Robert Benton (born September 29, 1932 in Waxahachie, Texas) is an American, Academy Award winning screenwriter and film director.
He has enjoyed a highly successful career in film, winning numerous prestigious awards for both writing and directing. He was also the art director at Esquire magazine in the early 1960s.
Benton's father had two brothers, both of whom were murdered
Got the idea for his "Bonnie and Clyde" script from his father who had actually attended the separate funerals of Parker and Barrow
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 93-99. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
When Benton first moved to New York to attend Columbia University, he shared an apartment in a Turtle Bay brownstone directly opposite 244 East 49th Street, a four-story brownstone that had been home to Katharine Hepburn for decades. One winter morning, Benton had the rare privilege of observing Hepburn kiss Spencer Tracy goodbye at her front door, before he was whisked off in a waiting limousine
Directed 8 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry, Jane Alexander (I), Sally Field, John Malkovich, Lindsay Crouse and Paul Newman (I). Hoffman, Streep and Field won Oscars for their performances in one of Benton's movies.
