Actor Paul Benedict has died at 70 (Mr Bentley on The Jeffersons)...

[Dennis Donovan]

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/12/04/paul_benedict_70_actor_at_home_in_tv_sitcoms_modern_and_classical_dramas/

In an acting troupe that included Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Al Pacino, the person who stood out more than any other in the Theatre Company of Boston during the 1960s was Paul Benedict. The long-jawed actor who found a touch of menace in the most comic parts and a touch of the absurd in the most serious roles, was found dead Monday at 70 of unknown causes on Martha's Vineyard.

Mr. Benedict, who also acted locally with the American Repertory Theatre, would have his own share of success on television and in the movies, playing the English neighbor Harry Bentley on the CBS series "The Jeffersons" from 1975 to 1985. He also appeared in the Christopher Guest comedies "This Is Spinal Tap," "Waiting for Guffman," and "A Mighty Wind."

His long face was, in part, a result of acromegaly, a pituitary disorder that was first diagnosed by an audience member, an endocrinologist, at one of his Theatre Company performances.

Theatre Company founder David Wheeler, who directed Mr. Benedict there and at ART and remained a close friend, recalled the joy he spread. "From the point he came into the theater, it was one continuous round of laughter," Wheeler said yesterday. "My wife, Bronia, would always ask him to tell her a joke before he got off the phone, and then break up in laughter."
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Cross gently, Mr Bentley... (I think he's appreciate the rhyme.;))

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Oh yes. I remember him. :^) RIP Mr. Benedict

[The Straight Story]

2. I didn't even know he was still alive

RIP Mr Bentley

[Catherine Vincent]

3. Aww, I remember him.

Rest in peace, Mr. Bentley (Paul Benedict).

[louis-t]

4. I don't see anything wrong with his face.

Wow, 10 years on Jeffersons. I didn't realize the show was on that long.

[JVS]

5. He finally got a piece of the pie.

[LisaM]

6. He was one of the more talented of a very talented ensemble

The casting of that show was pitch perfect - and everyone played off each other perfectly, as if it was perfectly usual for they, as characters, to have been thrown together under those circumstances. I don't know who else could have played that role the way he did. He was fantastic.

[zbdent]

7. That man just let George Jefferson walk all over him ...

[Dennis Donovan]

8. Literally...

;)

[TlalocW]

9. More importantly for me...

He was the Mad Painter on Sesame Street when I was a kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi-ODZ3ING0

TlalocW

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. "I'm just as God made me, sir,"

RIP

[brettdale]

11. RIP

Hes moving on up to that big apartment in the sky.

[gratuitous]

12. Also the mad play director in The Goodbye Girl

"And this cretin who's making me play Richard the Third as an Elizabethan fruit fly!"

[edbermac]

13. Also very funny as the play director in The Goodbye Girl