Don Levine (April 1, 1928 – May 22, 2014) was a business executive at toy manufacturers

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

credited as the "father" of

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), Ac ...

action figure An action figure is a poseable character (arts), character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are ...

s.Don Levine, Hasbro exec who helped create GI Joe, dies
May 24, 2014 AP Donald Levine was born in Elmhurst, New York to the late Ralph and Mildred Levine. He graduated Syracuse University. He was an avid tennis player competing in the Jr. Davis Cup and representing the US Army in tournaments in Asia during his military career. As Hasbro's head of research and development, Levine guided G.I. Joe through its design and development after receiving the conceptual idea from a man named Stanley Weston (Weston received $100,000 for his contribution) and the name from a 1945 film called ''The Life of G.I. Joe'', also called ''

The Story of G.I. Joe ''The Story of G.I. Joe'', also credited in prints as ''Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe'', is a 1945 American war film directed by William A. Wellman, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, i ...

''. Levine served with the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

and Hasbro's employees also included many military veterans, so it was decided the toy should be outfitted in the uniforms of the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force and their respective accessories. He wanted the G.I. Joe toys to be an attempt at honoring all the service members in the United States, like him. In September 1971 he was appointed president of

Leisure Concepts 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production company that produced English- dub ...

. In 2005-2006, Levine designed and manufactured an action figure of

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

for a

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

program called Devil Eyes. Levine developed a twelve-inch lifelike figure whose face was painted with a material that, when heated, would peel off to reveal a demon-like visage with green eyes and black markings. When asked in 2014 about Levine's involvement in the program, his family said in a statement, "Don Levine was a dedicated Patriot, and proud Korean War veteran. When called on, he was honored to assist our country." In the years before his death, he sold some rare prototypes of G.I. Joe Figures , including one that sold for $200,000 in 2003 at auction.

Death

In 2014 Levine died from cancer at a

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

hospice. He is survived by Nan, his wife of nearly 60 years. They have three children and four grandchildren. His funeral was held at Temple Beth-El in Providence on May 25, 2014.

Notable Quotes

"Nobody wins a war, but they fight in the wars. And my attitude was, someday I'm gonna do it." On his life and attitude before joining the military in an interview with video producer Chad Hembree. "Someday I'm going to do something to honor this military, these military people, who fight in the wars." From archival footage cited by NPR's Elizabeth Blair for

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

References

External links

* 1928 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople Jewish American military personnel United States Army personnel of the Korean War G.I. Joe Deaths from cancer in Rhode Island {{US-business-bio-1920s-stub