s Baby (1968), starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes and Ruth Gordon, remains one of the scariest Satanic films ever made.

The Stepford Wives (1975), with Katharine Ross, Nanette Newman and Peter Masterson, with its chilling message that obedience is the ideal human condition, was also brilliant.

Rarely has storytelling been better suited to the big screen. But that should not divert attention from the inventive genius and immaculate plotting of their creator. It was potboiling writing with a classic edge.

Ira Levin was brought up in the Bronx and then the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the son of a prosperous toy-importer, who had hoped that his son would follow him into the business.

But, from an early age, Levin had seen the possibilities in drama. Towards the end of his time at New York University, from which he majored in philosophy and English, Levin entered a half-hour play, called The Old Woman, into a CBS writing competition. He was runner-up. Soon, though, his writing was winning credits on TV and in magazines.

His first novel, A Kiss Before Dying, was published in 1953. The story of a rich young man, who tries to get away with murdering his pregnant girlfriend, was twice filmed. The first version (1956) with Robert Wagner and Joanna Woodward was good; the second (1991),with Matt Dillon and Sean Young, wasn’t.

Shortly after the book appeared, Levin was drafted into the Army, where he continued writing, including the TV version of No Time For Sergeants.

Some critics thought The Boys from Brazil (1978), starring Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier, about the cloning of Hitler, was the most successful adaptation of a Levin novel. A new version is being made for release next year.

Levin married twice and had three children.

Ira Levin, writer; born August 27, 1929, died November 12, 2007.