Levitow was born in Los Angeles, California to William Levitow and Sarah Schlafmitz.[3] He began working as an in-betweener and assistant animator at Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1940 at the age of 17.[1][3] Levitow briefly left Warner Brothers when he was drafted during World War II working on training films, in which during that time he met Stan Lee and became close friends with him.[3] Levitow returned to the studio, working as an assistant animator for Ken Harris under the Chuck Jones unit, and he was later promoted to animator in 1950 and would receive his first animations credit in 1953 for the cartoon Wild Over You.[3] He worked steadily for Jones over the remainder of the 1950s, and directed several cartoons for release in 1959, including the Pepé Le Pew cartoon "Really Scent". While working under Jones, he made characters' joints more angular than most other animators. Those characters with fur (Wile E. Coyote, for example) looked especially shaggy in Levitow's scenes.
In 1972, he and producer Dave Hanson founded Levitow/Hanson Films. The studio produced several animated pieces for Sesame Street, the most notable being Willie Wimple. His last completed project was B.C.: The First Thanksgiving, which aired in November of 1973.[3]