Richard Levinson was an American writer and producer who often worked in collaboration with William Link.

William Link and Richard Levinson began a 43-year-long friendship in 1946, on their first day of junior high school.

Beginning with radio scripts, the team wrote plays and then prime-time TV scripts. They went on to co-create and sometimes produce the detective television series Columbo, Mannix, Ellery Queen, and Murder, She Wrote.

The team were proud of creating "intelligent" rather than violent programs.

The partners also collaborated on two feature films, The Hindenburg (1975) and Rollercoaster (1977).

Richard Levinson was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame with his partner William Link in 1995.