Benn Levy
Benn Wolfe Levy[1] (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, and a successful playwright. He was educated at Repton School and University College, Oxford and served in uniform in both World Wars.
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.
Playwright
Outside politics, Levy was a successful playwright who also wrote (and on occasion directed) for the movies. He was 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.[2]
- 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 - 1937
- If I Were You - 1938
- The Jealous God - 1939
- Clutterbuck - 1946
- Rape of the Belt - 1957
Selected filmography
Director
- Lord Camber's Ladies (1932) produced by Alfred Hitchcock
Screenwriter
- The Informer (1929)
- Devil and the Deep (1932)
- The Old Dark House (1932) directed by James Whale
- Topaze (1933) directed by Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast
- Unfinished Symphony (1934) directed by Anthony Asquith
References
- ↑ http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Ecommons2.htm
- ↑ The Benn W. Levy Papers
- ↑ Benn W Levy - complete guide to the Playwright and Plays
- ↑ Benn Levy at the Internet Broadway DatabaseLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
External links
- Mrs. Moonlight on Lux Radio Theater: 26 June 1939
- Mrs. Moonlight on Theater of Romance: 30 August 1943
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Benn Levy
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Eton and Slough 1945–1950 |
Succeeded by Fenner Brockway |
- Use dmy dates from April 2012
- Accuracy disputes from March 2012
- Articles lacking reliable references from March 2012
- Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template without an unnamed parameter
- Government and politics of Slough
- Labour Party (UK) MPs
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- People from Slough
- 1900 births
- 1973 deaths
- UK MPs 1945–50
- Royal Air Force personnel of World War I
- Royal Navy personnel of World War II
- People educated at Repton School
- Alumni of University College, Oxford
