Ira Levin, a renowned author and playwright, was born on August 27, 1929, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. He spent his childhood in both The Bronx and Manhattan, where he was educated at the private Horace Mann School. After graduating from Horace Mann and New York University, where he majored in philosophy and English, Levin began his writing career by producing training films and scripts for television.
Levin's first play, No Time for Sergeants, a comedy about a hillbilly drafted into the United States Air Force, was a significant success. The play launched the career of Andy Griffith and was adapted into a movie in 1958, co-starring Don Knotts. No Time for Sergeants is considered the precursor to Gomer Pyle, USMC. Levin's first novel, A Kiss Before Dying, was also well-received, earning him the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The novel was turned into a movie twice, in 1956 and 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, with Ruth Gordon winning an Oscar for her performance.
Other notable works by Levin include The Boys from Brazil, The Stepford Wives, and Sliver, all of which were turned into movies. Levin's writing has been highly praised by other authors, with Stephen King describing him as "the Swiss watchmaker of suspense novels" and Chuck Palahniuk calling his writing "a smart, updated version of the kind of folksy legends that cultures have always used." Levin died from a heart attack at his home in Manhattan on November 12, 2007, at the age of seventy-eight.