Boris Leven

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boris Leven
Born	(1908-08-13)13 August 1908 Moscow
Died	11 October 1986(1986-10-11) (aged 78) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Art director, production designer

Boris Leven (August 13, 1908 - October 11, 1986) was a Russian-born Academy Award-winning art director and production designer whose Hollywood career spanned fifty-three years.

Born in Moscow, Leven emigrated to the United States in 1927 and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in architecture from the University of Southern California, he attended the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City.^[1]

A film crew at work on the set of Giant. The Victorian home Leven designed became an iconic image for the film.

Leven began his film career as a sketch artist at Paramount Pictures in 1933 and moved to 20th Century Fox three years later. His first screen credit was as the art director for Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), which garnered him the first of nine Oscar nominations.

The designs Leven created over the years ranged from realistic to highly stylistic. For Giant (1956), he constructed the Victorian home that sits isolated in a wide expanse of open field, which became an iconic image for the film. His work for West Side Story (1961), which won him the Academy Award for Best Color Art Direction, included actual New York City locations combined with a tenement rooftop and fire escape, inspired by the more abstract stage production, that were built on a soundstage. For New York, New York (1977), he created a fantasized version of Manhattan set in the 1940s.

As an art director, Leven contributed to The Flying Deuces (1939), Hello Frisco, Hello (1943), Invaders from Mars (1953), The Silver Chalice (1954), and Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973), among others. His credits as production designer include Donovan's Brain (1953), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Two for the Seesaw (1962), The Sand Pebbles (1966), The Sound of Music (1965), Star! (1968), The Andromeda Strain (1971), Mandingo (1975), The Last Waltz (1978), The King of Comedy (1982), Fletch (1985) and The Color of Money (1986).^[2]

Leven wed Vera Glooshkoff on February 8, 1946. He died in Los Angeles, California. Mrs. Leven died at the age of 101 in June 2011. Prior to her death she had passed several of Boris Leven's paintings and film drawings to the University of Southern California and New York's MOMA.

References

↑ FilmReference.com
↑ "The 59th Academy Awards (1987) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-07-31.

External links

Boris Leven at the Internet Movie Database

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 16232219 LCCN: n85376552 BNF: cb14043374n

Persondata
Name	Leven, Boris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 13, 1908
Place of birth	Moscow
Date of death	October 11, 1986
Place of death	Los Angeles, California

v t e Academy Award for Production Design (1961–1980)

1961–1966 Black & White / Color separate	1961 (bw): Harry Horner, Gene Callahan / (c): Boris Leven, Victor A. Gangelin 1962 (bw): Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead, Oliver Emert /(c): John Box, John Stoll, Dario Simoni 1963 (bw): Gene Callahan / (c): John DeCuir, Jack Martin Smith, Hilyard M. Brown, Herman A. Blumenthal, Elven Webb, Maurice Pelling, Boris Juraga, Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox, Ray Moyer 1964 (bw): Vassilis Photopoulos /(c): Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton, George Hopkins 1965 (bw): Robert Clatworthy, Joseph Kish /(c): John Box, Terence Marsh, Dario Simoni 1966 (bw): Richard Sylbert, George Hopkins / (c): Jack Martin Smith, Dale Hennesy, Walter M. Scott, Stuart A. Reiss

1967–1980	1967: John Truscott, Edward Carrere, John W. Brown 1968: John Box, Terence Marsh, Vernon Dixon, Ken Muggleston 1969: John DeCuir, Jack Martin Smith, Herman A. Blumenthal, Walter M. Scott, George Hopkins, Raphaël Bretton 1970: Urie McCleary, Gil Parrondo, Antonio Mateos, Pierre-Louis Thévenet 1971: John Box, Ernest Archer, Jack Maxsted, Gil Parrondo, Vernon Dixon 1972: Rolf Zehetbauer, Jurgen Kiebach, Herbert Strabel 1973: Henry Bumstead, James W. Payne 1974: Dean Tavoularis, Angelo P. Graham, George R. Nelson 1975: Ken Adam, Roy Walker, Vernon Dixon 1976: George C. Jenkins, George Gaines 1977: John Barry, Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley, Roger Christian 1978: Paul Sylbert, Edwin O'Donovan, George Gaines 1979: Philip Rosenberg, Tony Walton, Edward Stewart, Gary J. Brink 1980: Pierre Guffroy, Jack Stephens

Complete list (1927–1940) (1941–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020)

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.

Boris Leven

See also

References

External links