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Author Description Levin graduated from the Horace Mann School and New York University, where he majored in philosophy and English.<br /><br />After college, he wrote training films and scripts for television.<br /><br />Levin's first produced play was <i>No Time for Sergeants</i> (adapted from Mac Hyman's novel), 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. <i>No Time for Sergeants</i> is generally considered the precursor to <i>Gomer Pyle, USMC</i>. <br /><br />Levin's first novel,<i> A Kiss Before Dying</i>, was well received, earning him the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. <i>A Kiss Before Dying</i> was turned into a movie twice, first in 1956, and again in 1991.<br /><br />Levin's best known play is <i>Deathtrap</i>, 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.<br /><br />Levin's best known novel is <i>Rosemary's Baby</i>, 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.<br /><br />Other Levin novels were turned into movies, including <i>The Boys from Brazil</i> in 1978; <i>The Stepford Wives</i> in 1975 and again in 2004; and <i>Sliver</i> in 1993. <br /><br />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."<br /><br />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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