Bunny Levine

Bernice Utal was born on December 22, 1928, in East Orange, New Jersey, to Rudolph Utal and Elsie Elizabeth Rubin. (Her family's paid obituary gives her birthplace as neighboring Orange, New Jersey; most reports, and her own account, place her childhood in East Orange.) She was Jewish, and she grew up with a sister whom she jokingly described as "the pretty one," adding that she herself got the attention.

She said she had been performing from her earliest memory. As a girl she loved to sing "When I Grow Too Old to Dream," the Oscar Hammerstein song from the 1935 film The Night Is Young, for relatives and her parents' friends, and she took part in school productions.

As a teenager she fell for Bernard "Bernie" Levine, "running after him until he caught me." They married in 1949, while she was still in college, and moved to Pullman, Washington, where Bernie, who had been advised to study at Washington State College, studied mathematics. They lived in married student housing and later a small apartment on Maiden Lane. Bunny studied English, dramatic arts and psychology and did a lot of theater on campus; she is listed in the college's alumni records with the class of 1951 and Bernie with the class of 1952. She called Pullman a culture shock after city life in New Jersey.

She later earned two master's degrees, one from New York University and one from Columbia University, which prepared her for her first career in schools.

Librarian and teacher. Deciding in college that she was not cut out to be a leading lady, she turned to education. For roughly 25 years she worked as a school librarian and teacher, principally in Teaneck, New Jersey, while raising three children. She said book talks and storytelling sessions with students helped satisfy her urge to perform.

A late start in acting. She took early retirement in 1985 and went back to community theater, then took classes, got a headshot and started doing extra work, print ads and commercials in New York before moving on to principal roles. Her first film credit was the horror comedy Slime City (1988). That year she also played an improvised role on Dr. Ruth Westheimer's television show, as a widow beginning her first relationship after her husband's death, which briefly convinced some friends that Bernie had died. She had a small role in Cadillac Man (1990) with Robin Williams, and her first speaking part on network drama was a witness in a lineup on Law and Order (her line was "I think it's number two"). She also shot a part on Sex and the City, but her lines were cut.

Actors Connection. In 1991 she and Bernie founded the Actors Connection in New York City, an education and networking hub offering classes, casting advice and professional contacts to working actors. The organization, which continues in a new form, later credited her with helping to launch countless careers.

Hollywood. From about 2000 she split time between New Jersey and Los Angeles, and after Bernie's death in 2003 she moved to California for good, by her account in 2005. Her guest roles included Everybody Loves Raymond, Gilmore Girls (Mrs. Thompson), Ugly Betty, Private Practice, Criminal Minds, 2 Broke Girls, Raising Hope, Southland, New Girl, Getting On, The Mindy Project, Fuller House, Dave, Sprung and Shameless (Mrs. McCurdy, 2021). She appeared on Chappelle's Show and General Hospital: Night Shift, and did a Conan bit giving Adam Sandler a ride on a scooter.

Her film work included The Jimmy Show (2001), A Very Serious Person (2006), Love Comes Lately (2007), You Don't Mess With the Zohan (2008), Play the Game (2009), A Thousand Words (2012), La La Land (2016, as the movie theater cashier), Sandy Wexler (2017), Holiday Hostage (2018), You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023), The Invisible Raptor (2023), Sacramento (2024) and Thelma (2024). In 2026 she appeared in the final season of The Upshaws, the film The Cure and the SXSW short Achiever. Her manager said she was still auditioning at 97 and last worked in June 2026. By the time of her death she had more than 100 credits.

Levine was married to Bernard S. "Bernie" Levine from 1949 until his death from pancreatic cancer in 2003, a marriage her family described as 53 years long. Bernie, she said, told her he had never seen her so happy as when she got back into acting, and after his death acting kept her from loneliness. They had three children, Marty (married to Judy), Francie (married to Jay) and Joe, and two grandchildren, Robin and Jeffrey. The family kept up a video call every two weeks in her later years.

She lived nearly all her life in New Jersey before settling in Los Angeles, latterly in Tarzana. A 2013 profile described her as a stylish woman who did yoga, with bright blue eyes and once foxy red hair gone white with her agent's approval.

Levine believed firmly that retirement could be a beginning. She described each step of her late career as a question, "Can I take this next step?", with the answer always "I have to. I will." She called herself "the oldest living student" and said you can never stop learning and exercising the acting muscle.

She was frank and good humored about typecasting. She said at least three quarters of her roles were comic, though she considered herself unfunny in real life, and she reflected that the comedy of older characters behaving outrageously comes from its contrast with assumptions that older people have no such interests, assumptions she thought many older people resented.

Levine became a widely shared example of a late-life career change. Coverage of her death from The Hollywood Reporter, CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, People and others focused on the librarian who waited roughly 35 years to act, and NBC's Sunday TODAY chose her for its Life Well Lived tribute, saying she proved it is never too late to try something new.

Through the Actors Connection, which she and her husband founded in 1991, she also helped many younger actors develop careers in New York. The organization thanked her for creating such a vibrant community to serve the fellow artists she loved.

No major acting awards for Levine have been reported. She was profiled by Washington State Magazine in 2013 as an alumna whose second act became a screen career, and NBC's Sunday TODAY honored her with a Life Well Lived segment after her death.

Film: Slime City (1988), Cadillac Man (1990), Taxman (1998), The Jimmy Show (2001), A Very Serious Person (2006), Love Comes Lately (2007), You Don't Mess With the Zohan (2008), Play the Game (2009), In My Sleep (2010), Walk a Mile in My Pradas (2011), Let Go (2011), A Thousand Words (2012), La La Land (2016), Sandy Wexler (2017), Holiday Hostage (2018), You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023), Love Virtually (2023), The Invisible Raptor (2023), Sacramento (2024), Thelma (2024), Omi (2026), The Cure (2026).

Television: Law and Order (1999), Chappelle's Show, Everybody Loves Raymond, Gilmore Girls (2004), Ugly Betty (2007), Private Practice (2007), General Hospital: Night Shift, Criminal Minds (2009), 2 Broke Girls (2011), Raising Hope (2011 to 2012), New Girl (2013), Southland (2013), The Mindy Project (2015), Fuller House (2018), Shameless (2021), Sprung (2022), Dave, The Upshaws (2026).

Bunny Levine died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Tarzana, Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, August 20, 2026, at the age of 97. The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a call about an unresponsive person and said her death appeared to be from natural causes. Her manager, Brandon Kjar, confirmed the death, and her agent, Mike Eisenstadt, said: "She was a great and fearless actress and such a nice lady. What a full life. She will be missed."

Services were held at 1 p.m. on Thursday, August 27, 2026, at the Jewish Memorial Chapel in Clifton, New Jersey. A place of burial has not been made public. Her family asked that donations in her memory be made to the Entertainment Community Fund.