Bernard Levin

Bernard Levin was born on August 19, 1928 in London, England as Herbert Bernard Levin.

In the early 1960s, he became quite openly infatuated with Vanessa Redgrave, and his reviews of her performances in various classical parts (especially her famous role as Rosalind in "As You Like It") were widely regarded as open love letters, rather than dramatic criticism. In fact, Levin actually did propose marriage to her, but she gently turned him down, being about to marry the director Tony Richardson. He never forgave her; although he continued to admit that she was a fine actress, he reviled her in print, ostensibly for her left-wing political beliefs, for well over thirty years.

In 1963 he was famously punched by writer Desmond Leslie in front of an audience of millions on the BBC TV programme That Was The Week That Was, which was transmitted live. Levin had given a bad review of the one-woman show From Brecht to Brecht, Cabarets of Savagery and Delight, which featured Leslie's then wife Agnes Bernelle.

He was a writer and actor, known for Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life (1964), That Was the Week That Was (1962) and The Eighties (1971).

He had a long relationship with Arianna Stassinopolous (later Huffington), starting in the 1970s, but they never married. After his death, she claimed they had broken up because he refused to father a child by her, and that he had been the great love of her life.

He was famous for his Times column which he wrote between 1971 and 1997, and also wrote for the Spectator, Daily Mail and the Daily Express. Ill health forced him to scale back his commitments, but he continued to contribute pieces to The Times until July 1998.

Appointed a CBE for "services to journalism" in 1990.