David Lewis (producer)

For other people named David Lewis, see David Lewis (disambiguation).

David Lewis
Born
David Levy

December 14, 1903
Trinidad, Colorado, U.S.
DiedMarch 13, 1987(1987-03-13) (aged 83)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Burial placeForest Lawn Glendale
OccupationFilm producer
PartnerJames Whale

David Lewis (born David Levy; December 14, 1903 – March 13, 1987[1]) was a prominent American Hollywood film producer in the 1940s and 1950s,[2] who produced such films as Dark Victory (1939), Arch of Triumph (1948), and Raintree County (1957). He worked for Warner Brothers, Paramount and M-G-M and was elected a vice president of Enterprise Productions, Inc. in 1946.

He was also the longtime romantic partner of director James Whale from 1930 to 1952. Although they were separated at the time of Whale's death in 1957, Lewis later released the contents of Whale's suicide note. Whale was cremated per his request and his ashes were interred in the Columbarium of Memory at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. When David Lewis died in 1987, his executor and Whale biographer James Curtis had his ashes interred in a niche across from Whale's.[3]

Lewis was portrayed in the 1998 film Gods and Monsters by David Dukes.

  1. ^ "DAVID LEWIS, 83, DIES; PRODUCED CLASSIC FILMS". The New York Times. March 16, 1987. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  2. ^ Slide, Anthony (November 25, 2014). "It's the Pictures That Got Small": Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age. Columbia University Press. p. 398. ISBN 9780231538220.
  3. ^ Curtis, James (1998). James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters. Boston, Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-19285-8, p. 389