Albert Lewin
American film director, producer, and screenwriter whose literary sensibility and cultural ambition shaped some of Hollywood's most distinctive mid-century productions.
Albert Lewin - Personal Information
- Name: Albert Lewin
- Date of Birth: September 23, 1894
- Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York
- Date of Death: May 9, 1968
- Gender: Male
- Job Title: Producer
- Crew Jobs: Producer, Director, Screenplay, Writer, Associate Producer
Biography
Albert Lewin (1894–1968) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter whose career traced an extraordinary arc from academic life and wartime service to the upper echelons of Hollywood studio power.
Born in Brooklyn, New York on September 23, 1894 and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Lewin pursued a rigorous education, earning a Master's degree from Harvard before taking up a position teaching English at the University of Missouri. During World War I he served in the military, and following the armistice he was appointed assistant national director of the American Jewish Relief Committee. He subsequently worked as a drama and film critic for the Jewish Tribune until the early 1920s, when he made the pivotal decision to move to Hollywood and join Samuel Goldwyn's organization as a reader.
His rise within the industry was swift and substantial. After working as a script clerk under directors King Vidor and Victor Sjöström, Lewin transitioned to screenwriting at MGM in 1924. He was soon elevated to head of the studio's script department, and by the close of the decade had become Irving Thalberg's personal assistant and most trusted collaborator. Though formally credited as an associate producer, he was instrumental in shaping several of MGM's most significant productions of the 1930s. Following Thalberg's death, Lewin moved to Paramount as a producer in 1937, remaining there until 1941. Among his notable producing credits from this period are True Confession (1937), Spawn of the North (1938), Zaza (1939), and So Ends Our Night (1941).
In 1942, Lewin turned to directing, ultimately completing six films over the course of his filmmaking career. He wrote all of them and produced several himself, bringing to each a distinctly literary and culturally ambitious sensibility that set his work apart from mainstream Hollywood fare. In 1966, he extended his creative reach further still with the publication of a novel, The Unaltered Cat. Albert Lewin died of pneumonia in New York on May 9, 1968.
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