Val Lewton

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 jackofalltrades Then in 1942 RKO hired him to head their new horror unit where he made many famous and wellrespected Bmovies for very low costs and high profits In 1946 he graduated to Amovies but increasing health problems trouble working with bigmoney Hollywood and other factors combined to force him to produce only three more movies before his death in 1951