Ted Levine brings a rough-voiced authority to supporting parts without making every scene about himself. We value the dependable ensemble actor as much as the disturbing villain, though his breakthrough still threatens to overshadow the quieter work.
Fi1m perspective
Ted Levine’s deep, gravelly voice is well suited to giving orders. It helps explain all those captains, detectives and wardens, though we are more interested in how readily he fits into a cast without trying to dominate it. We value that restraint. His breakthrough as Buffalo Bill can make it easy to overlook the actor who knows how to work within an ensemble.
Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991) gave him Jame Gumb, also known as Buffalo Bill, and a difficult share of the film. Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins’s Lecter have the more compelling relationship; whenever the investigation returns to Gumb, Levine has to recover attention they have already earned. We were disturbed by the force he brings to Gumb, even when we wanted the film to return to Clarice. Craig McKay’s brisk editing helps the detective work hold its place, but the script gives Levine too little to match those encounters.
Villainous typecasting followed Gumb, which makes Heat (1995) a useful early change of direction. As Bosko, Levine contributes to Michael Mann’s crime ensemble without pulling attention away from the other players. Mann gives the pursuit time for loneliness and patient character work, and Levine’s contained presence suits that approach. Some characters explain themselves too much, but we recommend the film without hesitation.
In Monk (2002–2009), he played Captain Leland Stottlemeyer alongside Tony Shalhoub. That long television run matters when the temptation is to remember him only as Gumb. His Warden in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island (2010) is another example of the authority figures that became a mainstay. The risk with such familiar casting is that a part needs little beyond the gravelly voice. Start with Heat to see what he contributes when a film has more on its mind than making him frightening.
Biography
Ted Levine is an American actor. He is known for his role as Jame Gumb in the film The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and as Bosko in Heat (1995).
Levine began his career in theatre, performing with ensembles including The Remains in Chicago and appearing at the Goodman and Steppenwolf theatres. He has also appeared in films including The Fast and the Furious (2001), Shutter Island (2010) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and played Captain Leland Stottlemeyer in the television series Monk (2002–2009).
