Paul Benjamin
Born: 1935-02-04 in Pelion, South Carolina, USA
Died: 2019-06-28
Known For: Acting
Biography
Paul Benjamin (February 4, 1935 – June 28, 2019) was an American actor. 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 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. 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.
Filmography
2007
- Ascension Day as Sam
2005
- Back in the Day as Cody
- Deacons for Defense as Otis
2003
- The Station Agent as Henry Styles
2002
- The Shield as Perry
2001
- DMX: Angel as Minister
2000
- Stanley's Gig as Teddy Branson
1999
- Angel as Fellow Resident
- The Breaks as Clerk
1994
- ER as Al Ervin
1992
- Back to the Streets of San Francisco as Henry Brown
1991
- The Five Heartbeats as Mr. King
1990
- Law & Order as Lonnie Jackson
1989
- Do the Right Thing as ML
- The Meeting as Rashad
1987
- Nuts as Harry Harrison
- The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains as Big Sam
- A Stranger Waits as Cooper
1985
- Night Heat
- The Atlanta Child Murders as Homer Williams
1983
- Deadly Force as Lester
1982
- Some Kind of Hero as Leon
1980
- Gideon's Trumpet as Artis
1979
- Knots Landing as Mr. Carter
- Escape from Alcatraz as English
- 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
- Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys as Ramsey
1975
- Starsky & Hutch
- Friday Foster as Senator David Lee Hart
- Distance as Sgt. Elwood Horne
- Friendly Persuasion as Swan Stebeney
1974
1973
- Kojak as Willie Daniels
- Police Story
- The Deadly Trackers as Jacob
- Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside as Lt. Valentine
1972
- Across 110th Street as Jim Harris
1971
- The Anderson Tapes as Jimmy
- Born to Win as Fixer
1969
- Midnight Cowboy as Bartender
1951
- Hallmark Hall of Fame as Arlis