People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photograph: Silent Era image collection.

Robert Benchley

Born 15 September 1889 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, as Robert Charles Benchley.
Died 21 November 1945 in New York, New York, USA, of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Married Gertrude Darling, June 1914; until Robert’s death, 21 November 1945; son, Nathaniel Benchley, born 13 November 1915; son, Robeert Benchley Jr., born 1919.

Robert Benchley attended Harvard University where he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon. Chiefly an author of short humour pieces, Robert began work in motion pictures in the mid-1920s writing intertitles for Distinctive Picture Corporation (1924) and Paramount Pictures Corporation (1926). As the sound film was burgeoning, Benchley began writing and starring in short films that presented his wry wit and acting style, including The Treasurer’s Report (1928) and The Sex Life od the Polyp (1928) for Fox Film Corporation.

Benchley intermittently continued his short film series for Universal Pictures Corporation (1933) and RKO Radio Pictures (1935), but his most-famous short films were made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1935-1939). Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Robert appeared in a number a feature films as a featured player, including in Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (1940), You’ll Never Get Rich (1941), I Married a Witch (1942), and the posthumously-released The Bride Wore Boots (1946).

References: Website-IMDb; Website-Wikipedia.