Gene Levitt(1920-1999)
- Writer
- Producer
- Director
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Gene Levitt hitchhiked to the west coast on a whim. He would later receive a bachelor's degree from the University of Wyoming.
Levitt would then go work as a newspaper reporter for City News Service in Chicago, honing his abilities in concise storytelling and fact-based narrative under the demands of daily journalism. Levitt's burgeoning career was interrupted by World War II, during which he joined the United States Marines Corps and served as a bomb disposal officer in the South Pacific Theater.
Following his discharge from the Marines, Levitt moved to Los Angeles where he began his career as a writer of radio mysteries, including "The Whistler", "The Line-Up", "Rocky Jordan", and the CBS radio drama, "The Adventures of Philip Marlowe".
Levitt would go on to work on various feature films, such as "Yellowbird", "Beyond Mombasa", "The Night Runner", "Underwater Warrior", "Run a Crooked Mile", "The Phantom of Hollywood", and television shows such as "Combat!", "Barnaby Jones", and "Hawaii Five-O".
Levitt's most enduring contribution came in 1977 when he created "Fantasy Island", a drama about a remote island resort where people’s wishes were fulfilled by the suave resort director and his diminutive assistant.
Despite an initial poor press reaction, the show would go on to become a cult favorite with television viewers, running until 1984.
Levitt died on November 15, 1999 at the age of 79.
Levitt would then go work as a newspaper reporter for City News Service in Chicago, honing his abilities in concise storytelling and fact-based narrative under the demands of daily journalism. Levitt's burgeoning career was interrupted by World War II, during which he joined the United States Marines Corps and served as a bomb disposal officer in the South Pacific Theater.
Following his discharge from the Marines, Levitt moved to Los Angeles where he began his career as a writer of radio mysteries, including "The Whistler", "The Line-Up", "Rocky Jordan", and the CBS radio drama, "The Adventures of Philip Marlowe".
Levitt would go on to work on various feature films, such as "Yellowbird", "Beyond Mombasa", "The Night Runner", "Underwater Warrior", "Run a Crooked Mile", "The Phantom of Hollywood", and television shows such as "Combat!", "Barnaby Jones", and "Hawaii Five-O".
Levitt's most enduring contribution came in 1977 when he created "Fantasy Island", a drama about a remote island resort where people’s wishes were fulfilled by the suave resort director and his diminutive assistant.
Despite an initial poor press reaction, the show would go on to become a cult favorite with television viewers, running until 1984.
Levitt died on November 15, 1999 at the age of 79.
