Marvin Levy, who spent five-plus decades handling public relations for Steven Spielberg and his films en route to becoming the only publicist to receive an Oscar, died Monday, an Amblin representative announced. He was 96.
Levy worked for MGM in New York and for Columbia Pictures in Hollywood, where he began his relationship with Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). The soft-spoken executive became a “Spielberg Whisperer,” offering counsel to the filmmaker.
In introducing Levy at the Governors Awards in November 2018, Tom Hanks noted that the publicist also advised Spielberg on films including E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), best picture winner Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Lincoln (2012).
“Now, all those movies are pretty damn good, but I don’t think any of us in this room would have bothered seeing them without the efforts of Marvin Levy,” a cheeky Hanks said before the publicist came to the stage to accept his Oscar.
The work “has to be about showing up for something good; it has to have a purpose,” Levy said in his acceptance speech. “The person who most taught me that is Steven Spielberg. He’s always treated me like a storyteller, and we are all storytellers in the public relations branch. “
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had presidents (Richard Kahn and Cheryl Boone Isaacs) come from that branch, but no one had been given an honorary Oscar until Levy got his.
“The Academy could not have chosen a more perfect ceiling-breaker than Levy, who has practiced virtually every aspect of his profession — and been a credit to it every step of the way,” THR Awards Analyst Scott Feinberg wrote.
He retired in July 2024. “To say that Marvin has been an integral part of my personal and professional life is an understatement,” Spielberg noted at the time.
On Tuesday, Spielberg said in a statement:
“Marvin’s passing is a huge loss for me and our industry writ large. There are many talented PR executives, but Marvin was one of a kind. For over 50 years, he was a deeply loyal and exceptional collaborator who was respected and appreciated by all those who were lucky enough to learn from his counsel. When it came to handling the press, he had no peer. To the media and the world of exhibition, Marvin was the face of Amblin.
“We were opposite ends of the movie-making process. Every time I reached the end of production on a film, Marvin’s work had only begun. Through countless films, TV series, Amblin events, awards campaigns and our public relations strategy — this is where Marvin came alive. He loved his work and was endlessly enthusiastic about our business. He was creative, innovative and respected for his knowledge and honesty. He was excited to figure how new and better ways to present films to audiences. As a result, he was the first and only publicist to receive an Academy Award.
“I am grateful for all our years together. Marvin never failed to make me laugh, he never stopped smiling. We will miss you, Marvin. You will always be in our hearts, and your memory will always make us smile.”
Levy was born on Nov. 16, 1928, in New York City and raised on the East Side of Manhattan. After graduating from NYU in 1949, he got a job as a researcher for a TV quiz show but got fired when a contestant answered a question that he had written too quickly.
He then was employed by Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg, a married couple who hosted two radio talk shows a day and had a column in the New York Herald Tribune. They had to let him go when business slowed, but McCrary gave him a glowing letter of recommendation that got him into the “advertising, publicity and exploitation” department at MGM.
Mentored by his boss, lyricist and publicist Howard Dietz, Levy helped MGM clients get exposure when they came to New York and contributed to awards campaigns for the eventual best picture winners Gigi (1958) and Ben-Hur (1959).
Marvin Levy (left) with actor Glenn Ford in the 1950s.
Courtesy of Marvin Levy
In 1962, he exited MGM and was hired by the Blowitz, Thomas & Canton PR firm. There, he did publicity for movies including Charly (1968), They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) and Walking Tall (1973), all distributed by Cinerama Releasing Corp.
(Levy was on the team that famously came up with a new marketing campaign for Walking Tall after the film struggled in theaters. With less emphasis on the violence surrounding Sheriff Buford Pusser and more on his relationship with his wife, it became an indie success story, grossing an estimated $40 million — $287 million today — on a budget of about $500,000.)
In July 1974, Levy came to Los Angeles to work full time for Cinerama. His stay with the distributor was cut short after it merged with American International Pictures, but he quickly landed at Columbia and worked on films including Taxi Driver (1976), The Deep (1977) and the best picture winner Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).
Spielberg was coming off his mega-hit Jaws (1975) when he first met Levy on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the two got along quite well. In 1982, he began to work exclusively for the filmmaker and his companies. (In September 2019, he transitioned to a role of “senior advisor” at Amblin Partners.)
“Most of Levy’s time,” Feinberg noted, “is spent doing the grunt work — in tandem with studio PR and marketing partners — of crafting production notes, press kits, one-sheets and positioning statements, devising strategies for advertising and marketing and remembering, while plotting Spielberg’s media appearances, that a little of his client can go a long way, whereas too much can actually backfire.”
In 1963, Levy helped celebrity activists, including Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster, take part in the historic March on Washington. He received the publicists guild’s highest honor, the Les Mason Award, in 1994.
Levy was on the Academy’s board of governors for 23 years and a member of its PR branch since 1969. He also served on the board of the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
Survivors include his wife of 73 years, Carol; their sons, Don (also a publicist) and Doug; and his grandsons, Brian and Daniel. He was preceded in death by his sister, Jane.
A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday at Mount Sinai in Los Angeles. Donations is his memory may be made to Feeding America or Canine Companions.
During his Governors Awards speech, Levy pointed out that he often struggled to describe to some just what he did for a living.
“Most friends and relations outside the industry really had no clue, so I could never explain the full range of what the job really entails,” he said. “But at least now they know I got an Oscar for it.”
