Reporters trying to get interviews with Steven Spielberg would sometimes grouse that his publicist’s job amounted to speaking a single word: “No.”
But Martin Levy, who served as Mr. Spielberg’s publicist for 42 years, was responsible for much more than body blocking the fifth estate (which he usually did with a gentlemanly grace). Mr. Spielberg did not become Mr. Spielberg because of his filmmaking alone: For 42 years, Mr. Levy was behind the scenes — promoting, polishing, spinning, safeguarding, strategizing — to ensure that his boss was viewed worldwide as Hollywood’s de facto head of state.
In addition to representing Mr. Spielberg personally, Mr. Levy helped devise and lead publicity campaigns for 32 movies he directed, including several with sensitive subject matter, like “The Color Purple” (1985), “Schindler’s List” (1993) and “Munich” (2005).
Mr. Levy died on April 7 at his home in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 96.
His death was announced by Mr. Spielberg’s production company Amblin Entertainment.
Over Mr. Levy’s 73-year entertainment career — an eternity in fickle and ageist Hollywood — he worked on more than 150 movies and TV shows. He helped turn “Ben-Hur” (1959), “Taxi Driver” (1976) and “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979) into hits.
After joining Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Levy was involved with nearly every film made by Amblin and another of Mr. Spielberg’s companies, DreamWorks, including “Back to the Future” (1985), “Men in Black” (1997) and “Shrek” (2001).
“Simplicity was his mantra,” Mr. Spielberg said in an email. “The bicycle across the moon image we used for ‘E.T.’ or the hand of the little girl in red being held by Oscar Schindler. Those are simply two examples of Marvin’s indispensable place in my Amblin family.”
Mr. Levy received an honorary Oscar in 2018. He is the only publicist in the motion picture academy’s 98-year history to be given one, making him a folk hero among Hollywood’s unseen publicity armies.
“A marketing department can make you aware of a title, but it takes something of a storyteller,” Tom Hanks said of Mr. Levy at the ceremony, “to get an audience hooked on the story without giving away the story.”
Marvin Jay Levy was born in Manhattan on Nov. 16, 1928, to Max Levy, a real estate appraiser, and Edna (Hess) Levy.
He graduated in 1949 from New York University, where he majored in English and was part of the R.O.T.C. program. After a brief stint writing questions for a game show (he was fired because his were too easy), Mr. Levy found work with Tex McCrary, an old-school public relations man, and his wife, Jinx Falkenburg, an actress and model. Tex and Jinx, as they were known, helped popularize the TV talk-show format in the 1950s. Mr. Levy credited them with igniting his interest in publicity.
In 1952, he took a two-year hiatus to serve in the Air Force. He was stationed in Michigan and assigned to advertising and public relations work. He returned to his job with Tex and Jinx in 1954.
By the mid-1970s, Mr. Levy had moved to Los Angeles to work at Columbia Pictures — most notably shepherding Mr. Spielberg’s intimate “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) into theaters.
As the film moved through postproduction, Columbia executives began to worry that it would fizzle. It was nothing like Mr. Spielberg’s pulpy “Jaws,” which had riveted audiences two years earlier. Maybe the studio should scale back its marketing and distribution plan?
“Marvin said, ‘You’re all wrong,’ and moved heaven and earth to make ‘Close Encounters’ a success,” said Terry Press, Amblin’s president of strategy and communications.
Mr. Levy retired last year.
He married Carol Schild, who worked in advertising, in 1952. She survives him, along with their sons, Don and Doug, and two grandsons.
“She always knew what my job entailed,” Mr. Levy said of his wife when he accepted his Academy Award. “But most friends and relations outside the industry really had no clue. I never could explain the full range of what the job really entails.”
“At least now,” he quipped, “they’ll know I got an Oscar for it.”
Richard Sandomir contributed reporting.
Brooks Barnes covers all things Hollywood. He joined The Times in 2007 and previously worked at The Wall Street Journal.
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