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Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Robert Benton, Oscar-winning 'Kramer vs. Kramer' filmmaker and screenwriter, dies at 92
Robert Benton, the Texas-born filmmaker who surpassed the difficulties of severe dyslexia in his childhood to become the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter behind films including "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "Bonnie and Clyde," has died. John Benton, the filmmaker's son, said the director died Sunday at his home in Manhattan of "natural causes." He was 92. Read more: James Foley, filmmaker who directed Madonna music videos and 'Fifty Shades' sequels, dies at 71 Robert Benton, during a career that spanned from the mid-1960s to the early aughts, was best known for projects that explored common lives and the connections between family and community, from the fallout of a divorce in "Kramer vs. Kramer" to the toll of loss on a single mother in "Places in the Heart." He was nominated for seven Oscars (including a co-nomination with late scribe David Newman for "Bonnie and Clyde") and won three, among them a directing award for "Kramer vs. Kramer." He also received writing Oscars for "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "Places in the Heart." Veteran actors including Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Sally Field also enjoyed Oscars glory for their work in Benton's films. Newman received a lead actor nomination for "Nobody's Fool" and Hoffman and Streep each won their first Oscars for "Kramer vs. Kramer." Field won the lead actress prize for her work as single mother Edna Spalding in the Great Depression-set "Places in the Heart." "I loved Robert Benton with my whole heart. He was a rare artist and equally rare human," Field said to The Times on Wednesday. "I was lucky to know him. There will never be another. Rest, if you can, Benton.' His Oscar-nominated projects also include "Bonnie and Clyde," "The Late Show" and "Nobody's Fool." Read more: A storyteller focused on the ties that bind Benton, deemed "one of our last remaining masters of humanist drama" in 2007 by former Times film critic Patrick Goldstein, was born in Waxahachie, Texas, on Sept. 29, 1932. He struggled with reading in his childhood and found comfort in drawing, which he said "allowed me to extend my attention span and rejoin the world.' His passion for film and knack for storytelling can be traced back to trips to the cinema with his father. "I became a storyteller just watching the stories on screen," he recalled in 2007. He attended University of Texas and Columbia University and served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956. Before breaking into the entertainment industry in 1964 with the short film "A Texas Romance, 1909," Benton moved to New York and was an art director for Esquire magazine. During his tenure, he helped the outlet launch its Dubious Achievement Awards with former colleague and 'Bonnie and Clyde" co-writer David Newman. He told The Times that his career in the editorial world encouraged him to move past certain creative inhibitions, which would later serve him in filmmaking, specifically for "Bonnie and Clyde." The classic film, which premiered in 1967, was directed by Arthur Penn and starred Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as the titular crime duo. Read more: Ruth Buzzi, who played a purse-wielding spinster on 'Laugh-In,' dies at 88 "It taught you to be a lot less constipated about having a bad idea or being made fun of," he said of his time at Esquire. "You'd just cut loose.' After the success — and critical scrutiny of brutal violence — of "Bonnie and Clyde," Benton made his feature directorial debut in 1972 with "Bad Company," according to IMDb. He reunited with David Newman to co-write the western, which starred Jeff Bridges. For Benton, writing and directing films would prove lucrative and he would hold directing and writing credits for films including later projects "Still of the Night" (which reunited him with Streep), "Nadine," "Nobody's Fool" and "Twilight." "Kramer vs. Kramer," which premiered in 1979, was an adaptation of Avery Corman's novel of the same name. The film starred Hoffman as an advertising executive and Streep as his ex-wife who navigate the throes of divorce and its effects on their young son. Despite often pulling double duty, Benton told The Times he saw himself "like Dracula — I don't leave a trace in the mirror," and said he is "shaped by who I collaborate with." Notable collaborators included Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman and Radha Mitchell, among others. Read more: Priscilla Pointer, 'Dallas' and 'Carrie' actor and mom to Oscar nominee Amy Irving, dies at 100 Later in life, Benton struggled to earn the same critical acclaim that defined his film career. "Nobody's Fool," which starred Paul Newman as an aging trouble-maker, earned Newman his second-to-last Oscar nomination and also starred Bruce Willis and Jessica Tandy. Benton was nominated for adapted screenplay. The 2005 Christmas action-comedy "The Ice Harvest" was Benton's final writing credit and 2007's "Feast of Love," starring Freeman and Mitchell, marked his final directing project. Ahead of the film's release, Benton told The Times about his more laissez-faire approach to filmmaking. 'The gift of getting older is the gift of making things simpler,' Benton said. 'I used to agonize over things. I worry a lot less today. You realize that what shows up in the process, that might take you by surprise, is often better than what you'd planned for.' Benton, who briefly dated writer-activist Gloria Steinem, married artist Sallie Rendigs in 1964. She died in 2023 at age 88, according to the Hollywood Reporter. They had one son. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Sign up for Indie Focus, a weekly newsletter about movies and what's going on in the wild world of cinema. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Robert Benton, Oscar-winning ‘Kramer vs. Kramer' filmmaker and screenwriter, dies at 92
Robert Benton, the Texas-born filmmaker who surpassed the difficulties of severe dyslexia in his childhood to become the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter behind films including 'Kramer vs. Kramer' and 'Bonnie and Clyde,' has died. John Benton, the filmmaker's son, said the director died Sunday at his home in Manhattan of 'natural causes.' He was 92. Robert Benton, during a career that spanned from the mid-1960s to the early aughts, was best known for projects that explored common lives and the connections between family and community, from the fallout of a divorce in 'Kramer vs. Kramer' to the toll of loss on a single mother in 'Places in the Heart.' He was nominated for seven Oscars (including a co-nomination with late scribe David Newman for 'Bonnie and Clyde') and won three, among them a directing award for 'Kramer vs. Kramer.' He also received writing Oscars for 'Kramer vs. Kramer' and 'Places in the Heart.' Veteran actors including Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Sally Field also enjoyed Oscars glory for their work in Benton's films. Newman received a lead actor nomination for 'Nobody's Fool' and Hoffman and Streep each won their first Oscars for 'Kramer vs. Kramer.' Field won the lead actress prize for her work as single mother Edna Spalding in the Great Depression-set 'Places in the Heart.' 'I loved Robert Benton with my whole heart. He was a rare artist and equally rare human,' Field said to The Times on Wednesday. 'I was lucky to know him. There will never be another. Rest, if you can, Benton.' His Oscar-nominated projects also include 'Bonnie and Clyde,' 'The Late Show' and 'Nobody's Fool.' Benton, deemed 'one of our last remaining masters of humanist drama' in 2007 by former Times film critic Patrick Goldstein, was born in Waxahachie, Texas, on Sept. 29, 1932. He struggled with reading in his childhood and found comfort in drawing, which he said 'allowed me to extend my attention span and rejoin the world.' His passion for film and knack for storytelling can be traced back to trips to the cinema with his father. 'I became a storyteller just watching the stories on screen,' he recalled in 2007. He attended University of Texas and Columbia University and served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956. Before breaking into the entertainment industry in 1964 with the short film 'A Texas Romance, 1909,' Benton moved to New York and was an art director for Esquire magazine. During his tenure, he helped the outlet launch its Dubious Achievement Awards with former colleague and 'Bonnie and Clyde' co-writer David Newman. He told The Times that his career in the editorial world encouraged him to move past certain creative inhibitions, which would later serve him in filmmaking, specifically for 'Bonnie and Clyde.' The classic film, which premiered in 1967, was directed by Arthur Penn and starred Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as the titular crime duo. 'It taught you to be a lot less constipated about having a bad idea or being made fun of,' he said of his time at Esquire. 'You'd just cut loose.' After the success — and critical scrutiny of brutal violence — of 'Bonnie and Clyde,' Benton made his feature directorial debut in 1972 with 'Bad Company,' according to IMDb. He reunited with David Newman to co-write the western, which starred Jeff Bridges. For Benton, writing and directing films would prove lucrative and he would hold directing and writing credits for films including later projects 'Still of the Night' (which reunited him with Streep), 'Nadine,' 'Nobody's Fool' and 'Twilight.' 'Kramer vs. Kramer,' which premiered in 1979, was an adaptation of Avery Corman's novel of the same name. The film starred Hoffman as an advertising executive and Streep as his ex-wife who navigate the throes of divorce and its effects on their young son. Despite often pulling double duty, Benton told The Times he saw himself 'like Dracula — I don't leave a trace in the mirror,' and said he is 'shaped by who I collaborate with.' Notable collaborators included Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman and Radha Mitchell, among others. Later in life, Benton struggled to earn the same critical acclaim that defined his film career. 'Nobody's Fool,' which starred Paul Newman as an aging trouble-maker, earned Newman his second-to-last Oscar nomination and also starred Bruce Willis and Jessica Tandy. Benton was nominated for adapted screenplay. The 2005 Christmas action-comedy 'The Ice Harvest' was Benton's final writing credit and 2007's 'Feast of Love,' starring Freeman and Mitchell, marked his final directing project. Ahead of the film's release, Benton told The Times about his more laissez-faire approach to filmmaking. 'The gift of getting older is the gift of making things simpler,' Benton said. 'I used to agonize over things. I worry a lot less today. You realize that what shows up in the process, that might take you by surprise, is often better than what you'd planned for.' Benton, who briefly dated writer-activist Gloria Steinem, married artist Sallie Rendigs in 1964. She died in 2023 at age 88, according to the Hollywood Reporter. They had one son. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NBC News
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Robert Benton, Oscar-winning filmmaker of ‘Kramer vs. Kramer,' dies at 92
NEW YORK — 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' and 'Places in the Heart,' has died at age 92. 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. Oscar-winning triumphs 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.' A lifelong movie fan 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.'
eNCA
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- eNCA
'Kramer vs Kramer' director Robert Benton dies: representative
LOS ANGELES - Robert Benton, the Oscar-winning writer and director of "Kramer vs Kramer," has died in his US home, his representative said. 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 that 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."
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First Post
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- First Post
Robert Benton, Oscar-winning filmmaker of ‘Kramer vs. Kramer,' dead 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' and 'Places in the Heart,' has died at age 92. 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. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 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. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 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.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 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. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD '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.'
