Barry Levinson Biography (2)

Barry Levinson was awarded the 1988 Best Director Oscar for Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Rain Man also won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. In 1987, Levinson directed Robin Williams in the comedy Good Morning Vietnam, which became one of the year's most acclaimed and popular movies. In 1991 Bugsy, which Levinson directed and produced (with Warren Beatty,) was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Levinson has used his home town of Baltimore as the setting for three widely-praised features: Diner, the semi-autobiographical comedy-drama that marked his directorial debut; Tin Men, starring Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss as two warring aluminum-siding salesmen; and Avalon, an evocative multi-generational story of an American family.

As a screenwriter, Levinson has received three Academy Award nominations, for ...And Justice For All, Diner and Avalon. Levinson's other directorial credits include The Natural, starring Robert Redford; Young Sherlock Holmes; Toys (co-written with Valerie Curtin;) Jimmy Hollywood (which he also wrote and produced); Disclosure (starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore); Sleepers (which he adapted from Lorenzo Carcaterra's controversial book); the political satire Wag the Dog (starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro); and Sphere (starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson).

Levinson returned to Baltimore to film the television series Homicide: Life on the Street. His work on the critically acclaimed drama earned him an Emmy Award for Best Individual Director of a Dramatic Series, as well as two Peabody Awards.

Levinson's Baltimore Pictures produced the Robert Redford-directed Quiz Show, which was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. He also produced the hard-hitting drama Donnie Brasco, starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp.

Levinson and producer Paula Weinstein have recently partnered in Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures, with the hit comedy Analyze This, starring Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro, marking their first film under their new company banner.

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