Barry Levinson is a screenwriter and director who has worked in film and television. While he is most famous for the film "Rain Man", he has directed many other movies that have been high successful at the box office.
Barry Levinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland on April 6, 1942. After graduating from American University, he moved to L.A. to find acting and writing work. His earliest jobs were writing for comedy / variety shows of the sixties and seventies such as "The Tim Conway Show", "The Carol Burnett Show", "The Lohman and Barkley Show", and "The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine". During the late seventies he was successful writing screenplays, including "Silent Movie", "High Anxiety", and "...And Justice for All". His directorial debut was in 1982 with the movie "Diner", which he also wrote. The film is about a group of high school boys who reunite later in life when one of them gets married. The film received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay and was one of several films Barry Levinson wrote and directed which were set in his home city of Baltimore, the others being "Avalon", "Tin Men" (which starred Richard Dreyfuss and Danny Devito), and "Liberty Heights".
1988 saw Barry Levinson's greatest film success with "Rain Man", the instant classic story of a struggling materialistic businessman (played by Tom Cruise) who discovers he has an autistic brother (played by Dennis Hoffman) when his estranged father dies. The movie is famous for bringing autism to the national consciousness, and won four Academy Awards. Barry Levinson won the Best Director Academy Award for the picture. Future movies Barry Levinson directed which were successful included "Toys", "Good Morning, Vietnam", "Bugsy", and "Wag the Dog".
More recently, Barry Levinson has moved to working as producer or executive producer on a large number of films, including "The Perfect Storm", "Envy", and "Analyze That". As of early 2007 he continues to work in the film industry as a movie producer.