Paul Benedict
Paul Benedict as Harry Bentley, 1975
Born	Paul Bernard Benedict (1938-09-17)September 17, 1938 Silver City, New Mexico, U.S.
Died	December 1, 2008(2008-12-01) (aged 70) Martha's Vineyard,Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	Suffolk University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1965–2008
Known for	The Jeffersons Sesame Street

Paul Bernard Benedict (September 17, 1938 – December 1, 2008)^[1] was an American actor who made numerous appearances in television and films, beginning in 1965. He was known for his roles asThe Number Painter on thePBS children's showSesame Street and as the English neighborHarry Bentley on theCBS sitcomThe Jeffersons.

Benedict was born inSilver City, New Mexico,^[1] the son of Alma Marie (née Loring), a journalist, and Mitchell M. Benedict, a doctor,^[2] and grew up in Massachusetts, where he graduated fromBoston College High School andSuffolk University. Benedict served a tour of duty in theU.S. Marine Corps.^[3] His oversized jaw and large nose were partially attributed toacromegaly; he was first diagnosed with it by an endocrinologist who saw Benedict in a theatrical production.^[4]

Norman Lear cast Benedict as aZen Buddhist inCold Turkey, which was completed in late fall 1969 but not released until February 1971.^[5] Benedict would go on to work with Lear in the coming years on various television projects.^[4][5]

Benedict was best known for his role as Harry Bentley on the television seriesThe Jeffersons. He played this role from the series' inception in 1975 until 1981, and then returned in 1983 and remained until the end of the series in 1985. His character was a well-mannered Englishman who lived in the apartment next door to George and Louise Jefferson. He worked at the United Nations as a translator and was a bachelor. He was liked by all of the characters on the show except George Jefferson, who found him annoying, but they eventually became friends as the show progressed. Harry was also known for telling boring, pointless stories about his past, particularly about his childhood and relatives in England.

Benedict played the recurring characterThe Number Painter on the children's PBS showSesame Street.

Benedict played the father of a fugitive teen runaway in the 1971 filmTaking Off, which was Miloš Forman's first American film. In the same year he had a small role as a food vendor inThey Might Be Giants, starringGeorge C. Scott. Perhaps his best-known movie role from that period was that of Reverend Lindquist inSydney Pollack's 1972 filmJeremiah Johnson, starringRobert Redford.

In the 1974 filmThe Front Page, Benedict appeared as Plunkett, the emissary of the governor. InDino De Laurentiis'sMandingo (1975), he played a slave trader opposite James Mason and Perry King. In the movieThe Goodbye Girl (1977) starringRichard Dreyfuss andMarsha Mason, Benedict played the stage director of a production ofRichard III in which Richard III was to be portrayed as a stereotypical gay man. He was the patiently eccentric butler in Dr. Necessiter's Gothic-castle apartment inThe Man With Two Brains (1983), and had a short scene in themockumentaryThis Is Spinal Tap (1984), playing Tucker Smitty Brown, the awkward hotel desk clerk who checks in the band. Called a "twisted old fruit" by the band's manager Ian, he replies, "I'm just as God made me, sir."

In 1988, Benedict played Fairchild,Dudley Moore's butler in the movieArthur 2: On the Rocks, the sequel to the hit 1981 filmArthur. That same year, in the filmCocktail, he portrayed a condescending business college professor. In the 1990 filmThe Freshman, he played a similar role, this time anNYU film school professor. In 1991, he starred inThe Addams Family as the grouchy judge George Womack. He also made an appearance as the incorrectly assumed title character in the 1996 filmWaiting for Guffman, another mockumentary involving many of the same writers and actors asThis Is Spinal Tap. He played Fay's father in the story ofRumpelstiltskin in theBetween the Lions episode "Hay Day" and appeared on the TV show a Different World, season 4 episode 8 as Mr. Ludlow.

Benedict appeared in a 1998Seinfeld episode as a magazine editor withThe New Yorker who was questioned by Elaine about a cartoon in the magazine. His final television appearance was a guest spot onThe Drew Carey Show in 2002.^[6]

Following his graduation fromSuffolk University in his hometown ofBoston, Benedict began acting at theTheatre Company of Boston and performed withRobert De Niro,Dustin Hoffman andAl Pacino.^[4]

In addition to his varied film and television roles, Benedict was an accomplished theater actor, having appeared onBroadway multiple times, notably inEugene O'Neill's two-character playHughie in 1996 (performing withAl Pacino) at theCircle in the Square Theater, and more recently inThe Music Man in 2000–2001. He appearedOff-Broadway in 1986 inTerrence McNally'sIt's Only a Play.^[7] He had directed a production of the workOff-off-Broadway several years before.

In 2007, Benedict performed as "Hirst" inHarold Pinter'sNo Man's Land at theAmerican Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[8]

Benedict directedFrank D. Gilroy'sAny Given Day on Broadway. Off-Broadway, he directed the original production ofTerrence McNally'sFrankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, andKathy Najimy's andMo Gaffney'sThe Kathy and Mo Show, which won anObie Award.^[9]

On December 1, 2008, Benedict was found dead of a brain hemorrhage at his home inAquinnah,Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was 70 years old.^[10]

Benedict was awarded aposthumousElliot Norton Award by theBoston Theater Critics Association in 2009.^[11]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPaul Benedict.

• Paul Benedict atIMDb
• Paul Benedict at theTCM Movie Database
• Paul Benedict at theInternet Broadway Database
• Paul Benedict at theInternet Off-Broadway Database
• Paul Benedict article at Somerville, MA "Wicked Local" Off-Broadway weblink aboutNo Man's Land

• 1938 births
• 2008 deaths
• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century American male actors
• American male film actors
• American male stage actors
• American male television actors
• American theatre directors
• Boston College High School alumni
• Male actors from Boston
• Male actors from New Mexico
• Military personnel from New Mexico
• People from Silver City, New Mexico
• People with acromegaly
• Suffolk University alumni
• United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War
• United States Marines

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