Richard Benjamin

Although his actress wife Paula Prentiss became a star by the early 1960s, it took Richard Benjamin almost fifteen years to establish his screen persona, but the wait was rewarding. After extensive work in theatre as actor and director, and his participation in the cult TV series Er und sie (1967), in which he co-starred with Prentiss, he won the starring role in the screen adaptation of Philip Roth's best-seller, Zum Teufel mit der Unschuld (1969). That was followed by roles in Tagebuch eines Ehebruchs (1970), The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker (1971) and another Roth adaptation, Portnoys Beschwerden (1972), that turned him into a prominent "archetype of East Coast Jewish intellectual agony", as critic Jonathan Romney defines him. But his forte was comedy and he won a Golden Globe when he repeated his stage role in the film version of Neil Simon's Die Sunny-Boys (1975). Although he still performs, Benjamin turned to direction since the 80s with the highly acclaimed comedy Ein Draufgänger in New York (1982). - IMDb Mini Biography By: Edgar Soberon Torchia <[email protected]>