Eugene Levy CC (born December 17, 1946) is a Canadian actor with a long and illustrious career as a comedic actor.
Best known in his early career for playing hapless geeks and sleazy losers, he's broadened his niche to include Cool Old Guy roles through his involvement in the American Pie franchise (of which he's the only actor to appear in every single installment). Levy is part of the Production Posse for Christopher Guest, appearing in major roles in each of Guest's theatrical improv films. Recently, he has become best known for the sleeper hit Schitt's Creek, which he co-created with and stars alongside his son Dan Levy and plays opposite his frequent collaborator Catherine O'Hara.
As part of Schitt's Creek's sweep of the 2020 Emmy Awards, Levy won Best Actor in a Comedy Series and shared the Best Comedy Series award with his co-creator and son. He and Catherine O'Hara also won Emmys in 1983 for writing SCTV.
Roles of Note:
- Cannibal Girls: Clifford Sturges
- SCTV: Where Levy became well known. Like the entire cast, Levy played many characters on the show.
- Along with John Candy, he played one half of the Schmenge Brothers, a pair of Leutonian polka-playing brothers with strange customs and tastes in food.
- Possibly his best-known role on SCTV was one half of the news team as the Kind Hearted Simpleton Earl Camembert, a not-especially-bright reporter with some bizarre habits that had to be kept in line by his co-anchor.
- He was also Vegas style comedian with a schtick, Bobby Bittman.
- He helped skewer lame 3-D movies as Dr. Tongue's dimwitted assistant/sidekick Bruno in a series of movies, Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of ____________.note
- Heavy Metal: Capt. Lincoln F. Sternn/Edsel/Male Reporter (voices)
- National Lampoon's Vacation: Car Salesman
- Splash: Dr. Walter Kornbluth
- Club Paradise: Barry Steinberg
- Armed and Dangerous: Norman Kane
- Father of the Bride (1991): Singer at Audition
- Stay Tuned: Crowley
- I Love Trouble: Ray, the Justice of the Peace
- Multiplicity: Vic
- Waiting for Guffman: Dr. Alan Pearl
- Creature Crunch: Brian (voice)
- Almost Heroes: Guy Fontenot
- Holy Man: Guy on Background TV (uncredited)
- American Pie series: Noah Levinstein, "Jim's Dad"
- Best in Show: Gerry Fleck
- The Ladies Man: Bucky Kent
- Down To Earth (2001): Keyes
- Josie and the Pussycats: As Himself, explaining the subliminal-brainwashing scheme
- Serendipity: Bloomingdale's Clerk
- Repli Kate: Prof. Jonas Fromer/Repli-Jonas
- Like Mike: Frank Bernard
- Greg the Bunny: Gilbert "Gil" Bender
- Bringing Down the House: Howie Rottman
- A Mighty Wind: Mitch Cohen
- Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd: Principal Collins
- New York Minute: Max Lomax
- The Man: Andy Fiddler
- Cheaper by the Dozen 2: Jimmy McNulty
- Curious George (2006): Clovis (voice)
- Over the Hedge: Lou (voice)
- For Your Consideration: Morley Orfkin
- Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: Albert Einstein Bobbleheads (voice)
- Taking Woodstock: Max Yasgur
- Astro Boy: Orrin (voice)
- Goon (2011): Dr. Glatt
- Schitt's Creek: Johnny Rose
- Finding Dory: Charlie (voice)
Related Tropes:
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Truly majestic. Just look at the page image.
- Cool Old Guy: His American Pie roles helped him to add this trope to his repertoire.
- Cringe Comedy: A master of this.
- Fake American: He's Canadian, but most of his characters are American.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Both Eugene and his son Dan are known for wearing dramatic eyewear, but their fictional counterparts on Schitt's Creek do not, making it easy to distinguish between photos of the real men and their characters.
- Improv: Started at Second City, and he's done several improvised films with Christopher Guest.
- Production Posse: He's part of Christopher Guest's posse, appearing in all of his theatrical improv films.
- He also has a lot of roles working with Catherine O'Hara, both in Christopher Guest movies and outside of them
- Playing Against Type: Former business mogul Johnny Rose of Schitt's Creek is confident, successful, a Sharp-Dressed Man, and genuinely attractive to women. Sure, he occasionally has awkwardly supportive moments with his adult children, but he is still a departure from many of Levy's famous characters. Levy mentioned this in his 2020 Emmy Speech, joking that he had been playing the wrong roles for 50 years.
- Polka Dork: Plays the accordion in real-life and has used this for comic effect more than once.
- Real-Life Relative: Worked on Schitt's Creek with his son Dan (David) and his daughter Sarah (Twyla).
- Those Two Actors: Has appeared opposite Catherine O'Hara multiple times over four decades. Also worked with John Candy multiple times.
- Took a Level in Badass: At least once per movie, and he's been in over 40. Became epic-level in the American Pie series.
- What Could Have Been: He was almost cast as Toby on The West Wing.
- Written by Cast Member: Co-wrote some of Christopher Guest’s films. Co-created Schitt’s Creek with his son Daniel Levy.
