Biography
Robert Douglas Benton (September 29, 1932 - May 11, 2025) was an American screenwriter and film director. Benton was born in Waxahachie, Texas, the son of Dorothy (née Spaulding) and Ellery Douglass Benton, a telephone company employee. He attended the University of Texas and Columbia University.[1] Benton 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. In 200...
Known For
Complete Filmography
Faye
2024
as Self - Writer, Bonnie and Clyde (archive footage)
Through honest reflection, complemented by insight from colleagues and friends, Faye Dunaway contextualizes her life and filmography, laying bare her ...
Godard Made in USA
2010
as Self
Documentary by Luc Lagier exploring Godard's career as a filmmaker, the production of Breathless and his influence and his relationship with American ...
Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film
2008
as Self
Produced for Turner Classic Movies, this documentary looks at the early days of the gangster film.
Revolution! The Making of 'Bonnie and Clyde'
2008
as Self
The making-of documentary of Bonnie and Clyde.
Feast of Love
2007
Director
A meditation on love and its various incarnations, set within a community of friends in Oregon. It is described as an exploration of the magical, myst...
You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman
2006
as Self
A 5-part documentary of the history of Superman in the movies. • Origin - Superman in the media and the challenges the Salkinds faced • Vision - Cre...
Wanderlust
2006
as Himself
A look at the mystique of road movies, combining interviews, film clips, music, photography, literature and a narrative storyline featuring Paul Rudd ...
The Ice Harvest
2005
Executive Producer, Screenplay
A shady lawyer attempts a Christmas Eve crime, hoping to swindle the local mob out of some money. But his partner, a strip club owner, might have diff...
The Human Stain
2003
Director
Coleman Silk is a worldly and admired professor who loses his job after unwittingly making a racial slur. To clear his name, Silk writes a book about ...
Finding the Truth: The Making of 'Kramer vs. Kramer'
2001
as Self
A behind-the-scenes look at this Oscar-winning classic about a man who finds himself a single parent after his wife walks out on him, then is forced t...
Twilight
1998
Writer, Director
A retired detective accepts a simple task, unaware that it will tear open old, forgotten, but deadly wounds.
Nobody's Fool
1994
Director, Screenplay
A rascally nearing-retirement man juggles a workers' compensation suit while secretly working for his nemesis and flirting with his nemesis' young wif...
Cinéma! Cinéma! The French New Wave
1992
as Self
An intimate window into one of the great movements in film history that brought about an evolution in the art of cinema. The documentary portrays the ...
Billy Bathgate
1991
Director
In the year 1935, a teen named Billy Bathgate finds first love while becoming the protégé of fledgling gangster Dutch Schultz.
The House on Carroll Street
1988
Executive Producer
Emily Crane is fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, and takes a part-time job as companion to an old l...
Nadine
1987
Director, Writer
Hairdresser Nadine Hightower wants to retrieve the risqué photos she once posed for, but when she visits the photographer at his office, he's murdered...
Places in the Heart
1984
Director, Writer
In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank - ...
Still of the Night
1982
Screenplay, Director, Story
When one of his patients is found murdered, psychiatrist Dr. Sam Rice is visited by the investigating officer but refuses to give up any information. ...
Kramer vs. Kramer
1979
Director, Screenplay
Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is no...
Superman
1978
Screenplay
Mild-mannered Clark Kent works as a reporter at the Daily Planet alongside his crush, Lois Lane. Clark must summon his superhero alter-ego when the ne...
The Late Show
1977
Screenplay, Director
Over-the-hill gumshoe in Los Angeles seeks to avenge the killing of an old pal, another detective who was involved in a case concerning a murdered bro...
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!
1975
Writer, Theatre Play
TV adaptation of the campy 1960s Broadway musical about the Man of Steel, his friends, his enemies, and his self-image problems.
Bad Company
1972
Director, Screenplay
After Drew Dixon, an upright young man, is sent west by his religious family to avoid being drafted into the Civil War, he drifts across the land with...
Oh! Calcutta!
1972
Writer
Based on the controversial off-Broadway musical comedy revue, "Oh! Calcutta!" is a series of musical numbers about sex and sexual mores. Most of the s...
What's Up, Doc?
1972
Screenplay
The accidental mix-up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.
There Was a Crooked Man...
1970
Writer
Arizona Territorial Prison inmate Paris Pitman, Jr. is a schemer, a charmer, and quite popular among his fellow convicts — especially with $500,000 in...
Bonnie and Clyde
1967
Writer
In the 1930s, bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the c...
A Texas Romance, 1909
1964
Director
The film recreates the world of a small Texas town in 1909, based on photos and letters. It tells the story of a local mailman who falls in love, marr...
Death Valley
1946
as Duke
A dance hall girl is murdered and her body robbed of a quantity of gold obtained illegally. The killer flees into Death Valley and encounters the righ...