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American screenwriter and film director
Robert Benton
Born Robert Douglas Benton
(1932-09-29 ) September 29, 1932 (age 91) Occupation(s) Film director, screenwriter, producer Years active 1967–2007 Spouse
Sallie Rendig
(after 1964)
Robert Douglas Benton (born September 29, 1932) is an American
screenwriter and
film director . A seven-time Academy Award nominee and three-time winner, he is best known as the writer and director of the film
Kramer vs. Kramer , for which he won the
Academy Award for Best Director and the
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay . He later won a third
Academy Award in the category of
Best Original Screenplay for
Places in the Heart (1984). His first script as a writer was written with
David Newman for the 1967 film
Bonnie and Clyde .
Early life
Benton was born in
Waxahachie, Texas , the son of Dorothy (née Spaulding) and Ellery Douglass Benton, a telephone company employee.
[1] He attended the
University of Texas and
Columbia University .
[1]
Career
In 1959, he co-wrote the book The IN and OUT Book with
Harvey Schmidt , published by The Viking Press. He was the art director at
Esquire in the early 1960s.
[2]
Benton won the
Academy Awards for
Best Adapted Screenplay and
Best Director for
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and
Best Original Screenplay for
Places in the Heart (1984).
Benton garnered three additional Oscar nominations: two for Best Original Screenplay for both
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and
The Late Show (1977) and one for Best Adapted Screenplay for
Nobody's Fool (1994).
He also directed
Twilight (1998) and
Feast of Love (2007), and co-wrote the screenplays for
Superman (1978) and
The Ice Harvest (2005).
In 2006, he appeared in the documentary
Wanderlust .
Personal life
He married artist Sallie Rendig in 1964.
[3]
[4]
Films
Producer
A Texas Romance, 1909
[5] (1964) (Short film)
Theatre
Film awards
Wins
Nominations
1968 - Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Bonnie and Clyde
1968 - Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for Bonnie and Clyde
1977 -
Golden Bear at
Berlin for The Late Show
1978 - Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for The Late Show
1980 - Golden Globe for Best Director - Motion Picture for Kramer vs. Kramer
1981 -
César Award for Best Foreign Film for Kramer vs. Kramer
1985 - Academy Award for Directing for Places in the Heart
1985 - Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for Places in the Heart
1985 - Golden Globe for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture for Places in the Heart
1995 - Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Nobody's Fool
References
Archival sources
The Robert Benton Papers 1969-1994 (24 linear feet) are housed at the Wittliff Collections, Texas State University in San Marcos.
External links
Awards for Robert Benton
1927–1950 1951–1975 1976–2000 2001–present
1940–1975
Preston Sturges (1940)
Herman J. Mankiewicz and
Orson Welles (1941)
Michael Kanin and
Ring Lardner Jr. (1942)
Norman Krasna (1943)
Lamar Trotti (1944)
Richard Schweizer (1945)
Muriel Box and
Sydney Box (1946)
Sidney Sheldon (1947)
No award (1948)
Robert Pirosh (1949)
Charles Brackett ,
D. M. Marshman Jr. , and
Billy Wilder (1950)
Alan Jay Lerner (1951)
T. E. B. Clarke (1952)
Charles Brackett ,
Richard L. Breen , and
Walter Reisch (1953)
Budd Schulberg (1954)
Sonya Levien and
William Ludwig (1955)
Albert Lamorisse (1956)
George Wells (1957)
Nathan E. Douglas and
Harold Jacob Smith (1958)
Clarence Greene ,
Maurice Richlin ,
Russell Rouse , and
Stanley Shapiro (1959)
I. A. L. Diamond and
Billy Wilder (1960)
William Inge (1961)
Ennio de Concini ,
Pietro Germi , and
Alfredo Giannetti (1962)
James Webb (1963)
S. H. Barnett,
Peter Stone and
Frank Tarloff (1964)
Frederic Raphael (1965)
Claude Lelouch and
Pierre Uytterhoeven (1966)
William Rose (1967)
Mel Brooks (1968)
William Goldman (1969)
Francis Ford Coppola and
Edmund H. North (1970)
Paddy Chayefsky (1971)
Jeremy Larner (1972)
David S. Ward (1973)
Robert Towne (1974)
Frank Pierson (1975)
1976–2000 2001–present
1928–1950
Benjamin Glazer (1928)
Hanns Kräly (1929)
Frances Marion (1930)
Howard Estabrook (1931)
Edwin J. Burke (1932)
Victor Heerman and
Sarah Y. Mason (1933)
Robert Riskin (1934)
Dudley Nichols (1935)
Pierre Collings and
Sheridan Gibney (1936)
Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, and
Norman Reilly Raine (1937)
Ian Dalrymple ,
Cecil Arthur Lewis ,
W. P. Lipscomb , and
George Bernard Shaw (1938)
Sidney Howard (1939)
Donald Ogden Stewart (1940)
Sidney Buchman and
Seton I. Miller (1941)
George Froeschel ,
James Hilton ,
Claudine West , and
Arthur Wimperis (1942)
Philip G. Epstein ,
Julius J. Epstein , and
Howard Koch (1943)
Frank Butler and
Frank Cavett (1944)
Charles Brackett and
Billy Wilder (1945)
Robert Sherwood (1946)
George Seaton (1947)
John Huston (1948)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950)
1951–1975 1976–2000 2001–present
1948–1975 1976–2000 2001–present
1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
1956–1975 1976–2000 2001–present
1956–1975 1976–2000 2001–present
Original Drama (1969–1983) Original Comedy (1969–1983) Original Screenplay (1984–present)
Adapted Drama (1969–1983) Adapted Comedy (1969–1983) Adapted Screenplay (1984–present)
International National Artists People Other