Robert Benjamin(1909-1979)
- Producer
A Former Co-Chairman of Orion Pictures and a former Co-Chairman of United Artists, Robert S. Benjamin wasn't a celebrity, but he was a big figure in the movie industry who knew the stars.
The son of immigrants who came from Russia and Poland, Robert Saul Benjamin grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, where his family owned a kosher poultry market.
After graduating from Boy's High School in Brooklyn at age fifteen, Benjamin put himself through the City College of New York, attending classes at night, and working for the New York Film Board of Trade.
In 1931, he graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University Law School,
While in Law School, he started his career as a Law Clerk at his uncle's law firm, Phillips and Nizer, within a few years, Benjamin made valuable acquisitions of film companies, and by 1938 was a Senior Partner of the law firm.
During World War 2, he served as executive officer of the Signal Corps's Motion Picture Photographic Center in Astoria, Long Island, using his legal skills and knowledge of the movie business to assist the army in effectively filming training documentary films, as well as images of D-Day.
After the war, he expanded his movie connections by becoming president of the J. Arthur Rank Organization, representing the organization on the board of Universal Pictures.
Benjamin's association with Rank marked the formation of Eagle-Lion Films, Inc., a short-lived venture that linked American and British motion picture interests, Benjamin was also vice president of United World Pictures.
In 1951, Benjamin, with law practice partner, Arthur B. Krim, purchased United Artists from Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, while lacking production facilities, Benjamin and Krim instead offered financing and allowed producers to retain ownership of their pictures, In return the producers would defer much of their fees.
Out of that mutually attractive arrangement, the duo quickly restored the debt ridden studio back to profit making status, with hits such as "The African Queen", "High Noon", among other film classics, returning to a prominence that United Artists hadn't enjoyed in many years.
By the late 1970's, disputes with the management of Transamerica Corporation, the company that had purchased United Artists back in 1967, led to Benjamin, Krim, and three other studio executives, Eric Pleskow, William Bernstein, and Mike Medavoy resigning from United Artists in January 1978, forming Orion Pictures a month later, Benjamin died on October 22, 1979.
The son of immigrants who came from Russia and Poland, Robert Saul Benjamin grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, where his family owned a kosher poultry market.
After graduating from Boy's High School in Brooklyn at age fifteen, Benjamin put himself through the City College of New York, attending classes at night, and working for the New York Film Board of Trade.
In 1931, he graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University Law School,
While in Law School, he started his career as a Law Clerk at his uncle's law firm, Phillips and Nizer, within a few years, Benjamin made valuable acquisitions of film companies, and by 1938 was a Senior Partner of the law firm.
During World War 2, he served as executive officer of the Signal Corps's Motion Picture Photographic Center in Astoria, Long Island, using his legal skills and knowledge of the movie business to assist the army in effectively filming training documentary films, as well as images of D-Day.
After the war, he expanded his movie connections by becoming president of the J. Arthur Rank Organization, representing the organization on the board of Universal Pictures.
Benjamin's association with Rank marked the formation of Eagle-Lion Films, Inc., a short-lived venture that linked American and British motion picture interests, Benjamin was also vice president of United World Pictures.
In 1951, Benjamin, with law practice partner, Arthur B. Krim, purchased United Artists from Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, while lacking production facilities, Benjamin and Krim instead offered financing and allowed producers to retain ownership of their pictures, In return the producers would defer much of their fees.
Out of that mutually attractive arrangement, the duo quickly restored the debt ridden studio back to profit making status, with hits such as "The African Queen", "High Noon", among other film classics, returning to a prominence that United Artists hadn't enjoyed in many years.
By the late 1970's, disputes with the management of Transamerica Corporation, the company that had purchased United Artists back in 1967, led to Benjamin, Krim, and three other studio executives, Eric Pleskow, William Bernstein, and Mike Medavoy resigning from United Artists in January 1978, forming Orion Pictures a month later, Benjamin died on October 22, 1979.
