- Born
- Died
- Birth nameRobert Douglass Benton
- Robert Douglass Benton was an American screenwriter and filmmaker born in Dallas, Texas but raised in Waxahachie, Texas who was known for screenwriting Bonnie & Clyde, Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart, and Superman. He won two Academy Awards for writing and directing Kramer vs. Kramer, and another Academy Award for writing Places in the Heart. He directed other feature films including Twilight, Bad Company and Nobody's Fool. He was married to Sallie Rendigs from 1964 to her death in 2023.- IMDb mini biography by: Christian Frates
- SpouseRosalie Beck "Sallie" Rendigs(September 20, 1964 - April 30, 2023) (her death, 1 child)
- ChildrenJohn Benton
- ParentsEllery Douglass BentonDorothy Spalding
- Got the idea for his Bonnie et Clyde (1967) script from his father Ellery Douglass Benton who had actually attended the separate funerals of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
- Dated feminist Gloria Steinem during the 1960s.
- Benton's father had two brothers, both of whom were murdered
- 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, Sally Field, John Malkovich, Lindsay Crouse and Paul Newman. Hoffman, Streep and Field won Oscars for their performances in one of Benton's movies.
- My next film is always shaped by the last one... by the things I feel I didn't get right, or the things I like and want to try to develop further, but it always comes out of the last picture.
- In America, people rarely stay in the town where they grew up, rarely stay in close proximity to their parents throughout their lives. You rarely find parents in their old age being taken care of by their children.
- I was dyslexic before anybody knew what dyslexia was. I was called 'slow'. It's an awful feeling to think of yourself as 'slow' - it's horrible.
- My education was an education by movies.
- Twilight is about getting older and relationships - not about a murder mystery. It's about love when you reach a certain age; nothing is in primary colors.
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