Born in New York City, trained at the Pratt Art Institute. Veteran art director and set designer who entered the film industry in the mid-1940s and worked consistantly through the 70s, designing the sets for a wide range of films -- from the film noir melodrama KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS (1948) and the lush Douglas Sirk "women's picture" MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954) to the low-budget sci-fi classic, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957). Levitt earned Oscar® nominations for her work on the picture-pretty PILLOW TALK (1959), the popular classic THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965), the starkly realistic THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971) and Roman Polanski's retro film noir CHINATOWN (1974). She was also responsible for the deliciously creepy look of the TV series, "The Addams Family," in the mid-1960s. Other notable (non-nominated) credits among her 81 feature films are SMASH-UP, THE STORY OF A WOMAN (1947), BEDTIME FOR BONZO (1951), IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953), THE PRIVATE WAR OF MAJOR BENSON (1955), HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE (1971), THE OTHER (1972), JACQUELINE SUSANN'S ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH (1975), A STAR IS BORN (1976), LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR and NEW YORK, NEW YORK (both 1977), and her last picture THE JAZZ SINGER (1980).  Nominated for Art Direction/Set Decoration (Color) 1959: PILLOW TALK - Set Decoration (w. Russell A. Gausman)  Nominated for Art Direction/Set Decoration (Color) 1965: THE SOUND OF MUSIC - Set Decoration (w. Walter M. Scott)  Nominated for Art Direction/Set Decoration 1971: THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN - Set Decoration  Nominated for Art Direction/Set Decoration 1974: CHINATOWN - Set Decoration 4 nominations