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The Guardian
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Robert Benton obituary
Cultured, modest, intelligent: not words that immediately spring to mind when describing most Hollywood moviemakers. But for the writer-director Robert Benton, who has died aged 92 they are entirely apt. Combined with a sparse output, those qualities kept him on the periphery of mainstream cinema and its publicity treadmill – despite Oscar-winning successes including Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984), plus one of the most celebrated debuts in movie history when, at 35, he won his first Oscar nomination as co-writer of Bonnie and Clyde (1967). He was 40 when he made the Jeff Bridges western Bad Company – the first of only 11 feature film directorial credits. Born in a small town not far from Dallas, Texas, to Dorothy (nee Spaulding) and Ellery Benton, who worked for a telephone company, Robert studied art at the state university before joining the army, where his talent found a modest outlet in the painting of dioramas. He subsequently studied at Columbia University before joining the art department of Esquire magazine, eventually becoming a contributing editor until he finally abandoned journalism in 1972. During those years he formed two relationships crucial to his life and career. The first was with the artist Sallie Rendig, who illustrated his children's book, Little Brother No More, in 1960. Four years later they were married. He also met David Newman, a slightly younger fellow editor on Esquire and they became regular collaborators, initially on books and then on an unsuccessful Broadway show, It's a Bird … It's a Plane … It's Superman. When they wrote a film script it was with the French new wave director François Truffaut in mind, but luckily Bonnie and Clyde became a project for director Arthur Penn and actor-producer Warren Beatty. This highly original take on 1930s rural lawlessness blended grotesque comedy with brutal actuality and became one of the most imitated of all movies. It enjoyed the rare distinction of being a cult success that moved on to become a critical and commercial hit. The duo, who won two Writers Guild of America awards for best drama and best original screenplay, stayed in their day jobs while working on their next project, another brilliant, literary screenplay for a quirky western. There Was a Crooked Man (1970) starred Henry Fonda as a prison governor and Kirk Douglas as a devious convict. It was innovatory and witty, giving colourful roles to the fine supporting cast, just as its predecessor had done. Having up-ended aspects of the western and gangster genres, the pair were called on for a script indebted to the screwball comedies of the 1930s in general and Bringing Up Baby in particular. Their screenplay, polished by Buck Henry, became What's Up Doc? (1972) and won the WGA's award for best comedy. After contributing to Oh! Calcutta! that same year, they wrote what became Benton's first – and most original – movie. Bad Company (1972) had a youthful cast headed by Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown as draft dodgers from the American civil war, travelling west and leading a small gang into lawlessness on their traumatic journey. Once again the work took an almost perversely original view of its subject, blending dark comedy with a vivid portrait of a world where poverty is rife, thievery is commonplace and the myth of chivalry out west – perpetuated by movies – is completely demolished. Benton gave up journalism, having enjoyed several productive and profitable years, although it was a further five years before his next movie, The Late Show (1977), written by him and produced by Robert Altman. Showing that nothing was sacred, Benton turned his attention to the private eye works of the 1930s and 40s with a sympathetic, even nostalgic, film that added a wryly comic twist to familiar characters. The hard-boiled detective had aged, there was a capricious modernity to the narrative and an elegance in the performances, the script and direction typical of his best work. He received an Oscar nomination for the film and a lucrative commission to help on the screenplay for the 1978 Superman, directed by Richard Donner. After that blockbuster Benton made his first adaptation of a novel for the screen and the result remains his most famous work. Although inherently conventional, Kramer vs. Kramer transcended melodrama to become, in the words of one commentator, 'an upmarket new-fashioned tearjerker'. Its story, of a couple who divorce and start a battle over the custody of their son, struck a chord with audiences and with the less cynical critics. It also struck gold at the Oscars, with Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman collecting statuettes and Benton taking two, for best direction and best adapted screenplay. As usual he had surrounded himself with the cream of the movie business. His rapport with actors meant that stars including Streep, Bridges, Hoffman, Bruce Willis and Paul Newman returned to work with him, as did the composer Howard Shore and designer Paul Sylbert, while the great cameraman Néstor Almendros shot five of his movies, before his untimely death in 1992 after filming with Benton on Billy Bathgate. Despite the success of Kramer, Benton took time out before his next project and, interestingly, never looked to television or the theatre to mop up periods of inactivity. In 1982, another genre fell under his acquisitive gaze and, reunited with Streep, he wrote and directed the thriller Still of the Night. Some critics found Alfred Hitchcock's influence oppressive and the story, of a psychiatrist who falls in love with his possibly murderous patient, conventional. The literary screenplay allowed the actors to adopt an overly serious tone for what was an old-fashioned suspense story brought into the 1980s. Perhaps to shake off the claustrophobia of that movie, Benton headed for his native Texas and a sentimental story, which offered his lead actor, Sally Field, a heaven-sent opportunity to plunder Oscar-ville. It was a chance she successfully took through playing a tough, put-upon farmer battling against the Depression. Places in the Heart was filmed in and around Benton's home town, drawing on locations and values of a time past and containing specific references to his ancestors. The highly personal work gained him another Oscar, for the screenplay, plus the Berlin festival Silver Bear for best direction. Benton remained in Texas for Nadine (1987), a movie with roots in the screwball comedies and thrillers of Hollywood's golden age that reunited him with Bridges. Considered a comparative misfire, it had admirers but proved difficult to assess, since various cuts gave the movie running times of between 78 and 88 minutes. The gap between this mild-mannered movie and Billy Bathgate (1991) was several years, and his ambitious return to period-set gangsterdom failed commercially. It was the first time that he had worked as a director for hire, from a discursive screenplay by Tom Stoppard based on EL Doctorow's novel. Hoffman took the lead, giving an intriguingly mannered performance as the vicious hoodlum Dutch Schulz. Visually it was memorable, but audiences were mystified by the sometimes witty and oblique tone, used as they were to more visceral depictions of 30s gangsterdom. However, Benton was not a director given to compromise. His penultimate movie, Nobody's Fool (1994), was a characteristically graceful work, starring Newman as a wilful 60-year-old living alone in a small town, forced to confront his alienation by the return of his son. Benton introduced personal elements into his screenplay – not least for Newman, whose own estranged son had killed himself, and for Jessica Tandy as an elderly woman facing death. Critically the film was well received, but audiences showed scant regard for such a thoughtful character study. Newman received an Oscar nomination for his cleverly nuanced performance, and four years later made yet another sortie from 'retirement' to star in Twilight, the director's second private eye movie. Heading a cast that included Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon and James Garner, Newman was well cast as another ageing, alcoholic misfit – a detective living with a terminally ill actor and his wife, embroiled in a complicated blackmail scam. Co-scripted with Richard Russo, whose novel was the basis of Nobody's Fool, it owed much to 40s noir movies, but at 90 minutes seemed leisurely and was subject to postproduction editing. Praised for its atmosphere, laconic dialogue and ensemble acting, it proved overly sophisticated for modern-day cinemagoers. The same could be said of his next film, The Human Stain (2003), which he directed, but did not write, from a novel by Philip Roth. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, it was an intriguing story of a distinguished academic who for years has hidden his racial origins. The film was crafted with Benton's usual skill but was not a commercial success. Two years later he was reunited with his friend Russo on the screenplay of The Ice Harvest, a lively thriller with a witty and literate script directed by Harold Ramis. His final directorial credit was on a meditative film, Feast of Love (2007), concerning four different couples. It was not well received critically and took less than $6m worldwide. However, it could not detract from the brilliant Bad Company, the witty homages to various film genres and the Oscar-winning successes of Kramer vs. Kramer and Places in the Heart by one of Hollywood's most independent and original writer-directors. Sallie died in 2023. Benton is survived by their son, John. Robert Douglas Benton, film writer and director, born 29 September 1932; died 11 May 2025
News.com.au
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Kramer vs Kramer director Robert Benton dead at 92
The three-time Oscar-winning director and screenwriter, who was also known for films including The Late Show, Places in the Heart, and Nobody's Fool, passed away at his home in Manhattan. His death was confirmed to the New York Times by his assistant and manager, Marisa Forzano. In 1979, working with Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Meryl Streep, Benton directed Kramer vs. Kramer after Francois Truffaut dropped out of the project. It won him two Oscars and grossed more than $100 million. Five years later came Places in the Heart.
RTÉ News
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Robert Benton, Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Kramer Vs Kramer, dies at 92
Robert Benton, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who helped reset the rules in Hollywood as the co-creator of Bonnie And Clyde, and later received mainstream validation as the writer-director of Kramer Vs Kramer, has died at the age of 92. His son John said he died Sunday at his home in Manhattan of "natural causes". During a 40-year screen career, the Texas native received six Oscar nominations and won three times: for writing and directing Kramer Vs Kramer and for writing Places In The Heart. He was widely appreciated by actors as attentive and trusting, and directed Oscar-winning performances by Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Sally Field. Although severe dyslexia left him unable to read more than a few pages at a time as a child, he wrote and directed film adaptations of novels by Philip Roth, EL Doctorow and Richard Russo, among others. Benton was an art director for Esquire magazine in the early 1960s when a love for French New Wave movies and old gangster stories inspired him and Esquire editor David Newman to draft a treatment about the lives of Depression-era robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, imagining them as prototypes for 1960s rebels. The project took years to complete as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were among the directors who turned them down before Warren Beatty agreed to produce and star in the movie. Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Beatty and Faye Dunaway, overcame initial critical resistance in 1967 to the film's shocking violence and became one of the touchstones of 1960s culture and the start of a more open and creative era in Hollywood. Over the following decade, none of Benton's films approached the impact of Bonnie And Clyde, although he continued to have critical and commercial success. His writing credits included Superman and What's Up, Doc? He directed and co-wrote such well-reviewed works as Bad Company, a revisionist western featuring Jeff Bridges, and The Late Show, a melancholy comedy for which his screenplay received an Oscar nomination. His career soared in 1979 with his adaptation of the Avery Corman novel Kramer Vs Kramer, about a self-absorbed advertising executive who becomes a loving parent to his young son after his wife walks out, only to have her return and ask for custody. Starring Hoffman and Streep, the movie was praised as a perceptive, emotional portrait of changing family roles and expectations and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Hoffman, disenchanted at the time with the film business, cited the movie and Benson's direction for reviving his love for movie acting. Five years later, Benton was back in the Oscars race with a more personal film, Places In The Heart, in which he drew on family stories and childhood memories for his 1930s-set drama starring Sally Field as a mother of two in Texas who fights to hold on to her land after her husband is killed. "I think that when I saw it all strung together, I was surprised at what a romantic view I had of the past," Benton told the Associated Press in 1984, adding that the movie was in part a tribute to his mother, who had died shortly before the release of Kramer Vs Kramer. Benton was born in Waxahachie, Texas, outside Dallas. He owed his early love for movies to his father, telephone company employee Ellery Douglass Benton who, instead of asking about homework, would take his family to the picture shows. The elder Benton would also share memories of attending the funerals of outlaws Barrow and Parker, Texas natives who grew up in the Dallas area. Robert Benton studied at the University of Texas and Columbia University, then served in the US Army from 1954 until 1956. While at Esquire, he helped start the magazine's long-standing Dubious Achievement Award. He married artist Sallie Rendigs in 1964. They had one son. Between hits, Benton often endured long dry spells. His latter films included such disappointments as the thrillers Billy Bathgate, The Human Stain and Twilight. He had much more success with Nobody's Fool, a wry comedy released in 1994 and starring Paul Newman, in his last Oscar-nominated performance, as a small-town troublemaker in upstate New York. Benton, whose film was based on Russo's novel, was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Robert Benton dead at 92: Oscar-winning filmmaker who made Meryl Streep a star in Kramer vs. Kramer star passes away
Robert Benton, a three-time Oscar winner who directed the 1979 motion picture Kramer Vs. Kramer, died at the age of 92 in New York City on Sunday. Benton's manager/assistant Marissa Forzano, confirmed the passing of the filmmaker, who also worked on project such as places in the heart, nobody's full, and the late show, the New York Times. Benson was also a screenwriter who penned the script for the Warren Beatty-Faye Dunaway classic Bonnie and Clyde. Early in Benton's career, he worked as an art director for the magazine Esquire, where he had a strong, creative partnership with coworker David Newman. They penned the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, which helped get them off the ground in Hollywood, and Benson's next major project was a motion picture titled Bad Company, with Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges in the starring role. Benton's son, John Benton, said that he died Sunday at his home in Manhattan of 'natural causes.' During a 40-year screen career, the Texas native received six Oscar nominations and won three times: for writing and directing Kramer vs. Kramer and for writing Places in the Heart. He was widely appreciated by actors as attentive and trusting, and directed Oscar-winning performances by Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Sally Field. Although severe dyslexia left him unable to read more than a few pages at a time as a child, he wrote and directed film adaptations of novels by Philip Roth, E.L. Doctorow and Richard Russo, among others. Benton was an art director for Esquire magazine in the early 1960s when a love for French New Wave movies and old gangster stories (and news that a friend got $25,000 for a Doris Day screenplay) inspired him and Esquire editor David Newman to draft a treatment about the lives of Depression-era robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, imagining them as prototypes for 1960s rebels. Their project took years to complete as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were among the directors who turned them down before Warren Beatty agreed to produce and star in the movie. Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Beatty and Faye Dunaway, overcame initial critical resistance in 1967 to the film's shocking violence and became one of the touchstones of 1960s culture and the start of a more open and creative era in Hollywood. The original story by Benton and Newman was even more daring: they had made Clyde Barrow bisexual and involved in a 3-way relationship with Bonnie and their male getaway driver. Beatty and Penn both resisted, and Barrow instead was portrayed as impotent, with an uncredited Robert Towne making numerous other changes to the script. 'I honestly don't know who the 'auteur' of 'Bonnie and Clyde' was,' Benton later told Mark Harris, author of 'Pictures at a Revolution,' a book about 'Bonnie and Clyde' and four other movies from 1967. Over the following decade, none of Benton's films approached the impact of 'Bonnie and Clyde,' although he continued to have critical and commercial success. His writing credits included 'Superman' and 'What's Up, Doc?' He directed and co-wrote such well-reviewed works as 'Bad Company,' a revisionist Western featuring Jeff Bridges, and 'The Late Show,' a melancholy comedy for which his screenplay received an Oscar nomination. His career soared in 1979 with his adaptation of the Avery Corman novel 'Kramer vs. Kramer,' about a self-absorbed advertising executive who becomes a loving parent to his young son after his wife walks out, only to have her return and ask for custody. Starring Hoffman and Streep, the movie was praised as a perceptive, emotional portrait of changing family roles and expectations and received five Academy Awards, including best picture. Hoffman, disenchanted at the time with the film business, would cite 'Kramer vs. Kramer' and Benson's direction for reviving his love for movie acting. Five years later, Benton was back in the Oscars race with a more personal film, 'Places in the Heart,' in which he drew upon family stories and childhood memories for his 1930s-set drama starring Fields as a mother of two in Texas who fights to hold on to her land after her husband is killed. 'I think that when I saw it all strung together, I was surprised at what a romantic view I had of the past,' Benton told The Associated Press in 1984, adding that the movie was in part a tribute to his mother, who had died shortly before the release of 'Kramer vs. Kramer.' Benton was born in Waxahachie, Texas, outside of Dallas. He owed his early love for movies to his father, telephone company employee Ellery Douglass Benton, who, instead of asking about homework, would take his family to the picture shows. The elder Benton would also share memories of attending the funerals of outlaws Barrow and Parker, Texas natives who grew up in the Dallas area. Robert Benton studied at the University of Texas and Columbia University, then served in the U.S. Army from 1954 until 1956. While at Esquire, Benton helped start the magazine's long-standing Dubious Achievement Award and dated Gloria Steinem, then on staff at the humor magazine Help! He married artist Sallie Rendigs in 1964. They had one son. Between hits, Benton often endured long dry spells. His latter films included such disappointments as the thrillers 'Billy Bathgate,' 'The Human Stain' and 'Twilight.' He had much more success with 'Nobody's Fool,' a wry comedy released in 1994 and starring Paul Newman, in his last Oscar-nominated performance, as a small-town troublemaker in upstate New York. Benton, whose film was based on Russo's novel, was nominated for best adapted screenplay. 'Somebody asked me once when the Academy Award nominations came out and I'd been nominated, 'What's the great thing about the Academy Awards?' Benton told Venice magazine in 1998. 'I said 'When you go to the awards and you see people, some of whom you've had bitter fights with, some of whom you're close friends with, some people you haven't seen in ten years, some people you just saw two days before — it's your family.' It's home. And home is what I've spent my life looking for.'
Free Malaysia Today
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Free Malaysia Today
‘Kramer vs Kramer' director Robert Benton dies
Director Robert Benton, seen here in 2007, arriving for the screening of 'Feast of Love' in New York. (AP pic) LOS ANGELES : Robert Benton, the Oscar-winning writer and director of 'Kramer vs Kramer,' has died in his US home, his representative said Tuesday. He was 92. Benton was also known for the 1984 film 'Places in the Heart' and had extensive writing and directing credits for influential movies throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The New York Times reported Benton died on Sunday. Hillary Bibicoff from the law firm Feig Finkel, which represented him, confirmed his death to AFP. Benton co-wrote Arthur Penn's groundbreaking crime thriller 'Bonnie and Clyde' (1967) – starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty – with David Newman. But he is probably best known for his script and direction on 'Kramer vs Kramer,' the 1979 film that offered an unflinching look at divorce and became one of the most awarded films of its time. It picked up nine Oscar nominations, and brought home five – Benton's Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman, Best Supporting Actress for Meryl Streep and the year's grand prize of Best Picture. He and Newman co-wrote Peter Bogdanovich's 'What's Up, Doc?', which was released in 1972, the same year that Benton made his directorial debut with 'Bad Company'. In 1978, Benton teamed up again with Newman and Newman's wife Leslie to write the screenplay for 'Superman' (1978) starring Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando and Margot Kidder. Despite coaxing Oscar-winning performances out of a host of 20th century legends of the silver screen, Benton was known in Hollywood as a self-effacing director. 'There are directors who can get great performances out of actors. I am not one of them,' the filmmaker once said. Appearing at a fan event in Hollywood in 2018, he remained modest about his stellar career. 'I have found actors – through luck, through the judgment of casting directors or through my own instinct – that are extraordinarily good,' he told the crowd. 'There's a thing you've just got to gamble with, and when you see it and it works, it's brilliant.' Asked how he got some of Tinseltown's biggest stars to perform for him, he deadpanned: 'I tried not to get in their way… that's not so easy.' The Times reported Benton is survived by his son, John. His wife of six decades, Sallie, died in 2023.
