Ted Levine is an American theater, film and television actor. Known for the role of the killer Buffalo Bill in the cult psychological thriller directed by Jonathan Demmee “Silence of the Lambs", based on T. Harris’s work of the same name about Hannibal Lector.
In the creative biography of the actor, there are about a hundred roles in television and film projects. He began his career on the stage in the 1980s, joining the troupe of the Chicago Theater. In the same years, he looked for work on television and in films, but received only small roles in television series and popular entertainment shows. Success in the cinema came to Levine in the early 1990s after playing the role in the famous thriller Silence of the Lambs.
Facts from the biography
The future actor was born in the United States in the spring of 1957. He was 4 out of 5 children in the family. His ancestors on the part of his father were of Russian origin, on the part of his mother - Welsh and Native American. The boy’s parents worked as doctors.
Ted grew up a very restless child. His interests were very versatile, but the boy could not choose one thing. In school years, he was not an assiduous student, his academic performance left much to be desired. Parents really wanted his son to follow in their footsteps and choose a medical specialty, but Teda was not attracted by this prospect. He liked the work.
From an early age he was an excellent storyteller and, inventing stories, assured everyone that they happened in real life. As a teenager, Ted became interested in theater and decided to become an actor. At school, the young man participated in all theatrical productions, and in high school he made his debut on the professional stage.
Creative way
Educated at Windsor Mining School, Levine enrolled at Marlboro College in Vermont. But before graduation, it did not come. He was tired of studying, so he decided to join one of the local theater troupes.
In the late 1970s, Levine moved to Ann Arbor. There he organized his own small theater with fellow actors. A few years later, he decided to go to New York to continue to perform on stage and begin acting in films. But he did not manage to get a good job right away. Ted had to earn extra money in cafes and restaurants in order to provide himself with money. As a result, New York turned out to be too expensive for Ted, he decided to move to Chicago.
There he quickly found a job in advertising. Soon he met an old friend who helped Ted get a job at the Chicago Theater. In the same period, he began to look for the opportunity to act in films.
Film career
Levine made his screen debut in 1983 with the naked eye. Then he appeared in projects: "American Theater", "Fatherland Justice". In 1986, the actor was offered the main role in the series "Crime Story", where he starred for several years.
Success came to Ted in 1991 after playing the role of the killer of Buffalo Bill in the thriller Silence of the Lambs, where Anthony Hopkins played the main role of Hannibal Lector. The film received many excellent reviews from viewers and film critics and won five Oscars, as well as awards: Golden Globe, Saturn, the British Academy and the Berlin Film Festival. The success of the film opened up new opportunities for the actor in Hollywood, his career began to grow rapidly.
In the following years, the actor played many roles in famous films and TV series, among which were: "The Last Outcast", "Georgia", "A Man from Nowhere", "Fight", "Bullet", "Superman", "Moby Dick", "Fast and Furious ", " Ali ", " Memoirs of a Geisha ", " Island of the Damned ", " Ray Donovan ", " Deadly Weapons ", " Jurassic World 2 ".
