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Richard Benjamin |
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RICHARD BENJAMIN Raised on Manhattan's West Side, Benjamin graduated from New York's High School of Performing Arts and then from Northwestern University, majoring in drama. His first professional acting job was in Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare production of Taming of the Shrew. In 1964, he was cast by Mike Nichols in the lead role for the national company of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park and later he directed the London production of the now-classic romantic comedy. Upon his return from London, Benjamin was signed to co-star with Dan Dailey in the road company of another Neil Simon classic, The Odd Couple. Benjamin made his Broadway debut in Simon's The Star Spangled Girl, for which he won a Theatre World Award. His other Broadway credits include The Little Black Book and The Norman Conquests. Benjamin's auspicious film debut came in 1969, starring opposite Ali McGraw in Goodbye, Columbus. He went on to appear in more than twenty feature films, including Catch-22, Diary of a Mad Housewife, The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, The Steagle, Portnoy's Complaint, House Calls and Love at First Bite. He was honored in 1975 with the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in The Sunshine Boys. In 1982, Benjamin made the transition from acting to directing with My Favorite Year, a film that brought Peter O'Toole an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Benjamin has since directed the films: Racing with the Moon with Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage, City Heat with Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, The Money Pit with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, Little Nikita with Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix, My Stepmother is an Alien with Dan Aykroyd and Kim Basinger, Downtown with Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker, Mermaids with Cher, Winona Ryder and Bob Hoskins, Made in America with Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson, Milk Money starring Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris, and Mrs. Winterbourne with Shirley MacLaine, Ricki Lake, and Brendan Fraser. This year, Benjamin directed the acclaimed military satire, The Pentagon Wars for HBO. On television, Benjamin co-starred with his wife Paula Prentiss in the CBS series, He and She, and starred in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Arthur Miller's Fame. Benjamin also hosted two top-rated episodes of NBC's Saturday Night Live, one of which earned an Emmy nomination. Returning to screen acting, Benjamin recently appeared in Woody Allen's film, Deconstructing Harry.
Bio as of July, 2007.
Working in the Theatre (video)
Performance - September, 1998
Internet Broadway Database Listing (IBDB.com)
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