American screenwriter and film director
Bentons 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 Bonnie Parker and Clyde 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 , Sally Field , John Malkovich , Lindsay Crouse and Paul Newman. Hoffman, Streep and Field won Oscars for their performances in one of Bentons movies.
Bentons longtime friend and University of Texas classmate was gossip columnist Liz Smith.
Dated feminist Gloria Steinem during the 1960s.
Benton collaborates frequently with novelist and screenwriter Richard Russo. Russo dedicated his Pulitzer Prize winning novel Empire Falls to Benton.
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.
My education was an education by movies.
