Comprehensive information and links about Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson (born April 6, 1942 in Baltimore, MarylandBarry Levinson is a Jewish-American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television.

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 was the first of a series of films set in the Baltimore of Levinson's youth. The other films in this series were (1987), starring Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito, and the turn-of-the-century immigrant family saga (which featured Elijah Wood in one of his earliest screen appearances), as well as the more recent (1999). All four 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 (1988) with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. The film won four Academy Awards including Best Director for Levinson. Other notable films in his directing career were (1997), a political comedy about a war staged in a film studio. He was also an uncredited co-writer on Dustin Hoffman's transvestite comedy (1982).

Apart from producing many of his own films, he has also been producer or executive producer for such major productions as (2002, based on the bestselling novel by A. S. Byatt). He was also executive producer for the television series (ISBN 076791533X), in 2003. Like several of his films, it is semi-autobiographical and set in Baltimore in the early 1960s.

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