Anton Szandor LaVey, born Howard Stanton Levey (11 April 1930 (birth time source: Steinbrecher, Astrodatabank) – 29 October 1997) was the founder and High Priest of the Church of Satan as well as a writer, occultist, musician, and actor. He is the author of The Satanic Bible and the founder of LaVeyan Satanism, a synthesized system of his understanding of human nature and the insights of philosophers who advocated materialism and individualism, for which he claimed no "supernatural inspiration”. LaVey viewed "Satan" not as a literal deity or entity, but as a historic and literary figure symbolic of Earthly values.
LaVey was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Gertrude Augusta Coulton and Michael Joseph Levey, a liquor distributor from Omaha, Nebraska.
