Barry Levinson (b. April 6, 1942, Baltimore, Maryland) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, director and producer.

After growing up in Baltimore, he attended American University in Washington, D.C. before moving to Los Angeles to work as in actor and writer. His 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 (Silent Movie, 1976, High Anxiety, 1977, ...And Justice for All, 1979), he had his breakthrough as a director with Diner (1982), for which he had also written the script and which earned him a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination. Diner was the first of a series of films that look back to his childhood and adolescence in Baltimore. Other films in this slightly autobiographical vein were Tin Men (1987), starring Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito, and the turn-of-the century immigrant family saga Avalon (which saw Elijah Wood in one of his earliest screen appearances), as well as the more recent Liberty Heights (1999). All three movies were written and directed by Barry Levinson himself; for the last two he also acted as producer.

His biggest hit, both critically and financially, was Rain Man (1988) with Dustin Hoffman and a young Tom Cruise. The film won four Academy Awards including Best Director for Levinson. Other notable films in his directing career were The Natural (1984), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) with Robin Williams, and Bugsy (1991) with Warren Beatty.

He directed Dustin Hoffman again in Wag the Dog (1997), a political comedy about a war staged in a film studio. He is also credited as an unofficial co-writer on Dustin Hoffman's transvestite comedy Tootsie (1982).

Apart from producing many of his own films, he has also been producer or executive producer for such major productions as The Perfect Storm (directed by Wolfgang Petersen, 2000), Analyze That (2002, starring Robert de Niro as psychotic mafia boss and Billy Crystal as his shrink), and Possession (2002, based on the bestselling novel by A. S. Byatt). He was also executive producer for the 1990s NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street.

Levinson married his writing collaborator Valerie Curtin in 1975. They would divorce seven years later. He later married Dianna Rhodes whom he met in Baltimore while filming Diner.

External link

• Barry Levinson http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001469/ at the Internet Movie Database