Benn Levy
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Benn W. Levy (7 March 1900 – 7 December 1973) was a Labour Party Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He was educated at Repton School and University College, Oxford and served in uniform in both World Wars.
[edit] Parliamentarian
Levy was first elected at the 1945 general election, for the Eton and Slough constituency, and stood down at the 1950 general election. Politically, Levy was to the left of the Labour Party (including being an active member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament); as a sympathiser with the Zionist movement, he also opposed Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin over Bevin's policies towards Palestine and Israel.
[edit] Playwright
Outside politics, Levy was a successful playwright who also wrote (and on occasion directed) for the movies. He was happily married for more than 40 years to the American-born screen and stage actress Constance Cummings; they had one daughter and one son. As an MP, Levy made an unsuccessful effort to abolish theatrical censorship in Britain, and towards the end of his life, he was the principal author of a report opposing the arguments for censorship made by Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford.
Levy's papers are held at the University of Sussex library. [1]
- This Woman Business - 1925
- Mud and Treacle - 1928
- A Man with Red Hair - 1928
- Mrs Moonlight - 1928
- Art and Mrs Bottle - 1929
- Topaz - 1930
- Ever Green - 1930
- Springtime for Henry - 1931
- Hollywood Holiday - with John van Druten, 1931
- The Devil Passes - 1932
- Young Madame Conti - with Hubert Griffiths, 1936
- Madame Bovary (adaptation) - 1937
- If I Were You - 1938
- The Jealous God - 1939
- Clutterbuck - 1946
- Rape of the Belt - 1957
[edit] References
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by (new constituency) |
Member of Parliament for Eton and Slough 1945–1950 |
Succeeded by Fenner Brockway |
