Barry Levinson | |
|---|---|
 Levinson in 2009 | |
| Born | Barry Lee Levinson (1942-04-06)April 6, 1942 (age 83) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Alma mater | American University |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1970–present |
| Children | 3, includingSam |
Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter.[1] Levinson won theAcademy Award for Best Director forRain Man (1988).[2][3][4] His other best-known works areDiner (1982),The Natural (1984),Good Morning, Vietnam (1987),Bugsy (1991), andWag the Dog (1997). In 2021, he co-executive produced theHulu miniseriesDopesick and directed the first two episodes.
Levinson was born inBaltimore, Maryland, the son of Violet "Vi" (née Krichinsky) and Irvin Levinson, who worked in the furniture and appliance business.[5] He is of Russian-Jewish descent.[6][7][8][9] After growing up inForest Park, Baltimore and graduating fromForest Park Senior High School in 1960, Levinson studiedbroadcast journalism atBaltimore Junior College andAmerican University in Washington, D.C.[10] He later moved to Los Angeles to work as an actor and writer and performed comedy routines. Levinson at one time shared an apartment with would-be drug smuggler (and subject of the movieBlow)George Jung.[1][11][12][13][14]
Levinson's first writing work was for television variety shows such asTheMarty Feldman Comedy Machine,The Lohman and Barkley Show,The Tim Conway Show, andThe Carol Burnett Show. He moved on to success as a film screenwriter – notably theMel Brooks comediesSilent Movie (1976) andHigh Anxiety (1977) (in which he played a bellboy) and the Oscar-nominated script (co-written byValerie Curtin) for...And Justice for All (1979). He was an uncredited co-writer onDustin Hoffman's 1982 hit comedyTootsie.
Levinson began his career as a film director withDiner (1982), for which he also wrote the script, earned him an Oscar nomination forBest Original Screenplay.Diner was the first of four films set in theBaltimore of Levinson's youth. The other three wereTin Men (1987), a story of aluminum-siding salesmen in the 1960s starringRichard Dreyfuss andDanny DeVito; the immigrant family sagaAvalon (1990) featuringElijah Wood in one of his earliest screen appearances; andLiberty Heights (1999).
His biggest hit, both critically and financially, wasRain Man (1988), a sibling drama starring Dustin Hoffman andTom Cruise in which Levinson appeared as a doctor in a cameo appearance. The film won fourAcademy Awards, includingBest Picture andBest Director. It also won theGolden Bear at the39th Berlin International Film Festival.[15]
Levinson directed the popular period baseball dramaThe Natural (1984), starringRobert Redford. Redford later directedQuiz Show (1994), and he cast Levinson as television personalityDave Garroway. Levinson also directed the classic war comedyGood Morning, Vietnam (1987), starringRobin Williams (asAdrian Cronauer), and he later collaborated with Williams on the fantasy filmToys (1992) and the political comedyMan of the Year (2006). Levinson also directed the critically acclaimed historical crime dramaBugsy (1991), which starredWarren Beatty and which was nominated for ten Academy Awards.
He directed Dustin Hoffman again inWag the Dog (1997), a political satire co-starringRobert De Niro about a Presidential election swayed by a phony war staged on a film studio. The film won theSilver Bear – Special Jury Prize at the48th Berlin International Film Festival.[16]
Levinson partnered with producerMark Johnson to form the film production company Baltimore Pictures, with 1990'sAvalon as the company's first production. Johnson departed the firm in 1994. Levinson has been a producer or executive producer for such major productions asThe Perfect Storm (2000), directed byWolfgang Petersen;Analyze That (2002), starring De Niro as a neurotic mob boss andBilly Crystal as his therapist; andPossession (2002), based on the best-selling novel byA. S. Byatt.
Levinson has a television production company withTom Fontana (The Levinson/Fontana Company) and has served as executive producer for a number of series, includingHomicide: Life on the Street (which ran onNBC from 1993 to 1999) and theHBO prison dramaOz. Levinson also played an uncredited main role as a judge in the short-lived TV seriesThe Jury.
Levinson published his first novel,Sixty-Six (ISBN 0-7679-1533-X), in 2003, and like several of his films, it is semi-autobiographical and set in Baltimore in the 1960s. In 2004, he directed twowebisodes of theAmerican Express ads "The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman." In 2004, he was also the recipient of theAustin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award. Levinson directed a documentaryPoliWood about the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions: the documentary—produced byTim Daly, Robin Bronk and Robert E. Baruc—had its premiere at the 2009Tribeca Film Festival.
In 2011 Levinson was developing a film based onWhitey Bulger, the Boston crime boss.[17] The resulting film,Black Mass (script byJim Sheridan,Jez Butterworth, andRussell Gewirtz), is based on the book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, and it is said to be the "true story of Billy Bulger, Whitey Bulger, FBI agent John Connelly and the FBI's witness protection program created byJ. Edgar Hoover."[18] Levinson later left the project.
Levinson finished production onThe Humbling (2014), starringAl Pacino. Levinson also directedRock the Kasbah (2015), starringBill Murray.[19]
In 2010, Levinson received theLaurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, which is the lifetime achievement award from theWriters Guild of America.[20]
In 2021, he co-executive produced theHulu miniseriesDopesick and directed the first two episodes.
| Year | Title | Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Diner | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer /United Artists |
| 1984 | The Natural | Tri-Star Pictures |
| 1985 | Young Sherlock Holmes | Paramount Pictures |
| 1987 | Tin Men | Buena Vista Distribution |
| Good Morning, Vietnam | ||
| 1988 | Rain Man | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| 1990 | Avalon | Tri-Star Pictures |
| 1991 | Bugsy | |
| 1992 | Toys | 20th Century Fox |
| 1994 | Jimmy Hollywood | Paramount Pictures |
| Disclosure | Warner Bros. | |
| 1996 | Sleepers | Warner Bros. /PolyGram Filmed Entertainment |
| 1997 | Wag the Dog | New Line Cinema |
| 1998 | Sphere | Warner Bros. |
| 1999 | Liberty Heights | |
| 2000 | An Everlasting Piece | DreamWorks Pictures /Sony Pictures Releasing |
| 2001 | Bandits | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / 20th Century Fox |
| 2004 | Envy | DreamWorks Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing |
| 2006 | Man of the Year | Universal Pictures |
| 2008 | What Just Happened | Magnolia Pictures |
| 2012 | The Bay | Lionsgate /Roadside Attractions |
| 2014 | The Humbling | Millennium Films |
| 2015 | Rock the Kasbah | Open Road Films |
| 2025 | The Alto Knights | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Year | Title | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards | Golden Globe Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
| 1982 | Diner | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 1984 | The Natural | 4 | 1 | ||||
| 1985 | Young Sherlock Holmes | 1 | |||||
| 1987 | Good Morning, Vietnam | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 1988 | Rain Man | 8 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | |
| 1990 | Avalon | 4 | 3 | ||||
| 1991 | Bugsy | 10 | 2 | 8 | 1 | ||
| 1992 | Toys | 2 | |||||
| 1996 | Sleepers | 1 | |||||
| 1997 | Wag the Dog | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||
| 2001 | Bandits | 2 | |||||
| Total | 34 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 23 | 4 | |
