What is Barry Levinson's Net Worth?
Barry Levinson is an American writer, director, producer, and actor who has a net worth of $150 million. Barry Levinson won an Academy Award for directing 1988's "Rain Man," and he has also directed films such as "Diner" (1982), "The Natural" (1984), "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987), "Avalon" (1990), "Bugsy" (1991), and "Wag the Dog" (1997). Barry wrote several of the films he's directed, and he was a writer on "The Carol Burnett Show" from 1973 to 1976. Levinson has served as an executive producer on the television series "Homicide: Life on the Streets" (1993–1999), "The Beat" (2000) "The Jury" (2004), and "Shades of Blue" (2016) and the miniseries "Dopesick" (2021), and he co-created "The Jury" and helped develop "Homicide: Life on the Streets." Barry has produced many of his films, and he also produced "Kafka" (1991), "Wilder Napalm" (1993), "A Little Princess" (1995), "Donnie Brasco" (1997), "The Perfect Storm" (2000), "Analyze That" (2002), and "Deliver Us from Eva" (2003).
Levinson has appeared in "Rain Man," "Bugsy," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "Wag the Dog," and "The Jury" as well as "The Tim Conway Comedy Hour" (1970), "The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine" (1971), "Silent Movie" (1976) "High Anxiety" (1977), "History of the World: Part I" (1981), "The Larry Sanders Show" (1993), "Jimmy Hollywood" (1994), "Quiz Show" (1994), "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight" (2013), "Here Today" (2021), and "The Kominsky Method" (2021). Barry voiced Martin Benson in the 2007 computer-animated film "Bee Movie," and he published the novel "Sixty-Six" in 2003.
Early Life
Barry Levinson was born Barry Lee Levinson on April 6, 1942, in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents, Violet and Irvin, were of Russian-Jewish descent. Barry attended Forest Park Senior High School, and after graduating in 1960, he enrolled at Baltimore City Community College. He later studied broadcast journalism at the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C. After moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a writer and actor, Levinson lived with future drug smuggler George Jung, who would become the subject of the 2001 film "Blow."
Career
Barry began his career writing for TV series such as "The Tim Conway Show" (1970), "The Tim Conway Comedy Hour" (1970), "The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine" (1971–1972), and "The Carol Burnett Show" (1973–1976). Before he directed his first film, he wrote the screenplays for "Street Girls" (1975), "Silent Movie" (1976), "High Anxiety" (1977), "…And Justice for All." (1979), "Inside Moves" (1980), and "Best Friends" (1982). Levinson earned an Academy Award nomination for his directorial debut, 1982's "Diner," which he also wrote and produced. He then directed "The Natural" (1984), "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985), and "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987) and wrote and directed "Tin Men" (1987). Barry won an Oscar for Best Director for 1988's "Rain Man," which grossed $354.8 million against a $25 million budget, and the film also won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Next, Levinson wrote, directed, and produced "Avalon" (1990), "Toys" (1992), "Sleepers" (1996), and "Liberty Heights" (1999), wrote and directed "Jimmy Hollywood" (1994), and directed and produced "Bugsy" (1991), "Disclosure" (1994), "Wag the Dog" (1997), and "Sphere" (1998). He received Oscar nominations for "Avalon" and "Bugsy." In the '90s, Barry also produced the NBC police drama "Homicide: Life on the Street" (1993–1999), and he won a Primetime Emmy for directing the 1993 episode "Gone for Goode."
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From 1997 to 2003, Levinson was an executive producer on the HBO series "Oz," and in 2004, he co-created the Fox legal drama "The Jury" with James Yoshimura and Tom Fontana. Around this time, he directed and produced the films "An Everlasting Piece" (2000), "Bandits" (2001), and "Envy" (2004). Barry wrote and directed 2006's "Man of the Year," then he directed and produced 2008's "What Just Happened" and directed the 2009 documentary "PoliWood." On television, he directed and produced the HBO movies "You Don't Know Jack" (2010), "The Wizard of Lies" (2017), "Paterno" (2018), and "The Survivor" (2021), receiving Primetime Emmy nominations for all of them, and he directed two episodes of the NBC crime drama " Shades of Blue" (2016). Levinson directed and produced 2012's "The Bay" and 2014's "The Humbling" and directed 2015's "Rock the Kasbah," and in 2021, he directed two episodes of the Hulu miniseries "Dopesick." He also executive produced "Dopesick," and it earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.
Personal Life
Barry married actress/screenwriter Valerie Curtin on December 13, 1977. They divorced in 1982. Levinson wed Diana Rhodes in 1983, and they have two sons, Sam Levinson (born January 8, 1985) and Jack (born May 15, 1988). Both Sam and Jack appeared in "Toys," and Sam grew up to be a screenwriter, director, and producer who created the HBO series "Euphoria," which received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series in 2022.
Awards and Nominations
Levinson has been nominated for six Academy Awards, winning Best Director for "Rain Man" in 1989. His other nominations were for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for "…And Justice for All." (1980), "Diner" (1983), and "Avalon" (1991) and Best Director and Best Picture for "Bugsy" (1992). Barry has earned three Golden Globe nominations, Best Screenplay – Motion Picture for "Avalon" and Best Director – Motion Picture for "Rain Man" and "Bugsy." He has received more than a dozen Primetime Emmy nominations, taking home the prize for Best Writing in Variety or Music for "The Carol Burnett Show" (1974), Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Series for "The Carol Burnett Show" (1975), Outstanding Children's Program for "Displaced Person" (1985), and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Directing in a Drama Series for "Homicide: Life on the Street" (1993). Levinson has received eight Directors Guild of America Award nominations, winning for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for "Rain Man," and the film also earned him awards from the Berlin International Film Festival, David di Donatello Awards, Jupiter Awards, Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards, Kinema Junpo Awards, and Mainichi Film Concours.
Barry has been honored with the American Cinema Editors Filmmaker of the Year Award (2002), the American Comedy Awards Creative Achievement Award (1999), the Munich Film Festival CineMerit Award (2006), the US Comedy Arts Festival AFI Filmmaker Award (2000), and the Writers Guild of America Laurel Award for Screen Writing Achievement (2010). He also earned a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for "Avalon." In 1983, Levinson won a Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay for "Diner," and he received a Hochi Film Award for Best Foreign Language Film for "The Natural" in 1984. In 1991, he earned a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Director for "Bugsy," and in 1998, he won a Special Jury Prize for "Wag the Dog" at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2010, Levinson received an International Documentary Association Award for Continuing Series for "30 for 30."
Real Estate
In 1993 Barry paid $2.3 million for a 10,500 square-foot mansion in the Marin County town of Ross, California. His neighbors included Lars Ulrich and Sean Penn and then-wife Robin Wright. Barry and his wife listed this home for sale in 2000 for $17.5 million. They ultimately accepted $15 million.
In 2000 Barry and his wife paid $10.5 million for a 40+ acre estate in Redding, Connecticut. Two years later they paid $725,000 for 6 additional acres next door. The main property features a 10,000 square-foot mansion that was built in the 1990s. The Levinsons listed this property for sale in late 2012 for $13 million. Within a month they sold the property for $10.1 million. Here's a video tour of this property from a 2022 listing:
In March 2020, Levinson sold his custom-built home in Annapolis, Maryland, for $5 million. Built in 2010, the 6,700 square foot waterfront home features four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, and a gourmet kitchen as well as a basement that includes an entertainment room and a one-car garage.
