Biography

Albert Lewin was born on September 23, 1894 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). He was married to Mildred Mindlin Jacobs. He died on May 9, 1968 in New York City, New York, USA.

Hearing aid and Savile Row suits

He graduated from New York University with a B.A. in English, followed by a Masters in English from Harvard University, and subsequently taught at the University of Missouri from 1916 to 1918. He would have gone on to a professorship, if not for a chance viewing of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), which persuaded him to enter the film business. Initially, he was employed by the Jewish Tribune as a drama and film critic, then as a reader for Samuel Goldwyn, and as a script clerk for King Vidor. He joined MGM in 1924, after his first scenario was accepted. He became head of the MGM script department in 1929, and personal assistant to Irving Thalberg before working as an associate producer on several key MGM films in the 1930s.

Fought as an infantryman in the US army during World War II in Europe.

His fortunes were inextricably linked to his mentor, Irving Thalberg, a fellow intellectual. When Thalberg died suddenly in 1937, Lewin resigned from MGM on the spot and moved to Paramount, remaining there until 1941. From 1942, he worked as director, writer and producer on just six motion pictures, before a heart attack prompted his early retirement. In 1966, he published a novel, entitled The Unaltered Cat.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 657-661. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

[on casting the leading role in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)]: One day, I received a message from Cedric Gibbons, who wanted to see me on a matter of urgency and secrecy. Gibby was the only close friend of Greta Garbo around the studio, and he had been deputed to tell me that Garbo wanted to play Dorian. Indeed, it was the only role she would come back to the screen for. Of course, I moved heaven and earth to set it up. But everyone had a fit: the censorship problem, formidable anyway, would have become insurmountable with a woman.