Early life

Levinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Violet "Vi" (née Krichinsky) and Irvin Levinson, who worked in the furniture and appliance business. His family was of Russian Jewish descent.

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 played 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 an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.

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 1960s 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), a sibling drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise (Levinson appeared in a cameo as a doctor). The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It also won the Golden Bear at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.

Another of his notable films is the popular period baseball drama The Natural (1984), starring Robert Redford. Redford would later direct Quiz Show (1994) and cast Levinson as television personality Dave Garroway. Levinson also directed the classic war comedy Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), starring Robin Williams, with whom he later collaborated on the fantasy Toys (1992) and the political comedy Man of the Year (2006). Levinson also directed the critically acclaimed historical crime drama Bugsy (1991), which starred Warren Beatty and was nominated for ten Academy Awards.

He directed Dustin Hoffman again in Wag the Dog (1997), a political comedy co-starring Robert De Niro about a war staged in a film studio (Levinson had been an uncredited co-writer on Hoffman's 1982 hit comedy Tootsie). The film won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.

Levinson partnered with producer Mark Johnson to form the film production company Baltimore Pictures. The two parted ways in 1994. Levinson has been a producer or executive producer for such major productions as The Perfect Storm (2000), directed by Wolfgang Petersen; Analyze That (2002), starring De Niro 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 to 1999) and the HBO prison drama Oz. Levinson also played an uncredited main role as a judge in the short-lived TV series The Jury.

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". In 2004, Levinson was the recipient of the Austin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award. 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.

Levinson is in production on a film based on Whitey Bulger, the Boston crime boss. The film Black Mass (script by Jim Sheridan, Jez Butterworth, and Russell Gewirtz) is based on the book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, and is said to be the "true story of Billy Bulger, Whitey Bulger, FBI agent John Connelly and the FBI's witness protection program that was created by J. Edgar Hoover."

In September 2013, Levinson was set to direct the film titled Rock the Kasbah, written by Mitch Glazer. Bruce Willis, Shia LaBeouf, Bill Murray and Kate Hudson will star in the film. He has also finished production on The Humbling (2015), starring Al Pacino.

In 2010 Levinson received the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, which is the lifetime achievement award from the Writers Guild of America.

Filmography

Film

Title	Year	Credited as				Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer	Other
Street Girls	1975		Yes			With Michael Miller
Silent Movie	1976		Yes		Actor	With Mel Brooks, Ron Clark and Rudy De Luca Role: Executive
High Anxiety	1977		Yes		Actor	With Mel Brooks, Ron Clark and Rudy De Luca Role: Bellboy
...And Justice For All	1979		Yes			With Valerie Curtin 1 Oscar nomination
Inside Moves	1980		Yes			With Valerie Curtin
History of the World, Part I	1981				Actor	Role: Column Salesman
Tootsie	1982		Yes			Uncredited With Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal, and Elaine May
Best Friends			Yes			With Valerie Curtin
Diner		Yes	Yes	Executive		1 Oscar nomination
Unfaithfully Yours	1984		Yes			With Valerie Curtin and Robert Klane
The Natural		Yes				4 Oscar nominations
Young Sherlock Holmes	1985	Yes				1 Oscar nomination
Armed Response	1986				Composer	Additional music only
Tin Men	1987	Yes	Yes
Good Morning, Vietnam		Yes				1 Oscar nomination
Rain Man	1988	Yes			Actor	8 Oscar nominations, 4 wins Role: Doctor (uncredited)
Avalon	1990	Yes	Yes	Yes		4 Oscar nominations
Bugsy	1991	Yes		Yes		10 Oscar nominations, 2 wins
Kafka				Executive
Toys	1992	Yes	Yes	Yes
Wilder Napalm	1993			Executive
Jimmy Hollywood	1994	Yes	Yes		Actor	Role: Director of Life Story
Disclosure		Yes		Yes
Quiz Show					Actor	Role: Dave Garroway
A Little Princess	1995			Executive
Sleepers	1996	Yes	Yes	Yes		1 Oscar nomination
Wag the Dog	1997	Yes		Yes		2 Oscar nominations
Donnie Brasco				Executive
The Second Civil War				Executive		Television film
Sphere	1998	Yes		Yes
Home Fries				Yes
Liberty Heights	1999	Yes	Yes	Yes
Original Diner Guys		Yes			Himself	Documentary
An Everlasting Piece	2000	Yes		Yes
The Perfect Storm				Executive
Homicide: The Movie				Executive		Television film
Bandits	2001	Yes		Yes
Shot in the Heart				Executive		Television film
Possession	2002			Yes
Analyze That				Executive
Deliver Us from Eva	2003			Executive
The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman		Yes				Pair of short films promoting American Express
Envy	2004	Yes		Yes
Strip Search				Executive		Television film
Man of the Year	2006	Yes	Yes
Bee Movie	2007				Actor	Role: Martin Benson (voice)
What Just Happened	2008	Yes		Yes
PoliWood	2009	Yes				Documentary
The Band That Wouldn't Die		Yes			Creator	Documentary
You Don't Know Jack	2010	Yes		Executive		Television film
The Bay	2012	Yes	Story	Yes
Phil Spector	2013			Executive		Television film
Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight					Actor	Television film Role: Justice Potter Stewart
The Humbling	2014	Yes		Yes
Rock the Kasbah	2015	Yes
The Wizard of Lies	2016	Yes		Executive

Television

Title	Year	Credited as				Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer	Other
The Tim Conway Show	1970		Yes
The Tim Conway Comedy Hour			Yes			1 episode
The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine	1971-72		Yes		Actor	Role: Various
The Carol Burnett Show	1973-76		Yes			72 episodes
Hot l Baltimore	1975		Yes			Episode: "Millie's Beau"
The Rich Little Show	1976		Yes			Episode: "#1.1"
Peeping Times	1978	Yes	Yes			Comedy special
The Investigators	1984	Yes	Yes	Executive
American Playhouse	1985			Yes		Episode: "Displaced Person"
Harry	1987		Yes	Yes		7 episodes
The Earth Day Special	1990		Yes			Segment: "Dustin Hoffman - Robin Williams"
The Larry Sanders Show	1993				Actor	Episode: "Larry's Agent" Role: Himself
Homicide: Life on the Streets	1993-99	Yes	Story	Executive	Developer Actor	122 episodes Role: Himself
Oz	1997-2003			Executive		56 episodes
The Hoop Life	1999-2000			Yes		12 episodes
The Beat	2000	Yes		Executive		6 episodes
Falcone				Executive		9 episodes
The Jury	2004	Yes	Story	Executive	Creator Actor	Role: Judge Horatio Hawthorne
The Bedford Diaries	2006			Executive		4 episodes
The Philanthropist	2009			Executive		8 episodes
Borgia	2011-14			Executive		38 episodes
Copper	2012-13			Executive		12 episodes
Shades of Blue	2016	Yes		Executive		12 episodes
Killing Fields				Executive		4 episodes

[ Source: Wikipedia ]