Paul Benjamin
40 movies · 13 TV shows
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Feb 4, 1935
- Died
- Jun 28, 2019 (age 84)
- Place of birth
- Pelion, South Carolina, USA
Biography
Paul Benjamin (February 4, 1935 – June 28, 2019) was an American actor. Benjamin was born in Pelion, South Carolina. He made his film debut in 1969 as a bartender in Midnight Cowboy. After a small role in Sidney Lumet's The Anderson Tapes, he primarily did television work in the 1970s. A few notable exceptions were a major role in Barry Shear's Across 110th Street, and smaller parts in Gordon Parks' biopic Leadbelly, Arthur Marks' Friday Foster, and Don Siegel's prison film Escape from Alcatraz. He gave exceptional performances in the TV adaptations of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Gideon's Trumpet. He later starred in the HBO movie The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains, based on the novel by Robert E. Burns.
On the big screen in the 1990s, Benjamin worked with some well known directors. He appeared in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, Robert Townsend's The Five Heartbeats, Bill Duke's Hoodlum, and John Singleton's Rosewood.
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On television, he appeared in the 1994 pilot episode of ER, which led to his recurring role of homeless man Al Ervin during the next few seasons. Benjamin also worked on the American Masters documentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ralph Ellison, which aired on PBS.
After 2000, he appeared primarily in small independent films like Stanley's Gig, The Station Agent, Deacons For Defense, and James Hunter's 2004 drama Back in the Day.
He recently made a special appearance in the independent film The Talk Man, directed by Gene Gallerano.
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Profiles IMDb
Known for
Paul Benjamin: movies and TV shows
Acting (53)
- 2016 Occupy, Texas
as Mr. Goodman
- 2007 Ascension Day
as Sam
- 2005 Back in the Day
as Cody
- 2005 Deacons for Defense
as Otis
- 2003 The Station Agent
as Henry Styles
- 2002
- 2001 DMX: Angel
as Minister
- 2000 Stanley's Gig
as Teddy Branson
- 1999
- 1999 Last Rites
as Fez
- 1999 The Breaks
as Clerk
- 1997 Hoodlum
as Whispers
- 1997 Rosewood
as James Carrier
- 1997 Vanishing Point
as Mose, Snake Wrangler
- 1994 Drop Squad
as Wellington Cosbie
- 1994
- 1994 The Fence
as Del Reston
- 1992 Back to the Streets of San Francisco
as Henry Brown
- 1991 The Super
as Gilliam
- 1991 The Five Heartbeats
as Mr. King
- 1990
- 1989 Do the Right Thing
as ML
- 1989 The Meeting
as Rashad
- 1987 Nuts
as Harry Harrison
- 1987 The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains
as Big Sam
- 1987 A Stranger Waits
as Cooper
- 1985
- 1985
- 1983 Deadly Force
as Lester
- 1982 Some Kind of Hero
as Leon
- 1982
- 1980 Gideon's Trumpet
as Artis
- 1979
- 1979 Escape from Alcatraz
as English
- 1979 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
as Freeman
- 1978 One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story
as John LeFlore
- 1976 Leadbelly
as Wes Ledbetter
- 1976 Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys
as Ramsey
- 1975 Friday Foster
as Senator David Lee Hart
- 1975 Distance
as Sgt. Elwood Horne
- 1975
- 1975 Friendly Persuasion
as Swan Stebeney
- 1974
- 1974 The Education of Sonny Carson
as Pops
- 1973 The Deadly Trackers
as Jacob
- 1973
- 1973
- 1973 Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside
as Lt. Valentine
- 1972 Across 110th Street
as Jim Harris
- 1971 Born to Win
as Fixer
- 1971 The Anderson Tapes
as Jimmy
- 1969 Midnight Cowboy
as Bartender
- 1951