Joseph E. Levine was an American film producer.

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His Embassy Pictures Corporation

Embassy Pictures

Embassy Pictures Corporation was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as The Graduate, The Lion in Winter, This Is Spinal Tap and Escape from New York.-Founding:The company was founded in 1942 by producer Joseph E...

 was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as Hercules (1958 film)

Hercules (1958 film)

Hercules is a 1958 Italian epic fantasy feature film based upon the Hercules myths and the Quest for the Golden Fleece. The film stars Steve Reeves as the titular hero and Sylva Koscina as his love interest Princess Iole. Hercules was directed by Pietro Francisci and produced by Federico Teti...

, The Carpetbaggers

The Carpetbaggers

The Carpetbaggers is the title of a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title.The term "carpetbagger" refers to an outsider relocating to exploit locals . It derives from post-bellum South usage, where it referred specifically to opportunistic...

, Harlow

Harlow (film)

Harlow is a biographical film about the life of film star Jean Harlow. It stars Carroll Baker in the title role. It was released in 1965 by Paramount Pictures, shortly after another film with the same title and subject...

, The Graduate

The Graduate

The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder...

, A Bridge Too Far and The Lion in Winter

The Lion in Winter (1968 film)

The Lion in Winter is a 1968 historical drama made by Avco Embassy Pictures, based on the Broadway play by James Goldman. It was directed by Anthony Harvey and produced by Joseph E...

.

Levine is famous in the industry for his massive advertising campaigns, starting with Hercules in 1959. He is also responsible for bringing the movie Godzilla to the U.S. public. Levine had hired Terry Turner, a former RKO Pictures

RKO Pictures

RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...

 exploitation expert of the late 1920s and 1930s where he exploited King Kong amongst other films. Levine and Turner's exploitation campaigns were designed to appeal both to the general public but also the film industry and exhibitors as well.

In 1964, Levine received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award

Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award

The Cecil B. DeMille Award is an honorary Golden Globe Award bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment". It was first presented on February 21, 1952 at the 9th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony and is named in honor of its...

 in recognition of his lifetime achievement in motion pictures.

Joseph E. Levine died in 1987 in Greenwich, Connecticut

Greenwich, Connecticut

Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...

.

Producer credits

• Tattoo (1981)
• Magic (1978)
• A Bridge Too Far (1977)
• My Name Is Trinity (1970)
• The Spy with a Cold Nose
  The Spy with a Cold Nose
  The Spy with a Cold Nose is a 1966 British comedy film directed by Daniel Petrie.-Cast:* Laurence Harvey as Dr. Francis Trevelyan* Daliah Lavi as Princess Natasha Romanova* Lionel Jeffries as Stanley Farquhar* Eric Sykes as Wrigley...
  
  (1966)
• Harlow
  Harlow (film)
  Harlow is a biographical film about the life of film star Jean Harlow. It stars Carroll Baker in the title role. It was released in 1965 by Paramount Pictures, shortly after another film with the same title and subject...
  
  (1965)
• Where Love Has Gone
  Where Love Has Gone (film)
  Where Love Has Gone is a 1964 drama film made by Embassy Pictures , Joseph E. Levine Productions and Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Joseph E. Levine from a screenplay by John Michael Hayes based on the novel of the same name by Harold Robbins...
  
  (1964)
• Only One New York (documentary) (1964)
• The Carpetbaggers
  The Carpetbaggers
  The Carpetbaggers is the title of a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title.The term "carpetbagger" refers to an outsider relocating to exploit locals . It derives from post-bellum South usage, where it referred specifically to opportunistic...
  
  (1964)
• Contempt
  Contempt (film)
  Contempt is a 1963 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, based on the Italian novel Il disprezzo by Alberto Moravia. It stars Brigitte Bardot.-Plot:...
  
  (1963)
• The Empty Canvas
  The Empty Canvas
  The Empty Canvas is an Italian drama film directed by Damiano Damiani. The screenplay by Damiani, Tonino Guerra, and Ugo Liberatore is based on the best-selling novel La Noia by Alberto Moravia.-Synopsis:...
  
  (1963)
• Le Meraviglie di Aladino (1961)
• Morgan, the Pirate
  Morgan, the Pirate
  Morgan, the Pirate is a 1961 film by André De Toth and Primo Zeglio, and starring Steve Reeves.For the pirate Morgan see Admiral Sir Henry Morgan...
  
  (1961)
• Gaslight Follies (documentary) (1945)

Executive producer credits

• The Day of the Dolphin
  The Day of the Dolphin
  The Day of the Dolphin is a 1973 American science-fiction thriller film directed by Mike Nichols and starring George C. Scott. Loosely based on the 1967 novel, Un animal doué de raison , by French writer Robert Merle, the screenplay was written by Buck Henry.-Plot:A brilliant and driven scientist,...
  
  (1973)
• Thumb Tripping (1972)
• Rivals (1972)
• Trinity Is STILL My Name! (1971)
• Carnal Knowledge
  Carnal Knowledge (film)
  Carnal Knowledge is a 1971 American drama film. The film was directed by Mike Nichols and written by Jules Feiffer.-Plot:Sandy and Jonathan are roommates at Amherst College whose lives are explored and seem to offer a contrast to one another...
  
  (1971)
• C.C. and Company
  C.C. and Company
  C.C. and Company is a movie that was released in 1970. It starred Joe Namath as biker C.C. Ryder, Ann-Margret as fashion journalist Ann and William Smith as Moon, the leader of the fictitious outlaw biker gang the "Heads".- Plot summary :...
  
  (1970)
• Macho Callahan (1970)
• Soldier Blue
  Soldier Blue
  Soldier Blue is a 1970 American Revisionist Western movie directed by Ralph Nelson and inspired by events of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in the Colorado Territory....
  
  (1970)
• The Adventurers (1970)
• Sunflower (1970)
• Don't Drink the Water (1969)
• Mad Monster Party? (1969)
• The Lion in Winter
  The Lion in Winter (1968 film)
  The Lion in Winter is a 1968 historical drama made by Avco Embassy Pictures, based on the Broadway play by James Goldman. It was directed by Anthony Harvey and produced by Joseph E...
  
  (1968)
• The Producers
  The Producers (1968 film)
  The Producers is a 1968 American satirical dark comedy cult classic film written and directed by Mel Brooks. The film is set in the late 1960s and it tells the story of a theatrical producer and an accountant who want to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop...
  
  (uncredited) (1968)
• The Graduate
  The Graduate
  The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder...
  
  (1967)
• Robbery (1967)
• The Tiger and the Pussycat (1967)
• Woman Times Seven
  Woman Times Seven
  Woman Times Seven is a 1967 Italian/French/American co-production anthology film of seven different episodes, all starring Shirley MacLaine with most based on aspects of adultery...
  
  (1967)
• The Caper of the Golden Bulls (1967)
• A Man Called Adam
  A Man Called Adam
  A Man Called Adam are the British electronic music artists Sally Rodgers and Steve Jones.Recording for DJ Gilles Peterson’s fledgling Acid Jazz Records label, A Man Called Adam found that it was the remixed B-sides, "Techno Powers" and "Amoeba" - electronic versions of the A-side tracks, that...
  
  (1966)
• The Daydreamer
  The Daydreamer
  The Daydreamer is a 1966 Rankin/Bass stop-motion puppet animation and live-action musical fantasy film. Directed by Jules Bass, it was written by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Romeo Muller, based on the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. It features songs by Jules Bass and Maury Laws.-Plot:Teen-aged Hans...
  
  (1966)
• The Oscar
  The Oscar (film)
  The Oscar is a 1966 American drama film, written by Harlan Ellison, Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse and Richard Sale, directed by Rouse and starring Stephen Boyd, singer Tony Bennett , comedian Milton Berle , Elke Sommer, Ernest Borgnine, Jill St. John, and Eleanor Parker...
  
  (1966)
• Where the Bullets Fly
  Where the Bullets Fly
  Where the Bullets Fly is a 1966 British comedy spy film directed by John Gilling and starring Tom Adams as Charles Vine and John Arnatt repeating their roles from Licensed to Kill/The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World...
  
  (1966)
• Sands of the Kalahari
  Sands of the Kalahari
  Sands of the Kalahari is a 1965 film British drama film starring Stuart Whitman, Stanley Baker, Susannah York, Harry Andrews and Theodore Bikel, based on the 1960 novel by William Mulvihill. The movie was written by Cy Endfield and William Mulvihill and directed by Cy Endfield...
  
  (1965)
• Darling
  Darling (film)
  Darling is a 1965 British comedy/drama film written by Frederic Raphael, directed by John Schlesinger, and starring Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, and Laurence Harvey. It is considered one of Schlesinger's best films and an insightful satire of mid-sixties British culture...
  
  (uncredited) (1965)
• The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World (1965)
• Marriage Italian-Style
  Marriage Italian-Style
  Marriage Italian-Style is a 1964 film which tells the story of a successful businessman who kept a woman as his mistress for several years and now plans to marry another woman until his mistress pretends to be on her deathbed to induce him to marry her before she dies...
  
  (uncredited) (1964)
• Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
  Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
  Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a 1964 science fiction film that regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. It is regularly featured in the "bottom 100" list on the Internet Movie Database, and was also featured in an episode of the 1986 syndicated series, the Canned Film...
  
  (1964)
• Zulu
  Zulu (film)
  Zulu is a 1964 historical war film depicting the Battle of Rorke's Drift between the British Army and the Zulus in January 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War....
  
  (1964)
• The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)
• Constantine and the Cross
  Constantine and the Cross
  Constantine and the Cross is a 1962 historical drama film about the early career of the emperor Constantine, who first legalized and then adopted Christianity in the early 4th century...
  
  (1962)
• Boys' Night Out (1962)
• Long Day's Journey Into Night
  Long Day's Journey into Night (1962 film)
  Long Day's Journey into Night is a 1962 film adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill play. It was directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Ely Landau with Joseph E. Levine and Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr. as executive producers. The screenplay was by Eugene O'Neill, the music score by André Previn and the...
  
  (1962)
• Two Women
  Two Women
  Two Women is a 1960 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown, Carlo Ninchi and Andrea Checchi...
  
  (uncredited) (1960)
• Jack the Ripper (1959 film)
  Jack the Ripper (1959 film)
  Jack the Ripper was a 1959 film produced and directed by Monty Berman and Robert S. Baker and is loosely based on Leonard Matters' theory that the Ripper was an avenging doctor. The black-and-white film starred Lee Patterson and Eddie Byrne and co-starred Betty McDowall, John Le Mesurier, and...
  
  Levine provided a new soundtrack by Pete Rugolo
  Pete Rugolo
  Pietro "Pete" Rugolo was an Italian-born jazz composer and arranger.-Life and career:Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily, Italy. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Santa Rosa, California...
  
   and added colour to a sequence of blood to the black and white film
• Tempi duri per i vampiri (1959)
• Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
  Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
  Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is a 1956 Japanese/American black-and-white science fiction kaiju film. It is an "Americanized" version of the original Godzilla film, which had previously been shown subtitled in the United States in Japanese community theaters only, and was not known in Europe...
  
  (1956)
• Walk Into Paradise
  Walk Into Paradise
  Walk Into Paradise is a 1956 Australian adventure film directed by Lee Robinson and Marcello Pagliero shot on location in the highlands of Papua New Guinea....
  
  (1956) that Levine retitled Walk into Hell for its American release

Popular culture

• In an issue of the Fantastic Four
  Fantastic Four
  The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium...
  
   (#48), The Thing
  Thing (comics)
  The Thing is a fictional character, a founding member of the superhero team known as the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Comics universe. He was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in The Fantastic Four #1...
  
  mentions upon seeing the sky aflame that it could be just Joseph E. Levine advertising one of his movies.