Paul Benjamin Filmography

The Station Agent

Actors: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Raven Goodwin

Synopsis: Actor and playwright Tom McCarthy makes his feature film debut as a writer/director with the quirky comedy drama The Station Agent. In New Jersey, Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage) is a four-foot-tall lonely man who chooses to live the life of a hermit in an abandoned train yard following the death Read More

Deacons for Defense

Actors: Forest Whitaker, Jonathan Silverman, Ossie Davis, Paul Benjamin

Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, this made-for-cable drama is set in 1965, not long after passage of the Civil Rights Act. To the African-American citizens of Bogalusa, LA, however, it is "business as usual"; they are still treated like third-class citizens, their fundamental rights as human beings Read More

ER: Orion in the Sky

Synopsis: Mekhi Phifer makes his first series appearance as Gregory Pratt, a remarkably self-confident intern who is supervised by Greene (Anthony Edwards) during the latter's last day with the ER. Pratt's zealous eagerness prompts the terminally ill Greene to rethink how he will spend his final days on Read More

ER: The Letter

Synopsis: A letter confirming the death of Mark Greene is delivered to the ER. While the tragic news sinks in, a grieving Carter (Noah Wyle) confronts Abby (Maura Tierney), and Weaver (Laura Innes) begins to worry about her own health -- and her future life outside of medicine. And having resolved the Read More

Ralph Ellison: An American Journey

Actors: Andre Braugher, John Amos, Paul Benjamin, Jacques C. Smith, Toni Morrison

Synopsis: Avon Kirkland's Ralph Ellison: An American Journey takes a close look at the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ralph Ellison. In addition to the expected array of experts that analyze Ellison's work, Kirkland intersperses dramatized scenes from Ellison's only novel Invisible Man, including the Read More

Angel: Carpe Noctem

Synopsis: Old duffer Marcus Rosco (Rance Howard) loathes his life in a nursing home, so he bones up on his magic and learns to switch bodies with younger folks -- a process that proves fun for him but extremely hard on his host bodies. Of course, a vampire body is immortal, so Angel (David Boreanaz) turns Read More

Stanley's Gig

Actors: William Sanderson, Marla Gibbs, Faye Dunaway, Stephen Tobolowsky, Paul Benjamin

Synopsis: A tribute to the fabled jazz scene of L.A.'s Central Avenue during the 1930s and '40s, Stanley's Gig opens on a Hawaiian cruise ship where charismatic waster Stanley Myer (William Sanderson) has gotten a gig playing his ukulele for a group of filthy rich businessmen. The gig, arranged by his Read More

Rosewood

Actors: Jon Voight, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Bruce McGill, Loren Dean

Synopsis: Rosewood is the true story of an almost unknown incident in a small Florida town, (fictionalized, but faithful to the known facts, as documented in a 1994 report by the Florida Legislature). The town was inhabited almost entirely by quiet, "middle-class" African- Americans (most of them home and Read More

Hoodlum

Actors: Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth, Vanessa Williams, Andy Garcia, Cicely Tyson

Synopsis: The white-run Mafia and the black-run numbers game meet head on with explosive impact in this period crime thriller. Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) is an African-American ex-con who, after a stay in prison, returns to Harlem at the height of its renaissance before World War II. Read More

The Fence

Actors: Billy Wirth, Erica Gimpel, Marc Alaimo, Paul Benjamin, Lorenzo Clemons

Synopsis: This drama quietly comments upon urban American life while depicting the sad life of a young man gone astray who tries to reclaim his life and fails. Terry Griff has just been released from prison after serving 13 years for stabbing his abusive father in self-defense and subsequently stabbing a Read More

ER: Pilot

Synopsis: Originally telecast as a two-hour special, the first episode of ER has since been divided into a two-parter for syndication. In part one, young and inexperienced third-year med student John Carter (Noah Wyle) reports for work at the emergency room of Chicago's County General Hospital. During a Read More

Back to the Streets of San Francisco

Synopsis: Hard-boiled San Francisco police detective Captain Mike Stone returns to his old beat in order to find the crook who killed his partner (played during the 1972- 1977 series by Michael Douglas whose scenes are taken from clips of the original series) in this crime drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

The Super

Actors: Joe Pesci, Vincent Gardenia, Madolyn Smith Osborne, Rubén Blades, Stacey Travis

Synopsis: Joe Pesci stars as Louie Kritski, a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge gives him another option, which he accepts -- he must live in his rat-infested hell hole until he brings it up to liveable standards. Read More

The Five Heartbeats

Actors: Robert Townsend, Michael Wright, Leon, Harry J. Lennix, Tico Wells

Synopsis: Loosely based on the life and times of several R&B artists (The Dells, The Temptations, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke and others) The Five Heartbeats traces the rise and fall of a popular African-American 1950s singing aggregation. The story is told from the point of view of one of the "Heartbeats," Read More

Do the Right Thing

Actors: Danny Aiello, Spike Lee, Richard Edson, John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie Perez, Bill Nunn, Ossie Davis

Synopsis: Director Spike Lee dives head-first into a maelstrom of racial and social ills, using as his springboard the hottest day of the year on one block in Brooklyn, NY. Three businesses dominate the block: a storefront radio station, where a smooth-talkin' deejay (Samuel L. Jackson) spins the platters Read More

Pink Cadillac

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Bernadette Peters, Timothy Carhart, John Dennis Johnston, Michael Des Barres

Synopsis: For his third film as a director and his third film directing Clint Eastwood, stunt-man Buddy Van Horn helmed this action comedy involving a skip tracer, some neo-nazis, and the titular vehicle. Eastwood stars as Tommy Nowak, a bounty hunter with a knack for catching bail-skippers with an array of Read More

Nuts

Actors: Barbra Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, Maureen Stapleton, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach

Synopsis: High-priced hooker Barbra Streisand has been arrested for the murder of one of her clients. The attorney engaged by Streisand's parents hope to cop an insanity plea so that she can avoid a trial and manslaughter conviction. But she refuses this, citing a proviso in New York law which may result in Read More

A Stranger Waits

Synopsis: In this drama, the life of a San Francisco widow changes forever when she has a brief encounter with a younger man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Atlanta Child Murders

Synopsis: The Atlanta Child Murders is a five-hour, two-part dramatization of one of the most tragic and controversial homicide cases of the past twenty years. From 1979 through 1982, some 28 African-American children and young adults disappeared from Atlanta--some without a trace, but others to later turn Read More

Deadly Force

Actors: Wings Hauser, Joyce Ingalls, Paul Shenar, Al Ruscio, Arlen Dean Snyder

Synopsis: After being kicked off the force, Stoney Cooper (Wings Hauser) turns private detective for special cases; one involves tracking down a serial killer noted for carving X's into the forehead of each woman he kills. While Cooper is on the case, he's harassed by an old job partner (Lincoln Kilpatrick) Read More

Some Kind of Hero

Actors: Richard Pryor, Margot Kidder, Ray Sharkey, Ronny Cox, Lynne Moody

Synopsis: Richard Pryor gives a compelling performance in Some Kind of Hero, playing a Vietnam veteran who tries to readjust to civilian life. Pryor plays Eddie Keller, who has just spent five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp. Most of the time there, Eddie was able to hold his own against Read More

Gideon's Trumpet

Actors: Henry Fonda, John Houseman, José Ferrer, Fay Wray

Synopsis: In the tradition of his earlier work in Grapes of Wrath and Twelve Angry Men, Henry Fonda played another social-protest role in the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV presentation Gideon's Trumpet. Clarence Earl Gideon (Fonda) is a poor, ill-tempered Florida handyman who is arrested for petty larceny in Read More

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Actors: Diahann Carroll, Ruby Dee, Esther Rolle, Madge Sinclair

Synopsis: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is based on the writings of African-American poet/playwright Maya Angelou. Though she eventually became America's poet laureate, Angelou was once just another little black girl growing up in Depression-era Arkansas. Her efforts to better herself run up against the Read More

Escape from Alcatraz

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward

Synopsis: No one can escape from Alcatraz, right? Try telling that to lifer Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood). This Donald Siegel-directed nailbiter is a reenactment of Frank Morris' 1962 attempt to bust himself and two other cons out of The Rock. Eastwood, as Morris, tilts with nasty warden Patrick McGoohan Read More

One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story

Synopsis: An outstanding performance by LeVar Burton makes this an above-average sports biography. Based on an adaptation of his autobiography, this is the story of Ron LeFlore, who was raised in the Detroit ghetto and became a major league baseball player for the Detroit Tigers. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Read More

Kojak: The Condemned

Synopsis: Kojak moved from its familiar Sunday-night stamping grounds to a Tuesday slot with this episode, in which a young Dorian Harewood) is cast as Jake Riley, a prizefighter falsely accused of his wife's murder. Escaping custody, Riley takes several hostages in a local church and demands that the Read More

Leadbelly

Actors: Roger E. Mosley, Paul Benjamin, Madge Sinclair, Alan Manson, Albert Hall, Art Evans

Synopsis: This biographical picture explores the troubled life of blues singer and master guitarist Leadbelly, who developed his style and wrote many of his songs during his frequent stints in prison. Featured performances are "&Rock Island Line" and "&Goodnight Irene". ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Friday Foster

Actors: Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala, Eartha Kitt

Synopsis: In this blaxploitation film, statuesque action star Pam Grier is cast as comic-strip heroine Friday Foster. A freelance photographer with an insatiable thirst for adventure, Friday unearths a conspiracy to assassinate several prominent black political leaders. The film also features Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge Read More

Distance

Actors: Paul Benjamin, Eija Pokkinen, James Woods, Bibi Besch

Synopsis: The marital difficulties of two army couples provides the focus of this drama, set in the 1950s. The first marriage is between a black sergeant and his German wife. The other chronicles the difficulty of a married private who is having an affair with an older woman. He doesn't love his wife Read More

Friendly Persuasion

Actors: Richard Kiley, Shirley Knight, Clifton James, Michael O'Keefe, Kevin O'Keefe

Synopsis: Except for Me and Thee is the syndicated title of Friendly Persuasion, the pilot film for an unsold TV series based on the novel by Jessamyn West. Richard Kiley and Shirley Knight star as Quaker farmers Jess and Eliza Birdwell, whose pacificism is put to the test when the Civil War breaks out. In Read More

The Education of Sonny Carson

Actors: Derrick Champ Ford, Dennis Keir

Synopsis: A surprisingly long and worthwhile film, The Education of Sonny Carson is based on a true story. Rony Clanton stars as Carson, a product of the Brooklyn ghetto. After several years of gang and drug activities, Sonny is sobered by his horrendous experiences in prison. He puts his priorities in Read More

Mr. Inside, Mr. Outside

Actors: Hal Linden

Synopsis: Originally made as a television pilot for a series that never panned out, Mr. Inside, Mr. Outside focuses on two New York cops (Hal Linden, Tony LoBianco). The pair work together to thwart a gang of diamond smugglers, with one going undercover while the other remains on the outside. ~ John Bush Read More

The Deadly Trackers

Actors: Richard Harris

Synopsis: Based on filmmaker Samuel Fuller's short-story "Riata," this extremely bloody, excessively violent and long-running western centers on a vengeful sheriff's search for the murderous bank robbers who slaughtered his family. Originally Fuller was the director for the film, but severe artistic Read More

Across 110th Street

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Paul Benjamin, Ed Bernard

Synopsis: Across 110th Street is a violent urban thriller about a corrupt, older white cop (Anthony Quinn) and an honest, young African-American cop (Yaphet Kotto) chasing three robbers-cum-murderers who ran away with $300,000 that belonged to the Italian mob. The police must find them before the sadistic Read More

The Anderson Tapes

Actors: Frank Macetta, Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Alan King, Ralph Meeker

Synopsis: This breathlessly paced high-tech thriller stars Sean Connery as Anderson, a career criminal who's just been released from his latest prison term. Seeking a quick financial turnover, Anderson uses mob funding to finance an ambitious robbery. With a gang of expert thieves, Anderson sets about to Read More

Midnight Cowboy

Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro

Synopsis: Based on a James Leo Herlihy novel, British director John Schlesinger's first American film dramatized the small hopes, dashed dreams, and unlikely friendship of two late '60s lost souls. Dreaming of an easy life as a fantasy cowboy stud, cheerful Texas rube Joe Buck (Jon Voight) heads to New York Read More