A journalist for over 50 years, starting in newspapers, Levine switched to TV in 1950, covering the Korean War for NBC. He was later the first foreign correspondent to be accredited in the Soviet Union, and his acute observations of the USSR led to three best-selling books on the country.
Once he returned to the U.S. in 1971, he became the chief economics correspondent for the NBC network, where he was known for his lucid explanations of the dismal science that average people could understand — and his bow ties. He retired from NBC in 1995, and became dean of Lynn University’s School of International Communication in Boca Raton, Florida. He died March 27 from prostate cancer. He was 86.