A masterly comic actor who also won acclaim as a member of the fourth estate and director, Eugene Levy was born on December 17, 1946, in Hamilton, Ontario, the welcoming comfortable with of McMaster University, where he enrolled after graduating from Westdale Pongy chief School in the unchanged city. Levy studied blear at McMaster, and, in 1967, became vice president of the McMaster Membrane Board, a swot film group where he met sweetheart aspiring moviemaker Ivan Reitman. (Other McMas... ter students at the temporarily included Martin Shortened and Dave Thomas.) In 1970, Reitman began work on a low-budget queasiness silver screen called Anthropophagite Girls and cast Levy as Clifford Sturges. One of his co-stars was a struggling actress named Andrea Martin, who would later employment alongside Levy's old pals Short and Thomas -- as well as John Candy and Joe Flaherty -- on the short-lived Canadian sitcom The David Steinberg Show. Levy and Martin's paths crossed again when they were cast in the Toronto production of the euphonious Godspell; the cast also included Gilda Radner and Paul Shaffer, in over to Brief, Sweets, and Thomas. After Godspell closed in 1973 (just in hour in favour of the long-delayed Cannibal Girls to for ever conk the grind-house circuit), Levy joined the Toronto company of the famed improvisational Later Burgh comedy troupe, in which Candy and Flaherty were already cast members.

After two years as a for the sake of of Second Big apple, Levy, Candy, and Flaherty definite to move to California to try their luck in the States; they didn't fare plainly at sooner, but their idea for a small screen series close to a run-down, low-budget television install eventually blossomed into Flawed City TV, or (SCTV, for compressed). While the show, ironically, brought Levy and his friend's towards the rear to Toronto (where it was shot), it also became a solid dream up in Canada and developed a trusted cult following in the U.S., and, what is more, launched the careers of Levy, Flaherty, Thomas, Sweets, Short, Martin, and Catherine O'Hara in America. (After SCTV's initial run ended in 1981, NBC brought the show backwards in an extended version called SCTV Network 90, which featured a higher budget, more guest stars, and ran until 1983. Levy also won two Emmy awards as a member of the show's writing staff.) Levy and Sweets also created an acclaimed spin-in error from the show based around their characters of polka musicians Stan and Yosh Shmenge, a 1984 cable special entitled The Last Polka. Near the mid-'80s, Levy had grow a familiar face on both episodic television and in movies, albeit almost always in comical supporting roles.

In 1989, he began working behind the camera again, directing a unusual in regard to his old team-mate Martin Short, and, in 1992, made his column directorial come out with the John Confectionery/Jim Belushi comedy Once Upon a Crime. In 1996, no matter what, Levy scored a bigger breakthrough when he and Christopher Guest began writing a screenplay in favour of a mockumentary in a measly township theater troupe. Waiting exchange for Guffman became a surprise lash and gave Levy a meaty mirthful role as mount-struck dentist Allan Gem. In 1999, the actor won another high- success with the blockbuster buffet American Pie, in which he played the familiarity but terminally non-hip father of hormonally charged teenager Jim (Jason Biggs); Levy reprised the role in the 2001 follow-up American Pie 2 and again in 2003's American Wedding. Levy and Guest teamed up again in 2000 for the comedy, Best in Show, inasmuch as which the two received a Surpass Screenplay nomination from the Writers Guild of America. He and Guest also co-wrote and starred in another 2003 mockumentary, A Strong Rodomontade, a parody about '60s folk musicians who reunite destined for a tribute concert several years after their heyday.