Person
Val Lewton
Yalta, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire [now Crimea, Ukraine]
Born in the Russian Empire in 1904, Val Lewton (born Vladimir Ivanovich Leventon) moved with his mother and sister to Berlin in 1906, then to the United States in 1909. He wrote f…
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Born in the Russian Empire in 1904, Val Lewton (born Vladimir Ivanovich Leventon) moved with his mother and sister to Berlin in 1906, then to the United States in 1909. He wrote for newspapers, magazines, novels, pornography, etc. —often using pseudonyms to disguise their origin (the name Val Lewton was one such pseudonym, used first for some novels in the 1930s, then revived later in his career to take writing credit for two movies). In 1933 he got a job with David O. Selznick, where he spent many years as a story editor and jack-of-all-trades. Then in 1942 RKO hired him to head their new horror unit, where he made many famous and well-respected B-movies, for very low costs and high profits. In 1946, he “graduated” to A-movies, but increasing health problems, trouble working with big-money Hollywood, and other factors combined to force him to produce only three more movies before his death in 1951.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2007
Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows
Movie Self
- 2005
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1951
Apache Drums
Movie Producer
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1950
Please Believe Me
Movie Producer
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1948
My Own True Love
Movie Producer
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1946
Bedlam
Movie Screenplay
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1945
Isle of the Dead
Movie Producer
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1945
The Body Snatcher
Movie Screenplay
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1944
Youth Runs Wild
Movie Producer
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1944
Mademoiselle Fifi
Movie Producer
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1944
The Curse of the Cat People
Movie Producer
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1943
The Ghost Ship
Movie Producer
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1943
The Seventh Victim
Movie Producer
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1943
The Leopard Man
Movie Producer
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1943
I Walked with a Zombie
Movie Producer
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1942
Cat People
Movie Producer
More credits
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1937
A Star Is Born
Movie Editorial Staff
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1932
No Man of Her Own
Movie Novel
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The Year's Work
Movie Director
