Few filmmakers are as associated with a specific place and time in American history as producer/screenwriter/director Barry Levinson, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1942 and set several of his most successful films in that city during the time of his youth. His father worked in the furniture and appliance business in Baltimore, and the young Levinson lived there before heading to Washington, D.C., for college. He then moved to Los Angeles to work as an actor and a writer for TV variety shows including The Carol Burnett Show, which won Levinson and his co-writers two Emmy awards.

He then turned to screenwriting and was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Screenplay for ...And Justice for All (1979), a satirical drama about the American justice system starring Al Pacino. Sharing the nomination was co-writer Valerie Curtin, to whom Levinson was married from 1977 to 1982.

The first of Levinson's "Baltimore" movies was Diner (1982), in which a group of guys in their early 20s meet regularly as they amble toward adulthood. The film marked Levinson's debut as a director, brought him an Oscar® nomination for Best Screenplay and established him as a spinner of sensitive, humorous stories about the struggling middle class. Also set in his hometown are Tin Men (1987), starring Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito as aluminum salesmen in the 1950s; the family saga Avalon (1990); and Liberty Heights (1999), with Adrien Brody and Ben Foster as brothers confronting prejudice in the '50s.

Among Levinson's other noted films is the baseball drama The Natural (1984), based on the Bernard Malamud novel and starring Robert Redford as an aging rookie who becomes a star player. He guided Robin Williams to an Oscar® nomination for his performance in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). Levinson reached his peak with Rain Man (1988), starring Dustin Hoffman as an autistic savant and Tom Cruise as his exploitive brother. The movie won four Oscar®s including Best Picture and Levinson as Best Director.

Levinson also was nominated for his direction of Bugsy (1991), starring Warren Beatty as the gangster who first envisioned Las Vegas. In addition to producing numerous prestigious films and television productions, he is also a novelist and has many acting credits including the role of Dave Garroway in Quiz Show (1994).

Levinson, who married Diana Rhodes in 1983, has four children and stepchildren. Among his more recent credits is PoliWood, a documentary about the Democratic and Republican national conventions of 2008.

by Roger Fristoe