LEVY, BENN WOLFE

LEVY, BENN WOLFE (1900–1973), playwright, theater producer, and politician. Levy was born in London, educated   at Repton and Oxford, and served in the Royal Air Force in 1918. From 1923 he was a publisher and playwright whose works were well known during the interwar period. He also co-authored the script of Blackmail (1929), Alfred Hitchcock's first talking film. Levy served in the Royal Navy during World War II and was elected Labour member of Parliament for Eton and Slough in 1945, serving until 1950. Increasingly on the left of the party, in the 1950s Levy became a campaigner for nuclear disarmament and other radical causes. Levy wrote more than 20 plays. His successes include Mrs. Moonlight (1929), Art and Mrs. Bottle (1929), The Poet's Heart (1937), Return to Tyassi (1951), and The Rape of the Belt (1957). -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)