Biography

Eugene Levy

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Overview

Born
December 17, 1946 · Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Nicknames
- Butch
- Gene
Height
5′ 10″ (1.78 m)

Mini bio

Eugene Levy is an award-winning actor, writer, and producer. He has appeared in more than 60 motion pictures to date, eight of which having topped the $100M mark. The box office success of films such as Bringing Down the House (2003), Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005) , and Father of the Bride Part II (1995) have established him as one of Hollywood's most popular comedic actors. But it was the role of Noah Levenstein in the American Pie franchise that cemented his reputation as America's favorite Dad. Levy's most recent big-screen role was that of Dory's Dad in the Disney/Pixar smash Finding Dory, in which he stars alongside Ellen DeGeneres and Diane Keaton. The film has surpassed the $1B mark worldwide, and is on track to become one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time.

Partnering with Christopher Guest, Levy earned critical acclaim for co-writing and co-starring in Best In Show, Waiting For Guffman, For Your Consideration, and A Mighty Wind. Levy has been nominated for and won countless awards for his films including a New York Film Critics Circle Award and a Grammy Award® for A Mighty Wind and a Golden Globe® nomination for Best In Show. Other films include Splash, Armed and Dangerous, Multiplicity, Club Paradise, and Serendipity.

In 2013, Levy formed Not A Real Company Productions (with his son Daniel Levy and principals Andrew Barnsley and Fred Levy) to produce Schitt's Creek, a television series for CBC/ITV he co-created, co-executive produces, and co-stars in with Daniel Levy. The single-cam, character-driven comedy also stars Catherine O'Hara, Annie Murphy, and Chris Elliott.

In 2016, Levy won Lead Actor in a Comedy at the Canadian Screen Awards and, as Executive Producer, the CSA for Best Comedy, an award he shared with Daniel Levy, among others. Schitt's Creek swept the Canadian Screen Awards, winning nine of a possible 10 categories. Levy also received the prestigious Legacy Award (along with co-star and long-time collaborator, Catherine O'Hara) from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Levy won two Emmys® for his writing on SCTV in addition to many other awards and nominations for his television work.

Levy is a Member of the Order of Canada and a recipient of The Governor General's Performing Arts Award - the foremost honor presented for excellence in the performing arts.
- IMDb mini biography by: Schitt's Creek PR

Family

Spouse
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Thick eyebrows
Distinctive voice
Glasses

Trivia

He is the only actor to be in all eight of the "American Pie" movies.
He and his son Dan Levy made history at the 72nd Emmy Awards. They became the first father/son duo to be nominated for and to win Emmy Awards on the same night. Eugene last took home an Emmy Award back in 1982 when he and Catherine O'Hara wrote for Moral Majority (1981).
He insisted on raising his children Dan Levy and Sarah Levy in Toronto and vowed to never expose them to the way that kids are raised in Hollywood. Dan and Sarah both grew up with the same acting bug as their father. Dan is also into film production and writing.
Son of Rebecca "Betty" (Kudlats) and Joseph "Joe" Levy, an automobile plant foreman. His father was born in Hamilton, to Bulgarian Sephardi Jewish parents, from Vidin. His mother was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Polish Ashkenazi Jewish parents.
He waited for his son Dan Levy to come out to him as gay, but when he was just 18 years old Dan had come out to his mother because she was anxious to know if she had a queer child. As he was walking down the red carpet at the 2019 Canadian Screen Actors Awards he stated that he was "proud of his son and everything that he set out to accomplish." Schitt's Creek is successful because of its positive portrayal of the gay community as a whole. The way that the Levy clan had planned for the show to be.

Quotes

I can't do comedy that is cutting and vicious. If I knew I'd said something that was going to make someone feel bad, well, that supersedes everything.
[on his role in Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003)] I like playing villains - villains that aren't that bright, you know?..Okay, this is the guy. I'm thinking I can finally bring some mustaches out of the drawer.This is set in the mid-'80s. Glasses down to here. And the mustache is somewhere between [Adolf Hitler] and ]Groucho Marx].
One of the biggest misconceptions about me is that I'm a comedian, which I'm not. A comedian is someone who can stand up in front of an audience and make you laugh. I've never done stand-up and I never will. I'm a comic actor. My comedy comes through my characters.
I would love to work with Sir Anthony Hopkins. How and why that would happen in a comedy I'm not sure--why he would be dragged over to my side, or I'd be be dragged over to his side.
At the end of the day, even if my part is a bit goofy, the key thing is that I'm doing what I love to do, and that's to make people laugh.