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Noted theatrical and film producer Oscar Lewenstein played an important role in popularizing Great Britain's New Drama Movement. Born in a London suburb, the son of Russian-Jewish parents, he was raised in Hove where his father owned a small business. By the time Lewenstein was 14, he and his family had returned to London and after getting out of school worked at the Worker's Bookshop where he hobnobbed with numerous Leftist intellectuals and authors. During WWII, Lewenstein taught illiterate recruits to read and write. In 1952, he became the manager of the Royal Court Theatre, the early home of George Bernard Shaw's early works. Before that, Lewenstein had worked with the politically oriented Unity Theater. Lewenstein, playwright Ronald Duncan, and actor/director George Devine teamed up in 1956 to found the English Stage Company at the Royal Court. Such dramas as the hit plays Look Back in Anger, Billy Liar, and What the Butler Saw heralded the dawning of a new age for English dramatic playwrights and screenwriters. While with the company, Lewenstein functioned in many capacities, including that of co-producer and between 1972 and 1975 as the artistic director. He also helped transfer productions to the West End. In the early '60s, he worked unofficially for Tony Richardson on A Taste of Honey (1961) and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1963). Later in 1963, Lewenstein was billed as an associate producer for Richardson's Academy Award-winning Tom Jones. In 1994, he published his memoirs, Kicking Against the Pricks. Lewenstein died in Brighton, England, at the age of 80.