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Paul Benjamin

Paul Benjamin

Birthday: 1938-02-04 | Place of Birth: Pelion, South Carolina, USA

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.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2005
Deacons for Defense

as    Otis

2003
The Station Agent

as    Henry Styles

1999
The Breaks

as    Clerk

1992
Back to the Streets of San Francisco

as    Henry Brown

1989
Do the Right Thing

as    ML

1989
The Meeting

as    Rashad

1987
The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains

as    Big Sam

1987
A Stranger Waits

as    Cooper

1985
The Atlanta Child Murders

as    Homer Williams

1982
Some Kind of Hero

as    Leon

1979
Escape from Alcatraz

as    English

1979
1978
1976
Leadbelly

as    Wes Ledbetter

1975
Friday Foster

as    Senator David Lee Hart

1975
Distance

as    Sgt. Elwood Horne

1975
Friendly Persuasion

as    Swan Stebeney

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