Paul Benjamin
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1938-02-04
Day of Death
2019-06-28 (81 years old)
Place of Birth
Pelion, South Carolina, USA
Paul Benjamin
Biography
Paul Benjamin (born 1938) is 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 did extensive 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.
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.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Paul Benjamin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Acting
(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
(2001)
DMX: Angel
as Minister
(2000)
Stanley's Gig
as Teddy Branson
(1999)
The Breaks
as Clerk
(1997)
Hoodlum
as Whispers
(1997)
Rosewood
as James Carrier
(1992)
Back to the Streets of San Francisco
as Henry Brown
(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
(1983)
Deadly Force
as Lester
(1982)
Some Kind of Hero
as Leon
(1980)
Gideon's Trumpet
as Artis
(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)
Friendly Persuasion
as Swan Stebeney
(1975)
Distance
as Sgt. Elwood Horne
(1974)
(1973)
The Deadly Trackers
as Jacob
(1973)
Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside
as Lt. Valentine
(1972)
Across 110th Street
as Jim Harris
(1971)
The Anderson Tapes
as Jimmy
(1971)
Born to Win
as Fixer
(1969)
Midnight Cowboy
as Bartender