Ira Levin

Ira Levin (New York, August 27, 1929-ibid., November 12, 2007) was an American thriller writer.

Biography

He was born in Manhattan, New York, on August 27, 1929, and grew up in Manhattan and the Bronx. The son of a Jewish merchant, he graduated from the Horace Mann School; At New York University he graduated with degrees in philosophy and English, after which he enlisted in the army in the early 1950s. He began his writing career with scripts for television, having been on the same script boy. His first play was an adaptation of a Mac Hyman novel, No times for Sergeant, which was later made into a film version in 1958. The first of seven primarily mystery novels he ever published was A Kiss Before Dying (Kiss me before dying ), which tells the story of a "climb" very ambitious that he murders her girlfriend to stay with her sister; He achieved great public success and won the Edgar Allan Poe Award, awarded by the Mystery Writers Association of the United States, for the best first published novel; It was immediately adapted to the cinema, in 1954, with Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward, and later, in 1991, played by Matt Dillon and Max von Sydow. He returned to the stage to write his best-known play in the field, Deathtrap , a Broadway hit for which he won another Edgar Award. It is the story of a decadent playwright who is involved in a plot to kill a rival he envies and steal his novel. It was adapted to the cinema in the eighties played by Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve.

Her most popular novel is undoubtedly Rosemary's Baby (Rose Mary's baby), also titled in Spain La semilla del devil; it was adapted to the cinema by Roman Polanski and interpreted by John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow; This version is considered a classic of horror movies and narrates the conception and birth in modern times of the Antichrist from the point of view of her mother, who is unaware that she has been chosen for it.

His novel The Boys from Brazil was also made into a movie, by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier; This novel tells of the creation of dozens of clones of Adolf Hitler by a project hatched by the Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), and the fight against him by the Nazi hunter Jakob Liebermann (Laurence Olivier), mask that hides a real character, the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

Her satirical fantasy The Stepford Wives, with the title The Perfect Women, was also made into a film in 1975 (of which another version was filmed in 2004 with Nicole Kidman), and Harassed, in 1991, starring Sharon Stone.

In A Perfect Day he cultivates the science fiction novel; presents a sheepish and happy humanity completely controlled and protected by the all-knowing supercomputer UniComp. Human pain and suffering have been all but eradicated from society and aggressive instincts have been eliminated through massive chemotherapy treatments, turning the world into a suffocating system of pure kindness. The novel tells of the fight for the freedom of Chip, the grandson of one of the creators of UniComp, together with a small group of citizens who begin to question the entire established system.

Both of his marriages ended in divorce and he is survived by three sons: Nicholas, Adam and Jared, plus a sister and three grandchildren. Levin died at the age of 78 of a heart attack at his Manhattan home on November 12, 2007.

Works

Novels

• A kiss before she dies (1953). A Kiss Before Dying. Barcelona, Grijalbo, 1971
• Rosemary's baby (1967). Rosemary's Baby. Barcelona, Grijalbo, 1968
• Chip, the one with the green eye (1970). This Perfect Day. Buenos Aires, Contemporary Time, 1972
• Stepford's possessed (1972). The Stepford Wives. Barcelona, Plaza and Janés, 1978
• Children in Brazil (1976). The Boys from Brazil. Bogotá, Pomaire, 1977
• Sliver (1991)The astilla) ISBN 84-226-4206-9
• Son of Rosemary (1997)The son of Rosemary) ISBN 978-84-253-3145-9

Theatrical pieces

• No Time For Sergeants (1956)
• Interlock (1958)
• Critic's Choice (1960)
• General Seeger (1962)
• Dr. Cook's Garden (1968)
• Veronica's Room (1974) Veronica's Room (ISBN: 84-01-44213-3)
• Deathtrap (1978), Tony Award.
• Break to Leg: A Comedy in Two Acts (1981)
• Cantorial (1982)

Musicals

• Drat! (1965, libretto and songs).