Levinson's first writing work was for television variety shows such as
The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine,
The Lohman and Barkley Show,
The Tim Conway Show, and
The Carol Burnett Show. He moved on to success as a film 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
Valerie Curtin) for
...And Justice for All (1979). He was an uncredited co-writer on
Dustin Hoffman's 1982 hit comedy
Tootsie. Levinson began his career as a film director with
Diner (1982), for which he also wrote the script, earned him an Oscar nomination for
Best Original Screenplay.
Diner was the first of four films set in the
Baltimore of Levinson's youth. The other three were
Tin Men (1987), a story of aluminum-siding salesmen in the 1960s starring
Richard Dreyfuss and
Danny DeVito; the immigrant family saga
Avalon (1990) featuring
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 in which Levinson appeared as a doctor in a cameo appearance. 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. Levinson directed the popular period baseball drama
The Natural (1984), starring
Robert Redford. Redford later directed
Quiz Show (1994), and he cast Levinson as television personality
Dave Garroway. Levinson also directed the classic war comedy
Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), starring
Robin Williams (as
Adrian Cronauer), and he later collaborated with Williams on the fantasy film
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 which was nominated for ten Academy Awards. He directed Dustin Hoffman again in
Wag the Dog (1997), a political satire co-starring
Robert De Niro about a Presidential election swayed by a phony war staged on a film studio. 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, with 1990's
Avalon as the company's first production. Johnson departed the firm 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. Levinson has a television production company with
Tom Fontana (The Levinson/Fontana Company) and has 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 (), in 2003, and like several of his films, it is semi-autobiographical and set in Baltimore in the 1960s. In 2004, he directed two
webisodes of the
American Express ads "
The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman." In 2004, he was also 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. In 2011 Levinson was developing a film based on
Whitey Bulger, the Boston crime boss. The resulting 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 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 by
J. Edgar Hoover." Levinson later left the project. Levinson finished production on
The Humbling (2014), starring
Al Pacino. Levinson also directed
Rock the Kasbah (2015), starring
Bill Murray. In 2010, Levinson received the
Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, which is the lifetime achievement award from the
Writers Guild of America. In 2021, he co-executive produced the
Hulu miniseries
Dopesick and directed the first two episodes.
Unrealized projects ==Filmography==