About
Best remembered for his Academy Award-winning art direction for the popular 1961 movie version of West Side Story, this cinematic artist and production designer also contributed to such films as Invaders from Mars, Anatomy of a Murder, The Sound of Music, and The Andromeda Strain.
Before Fame
In the late 1920s, he moved from Moscow, Russia to the United States. After earning a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Southern California, he trained at New York City's Beaux-Arts Institute of Design.
Trivia
For his work on both New York, New York and West Side Story, he recreated the New York cityscape on a sound stage.
Family Life
His marriage to Vera Glooshkoff lasted from 1946 until his death in 1986.
Associated With
As the designer for director George Stevens' 1956 film, Giant, Leven created an image of a Victorian house in the middle of a large field.
