Barry Levinson Biography
Summary
"Barry Levinson" (born April 6, 1942) is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include "Bugsy", "The Natural" and "Rain Man".
Early life
Levinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Vi (née Krichinsky) and Irvin Levinson, who worked in furniture and appliance business. After growing up in Baltimore and graduating from Forest Park Senior High School, Levinson attended Baltimore City Community College, and American University in Washington, D.C. before moving to Los Angeles to work as an actor and writer. Levinson at one time shared an apartment with would-be drug smuggler (and basis for the movie "Blow") George Jung.
Career
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).
His biggest hit, both critically and financially, was "Rain Man" (1988) with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise (in which Levinson also appeared as an actor). The film won four Academy Awards including Best Director for Levinson. Another notable film in his career was the 1984 baseball drama "The Natural" starring Robert Redford, who would later direct "Quiz Show" and cast Levinson as television personality Dave Garroway. Levinson also directed "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987) and "Toys" (1992), both with Robin Williams, and the critically acclaimed "Bugsy" (1991) with Warren Beatty.
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.
Levinson has been a producer or executive producer for such major productions as "The Perfect Storm" directed by Wolfgang Petersen (2000); "Analyze That" (2002), starring DeNiro as a neurotic mob boss and Billy Crystal as his therapist, and "Possession" (2002), based on the best-selling novel by A. S. Byatt.
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 published his first novel, "Sixty-Six" (ISBN 0-7679-1533-X), in 2003. Like several of his films, it is semi-autobiographical and set in Baltimore in the 1960s. He directed two webisodes of the American Express ads 'The Adventures of Seinfeld and Superman'.
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".
He is a minority owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.
Currently, he resides with his two sons and wife in Redding, Connecticut.
External links
(Barry Levinson on Charlie Rose) (March 24, 1994)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Barry Levinson.
