Barry Levinson is a successful writer-director-producer whose credits include the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and the box office hits Rain Man (1988, with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman) and Wag the Dog (1997, with Hoffman and Robert DeNiro). Originally a stand-up comedian, Levinson got a career boost as a writer for Carol Burnett's hit TV show in the early 1970s. He went on to become a screenwriter in the late '70s, notably for comedian Mel Brooks on the films Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977) and History of the World, Part I (1981); he also earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for ...And Justice For All (1979, starring Al Pacino). His debut as a director, the 1982 film Diner (1982), propelled him into the big-time, as well as identifying him with his hometown of Baltimore, a locale also featured prominently in his films Tin Men (1988) and Avalon (1991). Levinson's other credits include The Natural (1985, starring Robert Redford); Good Morning, Vietnam (1987, starring Robin Williams); Bugsy (1991, starring Warren Beatty); Bandits (2001, with Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton); Envy (2004, with Ben Stiller and Jack Black); Man of the Year (2006); and What Just Happened? (2008, with DeNiro, Willis and Catherine Keener).
2004's Uniform, a short film available on the Web starring Jerry Seinfeld and Superman, was directed by Levinson... Levinson has been nominated for an Oscar five times, twice for directing and three times for writing; he won the Best Director Oscar for Rain Man.
(born April 6, 1942, Baltimore, Md., U.S.) U.S. film director. He worked as a comedy writer for Carol Burnett and Mel Brooks in the 1970s, then made his directorial debut with Diner (1982), the first of several movies set in his native city. He followed it with The Natural (1984), Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Tin Men (1987), and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). Noted for his directorial versatility, ranging from drama and crime stories to political satire, he also created the highly popular Rain Man (1988, Academy Award), Avalon (1990), Bugsy (1991), Sleepers (1996), Wag the Dog (1997), and The Perfect Storm (2000).
One of the more versatile American filmmakers of his generation, Barry Levinson's movies showcased subjects as diverse as the immigrant experience, mob intrigue, and political satire. He earned particular acclaim for his semi-autobiographical portraits of life in 1950s Baltimore, a topic that he explored to great effect in Diner, his 1982 directorial debut.
Born in Baltimore on June 2, 1942, Levinson was the son of a warehouse manager. Initially intent on a career in the media, he studied Broadcast Journalism in college but didn't remain there long enough to earn a degree. He instead switched his interests to acting and standup comedy, and, after serving a stint as a staff writer on The Carol Burnett Show, he was hired by producer Mel Brooks. The first film to carry a screenwriter credit for Levinson (in the company of several other writers) was Silent Movie (1976); this was followed by Brooks' High Anxiety (1977), which also featured Levinson as a vengeful bellboy in the film's celebrated Psycho-parody scene.
Levinson's first directorial job was the low-budget Diner (1982), the first installment of his "Baltimore trilogy" (the others were Tin Men (1987) and Avalon (1990)); Diner served to showcase several stars-to-be, among them Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Daniel Stern, Paul Reiser, and Michael Tucker. A poignant, critically acclaimed, coming-of-age story, the film helped to establish Levinson as a bankable director; this status was further solidified with such purely commercial projects as The Natural (1984) and Young Sherlock Holmes (1985). In 1988, Levinson tackled one of his most ambitious projects in Rain Man, the remarkable saga of a disaffected yuppie's deepening relationship with his autistic savant brother. An all-around success, the film won numerous Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman).
Levinson had little difficulty imposing his own personal stamp on such star-oriented films as Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), starring Robin Williams, and Bugsy (1991), starring Warren Beatty. Although he has made few missteps in his career, Levinson suffered an intensely personal defeat with Toys (1992), a morality tale acted out in a toy manufacturing company. The film had been a pet project of Levinson's for nearly 20 years, and, when finally completed, it proved to be a complete turkey. Similarly disappointing was the director's Jimmy Hollywood (1994); a comedy starring Joe Pesci as a struggling actor, it sank at the box office. He had greater luck with Sleepers (1996), the disturbing tale of four lifelong friends seeking retribution for torture and sexual abuse they suffered as young boys at a reform school. The following year proved to be a banner one, as Levinson had two critically acclaimed hits, one as the producer of Donnie Brasco, starring Johnny Depp as an undercover cop who develops a dangerous friendship with mobster Al Pacino, and the other as the producer/director of the sharp political satire Wag the Dog, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. Following a semi-disastrous foray into science fiction with Sphere (1998), Levinson literally and figuratively returned to his home turf in 1999 with Liberty Heights. The story of two Jewish boys growing up in Baltimore in the '50s, it featured the familiar Levinson themes of family ties, ethnic tension, Cold War anxiety, and the growing pains of a changing society.
The 21st century started off in a less than stellar way for Levinson as his comedy An Everlasting Piece struggled to get a release in the United States. He oversaw the end of his highly respected television series Homicide by executive producing a TV-movie in 2000 that helped bring some major storylines to a close.
The next year he made the quirky comedy Bandits featuring a love triangle between Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. That film was a mild success, but the same could not be said of his next feature, Envy. The Ben Stiller/Jack Black comedy, with a script originally conceived by Larry David, failed to find support from the studio that funded it as well as from audiences. To steady himself, Levinson teamed yet again with Robin Williams for the political satire Man of the Year, about a political comic who ends up running for the Presidnecy.
Levinson's first writing work was for variety shows such as The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, The Lohman and Barkley Show, The Tim Conway Show, and The Carol Burnett Show. After some success as a screenwriter — notably the Mel Brooks comedies Silent Movie (1976) and High Anxiety (1977) (in which he made a cameo appearance as a bellboy) and the Oscar-nominated script (co-written by then-wife Valerie Curtin) …And Justice for All (1979) — Levinson began his career as a director with Diner (1982), for which he had also written the script and which earned him a Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.
Levinson.
Diner was the first of a series of films set in the Baltimore of Levinson's youth. The others were Tin Men (1987), a story of aluminum-siding salesmen in the 1950s starring Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito; the immigrant family saga Avalon (which featured Elijah Wood in one of his earliest screen appearances), and Liberty Heights (1999).
He directed Dustin Hoffman again in Wag the Dog (1997), a political comedy co-starring Robert DeNiro about a war staged in a film studio. Levinson had been an uncredited co-writer on Hoffman's hit comedy Tootsie in 1982. He partnered with producer Mark Johnson to form the film production company Baltimore Pictures, until the duo parted ways in 1994.
He has a television production company with Tom Fontana (The Levinson/Fontana Company) and served as executive producer for a number of series, including Homicide: Life on the Street (which ran on NBC from 1993-1999) and the HBO prison drama Oz. Levinson also played a main role in the short-lived TV series The Jury, where he played a judge (the role was uncredited).
Levinson directed a documentary PoliWood about the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. The documentary, produced by Tim Daly, Robin Bronk and Robert E. Baruc, had its premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.
Personal life
Levinson married his writing collaborator Valerie Curtin in 1975. They divorced seven years later. He later married Dianna Rhodes, whom he met in Baltimore while filming Diner.
