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IMDbPro

Robert Benchley(1889-1945)

  • Actor
  • Writer
  • Producer
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Robert Benchley
A hat-check girl at the Stork Club saves the life of a drowning man. A rich man, he decides to repay her by anonymously giving her a bank account, a luxury apartment and a charge account at a department store. When her boyfriend returns from overseas, he thinks she is a kept woman.
Play trailer2:08
The Stork Club (1945)
10 Videos
55 Photos
Although by his own account Benchley was not quite a writer and not quite an actor, he managed to become one of the best-known humorists and comedians of his time. As a Harvard undergraduate, Benchley gave his first comic performance, impersonating a befuddled after-dinner speaker. The act made him a campus celebrity -- and remained in Benchley's repertoire for the rest of his life. (Landing the position of editor of the Harvard Lampoon was the other highlight of his college career.) As a post-graduate journalist, between frequent firings and other disruptions, Benchley made his mark as a theater critic and as writer of whimsical musings on the vagaries of modern life. He served briefly as managing editor of the magazine Vanity Fair, where his lieutenants were Dorothy Parker and Robert E. Sherwood, but he quit to protest Parker's firing. (Benchley, Parker and Sherwood were among the regulars at the so-called Algonquin Round Table, a social circle of New York wits that also included Harpo Marx and George S. Kaufman). Benchley was among the first contributors to The New Yorker, where his work influenced other writers -- such as E.B. White and James Thurber
BornSeptember 15, 1889
DiedNovember 21, 1945(56)
BornSeptember 15, 1889
DiedNovember 21, 1945(56)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • Awards

Photos55

Robert Benchley and Rita Johnson in The Major and the Minor (1942)
Robert Benchley and Norma Varden in The Major and the Minor (1942)
Robert Benchley in The Major and the Minor (1942)
Robert Benchley, Barbara Brown, Robert Hutton, and Joyce Reynolds in Janie (1944)
Edward Everett Horton, Robert Benchley, and Robert Paige in Her Primitive Man (1944)
Robert Benchley in An Hour for Lunch (1939)
Robert Benchley in An Hour for Lunch (1939)
Robert Benchley and John Butler in An Hour for Lunch (1939)
Robert Benchley in How to Start the Day (1937)
Robert Benchley in How to Sleep (1935)
Robert Benchley in How to Sleep (1935)
Robert Benchley in How to Sleep (1935)

Known for

Laraine Day and Joel McCrea in Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Foreign Correspondent
7.5
  • Stebbins
  • 1940
Veronica Lake and Fredric March in I Married a Witch (1942)
I Married a Witch
7.1
  • Dr. Dudley White
  • 1942
Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Benchley, Robert Cummings, and Anna Lee in Flesh and Fantasy (1943)
Flesh and Fantasy
6.9
  • Doakes (Framing Story)
  • 1943
Robert Benchley in My Tomato (1943)
My Tomato
6.2
Short
  • Joseph A. Doakes
  • 1943

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Robert Hutton and Joan Leslie in Janie Gets Married (1946)
    Janie Gets Married
  • Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Cummings, and Diana Lynn in The Bride Wore Boots (1946)
    The Bride Wore Boots
  • I'm a Civilian Here Myself
  • Betty Hutton, Don DeFore, and Barry Fitzgerald in The Stork Club (1945)
    The Stork Club
  • Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour in Road to Utopia (1945)
    Road to Utopia
  • Snafu (1945)
    Snafu
  • Humphrey Bogart, Alan Ladd, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Hutton, Robert Benchley, Carmen Cavallaro, William Demarest, Dona Drake, Diana Lynn, and Olga San Juan in Hollywood Victory Caravan (1945)
    Hollywood Victory Caravan
  • Shirley Temple and Jerome Courtland in Kiss and Tell (1945)
    Kiss and Tell
  • Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
    Week-End at the Waldorf
  • Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Bing Crosby, Paulette Goddard, Betty Hutton, Arturo de Córdova, Cass Daley, Barry Fitzgerald, Ed Gardner, Dorothy Lamour, Victor Moore, and Sonny Tufts in Duffy's Tavern (1945)
    Duffy's Tavern
  • Boogie Woogie
  • Don Ameche, William Bendix, Jack Benny, Binnie Barnes, Fred Allen, Robert Benchley, Jerry Colonna, Victor Moore, and Rudy Vallee in It's in the Bag! (1945)
    It's in the Bag!
  • Robert Benchley, Audrey Long, Phillip Terry, and Ernest Truex in Pan-Americana (1945)
    Pan-Americana
  • Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray in Practically Yours (1944)
    Practically Yours
  • Robert Benchley, Jean Dinning, Ginger Dinning, Lou Dinning, Jean Heather, Frank Kettering, Charles Quigley, Paul Trietsch, Ken Trietsch, Charles Ward, The Hoosier Hotshots, and The Dinning Sisters in National Barn Dance (1944)
    National Barn Dance

Writer

  • Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin (1998)
    Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin
  • Omnibus (1952)
    Omnibus
    • (segment The Drift to One Eye)
  • I'm a Civilian Here Myself
  • Boogie Woogie
  • Why Daddy? (1944)
    Why Daddy?
  • Important Business (1944)
    Important Business
  • No News Is Good News (1943)
    No News Is Good News
  • The Man's Angle (1942)
    The Man's Angle
    • (uncredited)
  • Keeping in Shape (1942)
    Keeping in Shape
    • (uncredited)
  • The Witness (1942)
    The Witness
    • (uncredited)
  • Nothing But Nerves (1942)
    Nothing But Nerves
    • (uncredited)
  • How to Take a Vacation (1941)
    How to Take a Vacation
    • (uncredited)
  • The Forgotten Man (1941)
    The Forgotten Man
    • (uncredited)
  • Crime Control (1941)
    Crime Control
    • (uncredited)
  • Waiting for Baby (1941)
    Waiting for Baby
    • (uncredited)

Producer

  • NBC/RCA Experimental Television Demonstration for the Press (1936)
    NBC/RCA Experimental Television Demonstration for the Press

Videos10

The Reluctant Dragon
Clip 1:25
The Reluctant Dragon
The Reluctant Dragon
Clip 1:51
The Reluctant Dragon
Trailer
Trailer 2:08
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:59
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 3:36
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:01
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:32
Official Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 2:12
Trailer
You'll Never Get Rich
Trailer 2:07
You'll Never Get Rich
Week-End At The Waldorf
Trailer 2:40
Week-End At The Waldorf

Personal details

Edit
    • September 15, 1889
    • Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
    • November 21, 1945
    • New York City, New York, USA(cerebral hemorrhage)
    • June 6, 1914 - November 21, 1945 (his death)
  • Other works
    Twelve volumes of short stories collected.
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Biographical Movie
    • 9 Print Biographies
    • 1 Portrayal
    • 6 Articles

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Proposed the following epitaph for his tombstone although it was not ultimately used: "This is all above my head.".
  • Quotes
    Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.
    • Hangdog face offset by a thin, elegant mustache
    • Janie Gets Married
      (1946)
      $1,750 /week

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