Screening

About Robby Benson

Year Released:

2015

Genres:

Robby Benson is best known for starring in films such as Jeremy, Ice Castles, Death Be Not Proud, Ode to Billy Joe, The Chosen, Tribute, Running Brave, The End, Harry and Son, Walk Proud, One on One (for which he wrote the screenplay), and, to new generations, as the voice of Beast in Academy-Award® nominated Beauty and the Beast. He has produced and directed feature films and television series, including directing episodes of Friends, Ellen, and many top 10 shows. Benson starred on Broadway in Zelda, The Rothschilds, and the Joseph Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance, where he met and fell in love with his co-star, Karla DeVito. Benson wrote the musical Open Heart for DeVito, published by Samuel French (2006). Open Heart was produced by and debuted at NYC’s historic Cherry Lane Theater. As an author, Benson penned best-selling novel, Who Stole The Funny?, published by HarperCollins (2007), and his multi-media, medical memoir, I’m Not Dead…Yet (2012), receiving major kudos from Apple. As a composer, Robby has written songs that have gone gold (including “We Are Not Alone” from John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club) and scores for films, including his son Zephyr Benson’s impressive feature directing debut Straight Outta Tompkins (2015). Benson’s most-valued, professional accomplishment is that of college professor, teaching for two decades at universities around the country. As Professor of Film at NYU’s famed Tisch School of the Arts in the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, Benson received the honor of being nominated for both NYU’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006, and the David Payne-Carter Award for Teaching Excellence in 2010. He is currently Professor of Practice in the Department of Telecommunications in The Media School at Indiana University.