Val Lewton was an American film producer and screenwriter, who is best known for a sequence of nine brooding horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s. Lewton, originally named Vladimir Ivan Leventon, was born in what is now Yalta, Ukraine. He was a nephew of the actress Alla Nazimova. In 1909, he immigrated with his sister and mother to the USA (where his name was changed to Val Lewton). He was raised in suburban Port Chester, New York. Wikipedia
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