{{Short description|American film producer (1894–1968)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2013}} {{Infobox person | name = Albert Lewin | birth_name = Albert Parsons Lewin | birth_date = {{birth date|1894|09|23}} | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1968|05|09|1894|09|23}} | death_place = New York City, US | spouse = Mildred Mindlin Jacobs (m.1918–1965) | years_active = 1923–1968 | occupation = screenwriter, producer, director, production supervisor, script supervisor }}
'''Albert Lewin''' (September 23, 1894 – May 9, 1968) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.
==Personal life== Lewin was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Newark, New Jersey. He earned a master's degree at Harvard and taught English at the University of Missouri. During World War I, he served in the military<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Lewin Albert Lewin; American producer, screenwriter, and director] ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved May 15, 2023.</ref> and was afterwards appointed assistant national director of the American Jewish Relief Committee. He later became a drama and film critic for the ''Jewish Tribune'' until the early 1920s, when he went to Hollywood to become a reader for Samuel Goldwyn. Later he worked as a script clerk for directors King Vidor and Victor Sjöström before becoming a screenwriter at MGM in 1924.
Lewin was appointed head of the studio's script department and by the late 1920s was Irving Thalberg's personal assistant and closest associate. Nominally credited as an associate producer, he produced several of MGM's most important films of the 1930s. After Thalberg's death, he joined Paramount as a producer in 1937, where he remained until 1941. Notable producing credits during this period include ''True Confession'' (1937), ''Spawn of the North'' (1938), ''Zaza'' (1939) and ''So Ends Our Night'' (1941).
In 1942, Lewin began to direct. He made six films, writing all of them and producing several himself. As a director and writer, he showed literary and cultural aspirations in the selection and treatment of his themes.<ref name="ink">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-john-and-james-woolf/|date=17 January 2026|access-date=17 January 2026|title=Forgotten British Film Moguls: John and James Woolf}}</ref> He was the best friend of actress Devi Dja and cast her in three of his movies but failed to get her a leading role in ''The Moon and Sixpence'' (1942).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pradityo |first=Sapto |title=Soetidjah Jadi Artis Hollywood |url=https://news.detik.com/x/detail/intermeso/20170721/Soetidjah-Jadi-Artis-Hollywood/ |access-date=2023-12-03 |website=detikx}}</ref> In 1966, Lewin published a novel, ''The Unaltered Cat''.
==Films== As director: *''The Moon and Sixpence'' (1942) *''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' (1945) *''The Private Affairs of Bel Ami'' (1947) *''Pandora and the Flying Dutchman'' (1951) *''Saadia'' (1953) *''The Living Idol'' (1957)
As screenwriter: *''The Fate of a Flirt'' (1925) *''Spring Fever'' (1927)
== References == {{Reflist}} *''Botticelli in Hollywood: The Films of Albert Lewin'' by Susan Felleman (1997), {{ISBN|0-8057-1625-4}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|id=0506797|name=Albert Lewin}} *[http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:99598 Albert Lewin] at Allmovie.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewin, Albert}} Category:1894 births Category:1968 deaths Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American screenwriters Category:American male screenwriters Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York City Category:Film directors from New York City Category:Film producers from New Jersey Category:Film producers from New York (state) Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Hugo Award–winning writers Category:Jewish American military personnel Category:Jewish American screenwriters Category:Military personnel from New York City Category:Military personnel from New York (state) Category:Filmmakers from Brooklyn Category:Screenwriters from Missouri Category:Screenwriters from New Jersey Category:Screenwriters from New York (state) Category:United States Army personnel of World War I Category:University of Missouri faculty Category:Writers from Newark, New Jersey