Boris Leven

Boris Leven (in early film credits – Boris Levin; August 13, 1908 – October 11, 1986) was a Russian-born Academy Award-winning art director and production designer whose Hollywood career spanned fifty-three years. Born in Moscow in the family of Israel Levin and Zinaida Narkirier, Leven emigrated to the United States in 1927 and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in architecture from the University of Southern California, he attended the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City. Leven began his film career as a sketch artist at Paramount Pictures in 1933 and joined 20th Century Fox three years later. His first screen credit was as the art director for Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), for which he received the first of nine Oscar nominations. The designs Leven created ranged from realistic to highly stylised. For Giant (1956), he constructed the Victorian home that sits isolated in a wide expanse of open field, which became an iconic image for the film. His work for West Side Story (1961), ... ()