Al Levin

Alan M. Levin distinguished producer and recipient of journalism’s highest awards, including multiple Emmys.

Levin’s TV work spanned over three decades, starting with PBS in the seventies and continuing with HBO through the nineties. He was one of Bill Moyers’ first producers at Public Television and one of Sheila Nevins’ most respected producers for the groundbreaking HBO “America Undercover” series. Levin appeared on the big screen in Protocols of Zion, a documentary film about the resurgence of anti-Semitism, directed by his son, Marc. The film was showcased at the Sundance Film Festival last year and was theatrically released this past fall.

Levin was committed to the struggle for social justice and wanted to use media as a force for social change. He first came to national attention in 1970 with his controversial indictment of US foreign policy, “Who Invited U.S.?” The Nixon White House pressured the young Public Television service to cancel the broadcast but most stations defied the administration and the film was honored with the George Polk award for best documentary. Levin went on to help renowned journalist Bill Moyers start his television career. They teamed up on a number of award-winning shows over the next fifteen years, including “Why Work?” “The Remarkable Yamato Family,” and “The Detroit Model.” He was senior producer on Moyers’ “The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis,” a history of covert CIA operations leading up to Iran Contra, which won the National Emmy Award for News and Documentary in 1988.

"Al Levin pioneered the documentary on public television before there was a PBS. He pushed the genre beyond conventional subjects toward the truth behind the news. He mentored a generation of us to get to the heart of the matter for the sake of people who depended on us to help them see the world more clearly." – Bill Moyers

Levin was one of the original producers at WNET/13, where he worked on the public affairs show “The 51st State” and the innovative magazine show, “The American Dream Machine.” In 1979 he produced the Emmy-winning 6 part series, “The New Immigrants.” At channel 13, he met a young producer, Sheila Nevins, who went on to become the head of HBO’s non-fiction programming and last year’s winner of the Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award. He teamed up with Nevins at HBO and with his son Marc, and their producing partner, Daphne Pinkerson, they made a series of films including “Gang War: Bangin in Little Rock” which won the CableACE Award for Best Documentary of 1994 and “Thug Life in D.C.” which won the 1999 National Emmy for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special.

“He had the kind of empathy that was rare and special. He was never discouraged from believing he could make a difference. He really thought he could change the world through his work. ” – Sheila Nevins

Levin was one of the first to report on the rise of America’s religious right in the 1980 film “Portrait of an American Zealot,” now part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. He also broke new ground in the 1986 Frontline special “Inside the Jury” which captured the first jury deliberation ever recorded for television. Since his army service in the Philippines at the end of World War II, he was fascinated by Asian culture. He was the senior producer on public television’s 10-part “The Pacific Century” series, which won the 1993 Columbia duPont Award and a gold medal at the Houston Film Festival.

The series producer and Academy Award Nominee (“Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room”) Alex Gibney, recalled “Al was a model for all of us indie filmmakers. He influenced so many people. He truly was a great man.”

Levin’s career came full circle when he returned to one of his favorite themes in the three-hour series for the Discovery Channel on the Central Intelligence Agency, “CIA: America’s Secret Warriors,” which won the Columbia-duPont Silver Baton Award in 1998.

Al Levin was born in Brooklyn on February 28, 1926, the first child of Herman and Shirley Levin. He quickly showed signs of things to come when he won the baby of the year contest that summer at the Rock Island Illinois State Fair. He grew up in Flatbush Brooklyn with two younger sisters, Helen and Sue, and attended the prestigious NY City Townsend Harris High School. At age 16, he left for Wesleyan University and in 1944 he enlisted in the Army and was sent to an intensive Japanese language program at Yale University. He was shipped overseas at the very end of the war, and worked as a translator in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in the Philippines.

After the war, he married Hannah Alexander, also from Brooklyn, and they quickly started a family. Marc was born in 1951, Nicole in 1952, Danielle in 1954, and Juliette in 1960. During the fifties, Al and Hannah became active in both the labor and civil rights movement. Al worked at the Jersey Central Railroad and Hannah at a Westinghouse factory, where they were both union organizers. They brought their three young children to the famous 1963 Washington, D.C. Civil Rights march where Martin Luther King gave his “I Have A Dream Speech.”

By the sixties they grew restless and moved on to pursue professional careers. Al started as a local journalist for AP covering the New Jersey state house, while Hannah got her Ph.D in psychology and became a professor and therapist. Levin then moved on to the New York Post in 1961 where he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his series on mob activity. In 1964, during a major NYC newspaper strike, Levin made his move into television. He became the assignment editor at WCBS-TV and then in 1965 he became a producer for the WABC-TV local evening news. He produced his first documentary in 1968, “Sleep: The Fantastic Third of your Life,” and won his first New York Emmy for best documentary and best writing.

Levin was married to Hannah Alexander Levin for 49 years until she passed away in December of 1997. They had a legendary love affair which touched everyone who knew them.

Levin was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the women’s rights movement. He constantly encouraged his wife and three daughters to challenge the system. In addition to their four children, they had eight grandchildren. Al, as he was known to his friends and colleagues, was an extraordinary character, a unique mix of family man, political activist, teacher and humorist. His interests ranged from the political economy to Japanese stone gardens and exotic horticulture. He was a life long athlete and avid tennis player, who could still be seen last summer in Maplewood’s parks working on his new serve.

He was revered by his four children and beloved by his two sisters.

Marc described his father as a “hope-aholic who saw the potential for good in almost everyone. He had a passion to make the world better and a rage toward injustice. But he had no malice or bitterness. Always curious, compassionate and optimistic, he was truly forever young.”