Levin Passes

Novelist and playwright Ira Levin (Rosemary’s Baby, The Boys from Brazil, Stepford Wives) passed away at his home in Manhattan on Monday. He was 78.

The New York Times reports that no cause of death has been named, “but Mr. Levin appeared to have died of natural causes, his son Nicholas said yesterday.”

Mr. Levin’s output was modest -- just seven novels in four decades -- but his work was firmly ensconced in the popular imagination. Together, his novels sold tens of millions of copies, his literary agent, Phyllis Westberg, said yesterday. Nearly all of his books were made into Hollywood movies, some more than once. Mr. Levin also wrote the long-running Broadway play “Deathtrap,” a comic thriller.

Levin is sent off here, here, here and here.