Born in Ohio, Levine attended university in Vermont and got his start in acting as a theater performer in Chicago, including with the Steppenwolf Theatre. Levine has gained semi-immortality for his creepy performance as serial killer Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs. After several years of being typecast in villain roles, he gradually performed in more sympathetic ones. Most recently, he is probably best known as Captain Leland Stottlemeyer on the television series Monk (in the later seasons of that show, two of his girlfriends were played by Sharon Lawrence and Virginia Madsen).