American film and advertising executive (1911–2002)
Peter Levathes (28 July 1911 – 9 January 2002) was an American film and advertising executive, best known for briefly running 20th Century Fox.
Biography.
Levathes was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in Washington. He attended Harvard University and studied law at Georgetown University. joined Fox in 1937 as legal assistant to Spyros Skouras, president of the company. During World War II he was a special agent with the FBI in Brazil, helping survey German military operations in Latin American.
From 1945–52 he led the Fox news and television production departments. He helped put together the documentary "Crusade in Europe", worked as a television consultant to Citizens for Eisenhower in 1952, then as vice president in change of media and television for advertising agency Young &amp; Rubicam for eight years.
Production Chief at Fox.
He left advertising in 1959 to run Fox's television division. In May 1961 he was appointed head of production, replacing Robert Goldstein, who had been doing the job since the death of Buddy Adler.
Among Levathes main actions at Fox were:
In March 1962 Levathes announced Fox would make 14 films from a possible 17 including:
Levathes cancelled "Something's Got to Give" during production. Later that month his champion, Spyrous Skouras, was forced to retire. Daryl F. Zanuck returned as president and Levathes resigned from his position in August, becoming head of television. "Ulysses", "Promise at Dawn" and "Take Her, She's Mine" were all postponed.
He was fired from Fox in 1962, then returned to advertising.
References.
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