Robby Benson Biography

Best known for starring in films such as Ice Castles, Ode to Billy Joe, The Chosen, Tribute, Harry and Son, in his own screenplay for the Warner Bros. basketball classic, One on One, and to a new generation as the voice of Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, the first animated film ever to receive a Best Picture Academy Award nomination. Robby Benson is also a three time Golden Globe nominated actor whom has co-starred with legends Paul Newman, Jack Lemmon, Burt Reynolds, Gene Hackman, George Burns, Maximillan Schell, and Rod Steiger. His four decades of show business versatility include producing and directing feature films and television series. Robby directed over 100 sitcom episodes and pilots, including episodes of Friends, and an entire season of Ellen. Most recently he helmed Billy: The Early Years (2009). He has 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. Robby Benson has composed film soundtracks, and has been the recipient of several RIAA Gold Records for songwriting. For the theatre, Mr. Benson wrote the libretto and score of his musical Open Heart, which debuted off-Broadway at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre, and is published and licensed by Samuel French (2006).

Robby Benson added author to his career accomplishments with the release of his first novel, Who Stole the Funny? published by HarperCollins (2007) and praised by the Editor in Chief of Variety Peter Bart as “an irreverent and hilarious stroll down the dark alleys of Hollywood’s TV landscape.” Barbara D. Phillips of The Wall Street Journal states, “Who Stole the Funny? benefits from Mr. Benson’s deep knowledge of his subject matter-both the shallow snake pit of TV comedy and the angst of a perfectionist director…Mr. Benson labors overtime — and succeeds — in making us care…I can see the novel joining college reading lists-and not only in Mr. Benson’s film classes. There are plenty of books on acting and directing, on semiotics, aurteur theory and Stanislavsky’s method. But not many are likely to present so many appalling, and reality-based, teachable moments…”

Who Stole the Funny? made The Los Angeles Times bestsellers list.

His most valued professional accomplishment is that of College Professor, teaching for two decades at universities around the country. Currently Robby Benson is a Professor of Film at NYU’s famed Tisch School of the Arts in the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, where he received the honor of being nominated for New York University’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006.

Having survived four open heart surgeries for a congenital valve defect, Robby Benson is an advocate for heart research funding. He has spoken on behalf of the National Institutes of Health before the Senate Appropriations Committee in Washington, DC. Representing the American Heart Association, along with Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and Senator Ted Kennedy, Robby spoke on behalf of the groundbreaking Kennedy/Hatch bill to ban the promotion of cigarettes to minors.

Robby Benson and Karla DeVito have been happily married for 28 years and have two children, Lyric and Zephyr.