Robert Benton, Oscar winning filmmaker and director of 'Kramer vs Kramer', dies at 92: Here's all about him

Robert Benton, three-time Oscar-winner screenwriter and director, who helmed the 1979 film “Kramer vs Kramer,” died aged 92 in his US home, his representative said Tuesday, AFP reported.

Hillary Bibicoff from the law firm Feig Finkel, which represented him, confirmed his death to AFP. He died on Sunday, The New York Times stated. Benton leaves his son, John, behind. His wife of six decades, Sallie, died in 2023.

Who was Robert Benton?

Known for the “The Late Show”, 1984 film "Places in the Heart", Benton had great writing and directing credits for influential movies throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Benton co-wrote Arthur Penn's groundbreaking crime thriller "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty -- with David Newman. He is popular for his script and direction on "Kramer vs Kramer," the 1979 film that provided an unflinching look at divorce and became one of the most awarded films of its time.

It picked up nine Oscar nominations, and brought home five -- Benton's Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, including Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman, Best Supporting Actress for Meryl Streep and the year's grand prize of Best Picture.

He and Newman co-wrote Peter Bogdanovich's "What's Up, Doc?," which was released in 1972, the same year that Benton made his directorial debut with "Bad Company."

Benton partnered again with Newman and Newman's wife Leslie in 1978 to write the screenplay for "Superman" (1978) starring Marlon Brando, Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder. Although he directed numerous Oscar-winning performances from some of the 20th century’s greatest screen legends, Benton had a reputation in Hollywood for being a modest and unassuming director.

"There are directors who can get great performances out of actors. I am not one of them," the filmmaker once said as per AFP. He remained modest about his career when he appeared at a far event in Hollywood in 2018.

"I have found actors -- through luck, through the judgment of casting directors or through my own instinct -- that are extraordinarily good," he told the crowd, adding "There's a thing you've just got to gamble with, and when you see it and it works, it's brilliant."

When asked how he managed to get some of Tinseltown's biggest stars to perform for him, he quipped, “I just tried to stay out of their way... which isn’t as easy as it sounds.”