Robert Benton, who co-wrote movies such as Bonnie & Clyde and directed films such as Kramer Vs. Kramer and Places in the Heart, died at his home in Manhattan on Sunday at age 92. His passing was confirmed to the New York Times by Marisa Forzano, his assistant and manager.
Benton was born in during the Depression in Waxahachie, Texas, and many of his films echoed that milieu. In the early ’60s, he got a job at Esquire during the magazine’s golden age when it helped pioneer the New Journalism movement. It was also the prelude to the magazine’s great, high-concept covers.
Benton’s first screenplay was Bonnie and Clyde, co-written with David Newman, who would become a frequent collaborator. After becoming fascinated with the criminal couple’s Depression-era story, Benton and Newman decamped to the heartland to interview people who knew them and get a sense of what the film might be. The result was a film that earned the duo an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay (it contained uncredited contributions by producer-star Warren Beatty and Robert Towne). The film was nominated for another eight Oscars, winning two for Best Supporting Actress and Best Cinematography.
The duo went on to write a succession of screenplays, including What’s Up Doc? (with Buck Henry), Bad Company (Benton’s first directing credit) and the original 1978 Superman starring Christopher Reeve (with Leslie Newman and Mario Puzo).
In 1979, Benton’s directing career reached a pinnacle with Kramer vs. Kramer. The film took on hot-button social issues such as divorce and shifting gender roles. It starred Meryl Streep in one of her first film roles)and Dustin Hoffman. Kramer was well reviewed, became the highest-grossing film of the year (over $100M domestic) and received eight Oscar nominations. It won in five categories: Director and Adapted Screenplay, for Benton; Picture, for Stanley Jaffe; Supporting Actress, for Streep; and Actor, for Hoffman.
Dustin Hoffman, Robert Benton, Meryl Streep on the set of ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ in 1979 (Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)
Five years later came Places in the Heart. It starred Sally Field as a young woman who, in the midst of The Great Depression in Benton’s hometown of Waxahachie, is forced to take charge of her farm after her husband dies. The film received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and won for Best Actress (for Field), and Best Original Screenplay (for Benton).
Benton would go on to direct six more films: Nadine reunited him with Jeff Bridges, who had starred in 1976’s Bad Company; Billy Bathgate, again with Hoffman; Nobody’s Fool with Paul Newman; Twilight, again with Newman; The Human Stain with Nicole Kidman; The Ice Harvest, his second adaptation of a Richard Russo novel after Nobody’s Fool and his final film, Feast of Love, in 2007.
DEADLINE RELATED VIDEO:
Content shared from deadline.com.