Paul Benedict

Paul Benedict
Occupation(s)	Film, television actor
Years active	1960s - 2008

Paul Benedict (September 17, 1938 - December 1, 2008) was an American character actor who made numerous appearances in television and movies beginning in the 1960s. He is probably best recognized for his roles as The Number Painter on the PBS children's show Sesame Street, and as the quirky English neighbor "Harry Bentley" on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons.

Biography

Benedict was born in Silver City, New Mexico, the son of Alma Marie (née Loring), a journalist, and Mitchell M. Benedict, a doctor. He grew up in Massachusetts. As a young man, he suffered from acromegaly, a pituitary disorder that affects the extremities and face, which accounted for his slightly oversized jaw and large nose.

As could be heard in his other film and TV roles, he had a slight English accent even when not in character as Bentley. Benedict played the director of the Richard III production in the 1977 movie The Goodbye Girl starring Richard Dreyfuss, in which Richard was to be portrayed in the play as a stereotypical gay man. He was in a short scene in the 1984 mockumentary film This is Spinal Tap, playing the awkward desk clerk who checks in the band. In the 1990 film The Freshman, he played the condescending NYU film school professor of Matthew Broderick's main character. He also made a memorable appearance as the incorrectly assumed title character in the 1996 film Waiting for Guffman, another mockumentary involving many of the same writers and actors.

Benedict also played the role of a slave trader in Dino De Laurentiis' Mandingo opposite James Mason and Perry King in 1975. Perhaps his best known movie role was of the reverend Lundquist in the 1972 Sydney Pollack film Jeremiah Johnson.

Theater

In addition to his varied film and television roles, Benedict was an accomplished theater actor as well, having appeared on Broadway multiple times, notably in Eugene O'Neill's 2-character play Hughie in 1996 (performing with Al Pacino) at Circle in the Square, and more recently in The Music Man in 2000-2001.

In 2007, Benedict performed as "Hirst" in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [1]

As a director, Benedict directed Frank Conroy's Any Given Day on Broadway. Off-Broadway, he directed the original production of Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, and Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney's The Cathy and Mo Show, which won an Obie Award.[2]

Death

On December 1 2008, Benedict was found dead at his home in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was 70 years old.[3]

External links

• Paul Benedict at IMDb
• Paul Benedict at AllMovie
• Paul Benedict at the Internet Broadway Database
• Paul Benedict bio and headshot photo from the American Repertory Theatre
• No Man's Land production info and pictures from the American Repertory Theatre
• Paul Benedict article at Somerville, MA "Wicked Local" Off-Broadway weblink about No Man's Land

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