William Benedict Movies
Oklahoma-born William Benedict is fondly remembered by fans for his shock of unkempt blond hair; ironically, he lost his first job at a bank because he refused to use a comb. Stagestruck at an early age, the skinny, ever-boyish Benedict took dancing lessons while in high school and appeared in amateur theatricals. After phoning a 20th Century-Fox talent scout, the 17-year-old Benedict... (read more) hitchhiked to Hollywood and won a film contract (if for no other reason than nerve and persistence). He appeared in the first of his many office-boy roles in his debut film, $10 Raise (1935), and spent the next four decades popping up in bits as bellboys, caddies, hillbillies, delivery men and Western Union messengers. He portrayed so many of the latter, in fact, that Western Union paid tribute to Benedict by giving him his own official uniform -- an honor bestowed on only one other actor, Benedict's lifelong friend Frank Coghlan Jr. (the two actors costarred in the 1941 serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel). In 1939, Benedict played a bicycle messenger in the Little Tough Guys film Call a Messenger; four years later he appeared with another branch of the Little Tough Guys clan, the East Side Kids, in Ghosts on the Loose. He remained with the Kids as "Skinny," then stayed on when the East Siders transformed into the Bowery Boys in 1946. As "Whitey," Benedict was the oldest member of the team, a fact occasionally alluded to in the dialogue -- though Leo Gorcey, two months younger than Benedict, was firmly in charge of the bunch. Benedict left the Bowery Boys in 1951, gradually easing out of acting; for several years, he worked as an assistant designer of miniature sets for movie special-effects sequences. He returned to performing in the 1960s, still playing the newsboy and delivery man roles he'd done as a youth. Film and TV fans of the 1970s might recall Billy Benedict as a world-weary croupier in the early scenes of The Sting (1973), and in the regular role of Toby the Informant on the 1975 TV series The Blue Knight. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Born Again
PG 1978
President Richard Nixon's legal counsellor Charles Colson was tried for several criminal charges relating to the Watergate cover-up, eventually spending some time in prison....
The Streets of San Francisco: Let's Pretend We're Strangers
1977
SFPD homicide inspector Robbins (Richard Hatch) falls in love with attractive public defender Susan Harper (Linda Kelsey). Unfortunately, the course of romance proves to be...
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
PG 1976
This spoof makes fun of a certain famous German shepherd movie star from the 1920s. The mayhem begins when the head honcho of a financially struggling studio turns a lost dog into...
Homebodies
PG 1974
This classy and creative low-budget thriller depicts an all-out war of attrition between a group of neglected, disgruntled senior citizens and the heartless city officials who...
The Sting
PG 1973
Four years after setting box offices ablaze in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and director George Roy Hill re-teamed with similar...
Emergency!: The Promotion
1973
Now that he has been promoted to Engineer, Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) is faced with the prospect of having to leave the Paramedics program. Meanwhile, a huge pileup on the...
Mission: Impossible: The Fighter
1973
The IMF again invades the world of professional boxing to get the goods on crooked sports promoter Paul Mitchell (William Windom) and his Syndicate boss Jay Braddock (Joe...
The F.B.I.: The Wedding Gift
1973
Having portrayed a career criminal who embarked upon a robbery spree for the sake of her young son in an earlier FBI episode, Penny Fuller essays a similar role herein as...
The Adventures of Nick Carter
1972
Created for the "dime novels" in 1886, scientific detective Nick Carter has been transferred to film and radio several times in the past six decades, though most of these projects...
Adam-12: Log 165: Once a Cop
1971
Comedian Shelley Berman) guest stars as a crooked Hollywood agent who is running a scam with a sexy starlet (Katie O'Price). There is also a third player in this intrigue, a...
The Dirt Gang
R 1971
A desert location becomes terrifying as a motorcycle gang disturbs a film crew working there. ~ Rovi...
Ironside: If a Body Sees a Body
1971
After coming across a corpse stuffed in a sack and deposited in a park, Sgt. Ed Brown (Don Galloway) notifies the homicide division. When the cops arrive, the sack is still...
Big Daddy
1969
Voodoo, hungry 'gators, and love abound in this Z-grade exploitationer set within the steamy Florida Everglades. There a man tries to save his gal from a rival. ~ Sandra Brennan,...
What Am I Bid?
1967
In this countrified musical, a C&W singer does all he can to avoid fame and fortune because that is what destroyed his famous daddy. His managers have other plans though; musical...
The Monkees: Monkee Mayor
1967
The Monkees enter politics to save their neighborhood from being torn down to make way for a parking lot. Mike ends up running for mayor against the incumbent (Irwin...
Branded: Cowards Die Many Times
1966
Lola Albright returns in the role of crusading frontier newspaperwoman Ann Williams. Once again, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) comes to Ann's aid in her efforts to break an...
I Dream of Jeannie: My Master, the Magician
1966
To explain away the fact that Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke) has caught him floating in mid-air (courtesy of Jeannie [Barbara Eden], of course--Tony (Larry Hagman) alibis...
The Twilight Zone: Sounds and Silences
1964
John McGiver stars as ex-Navy man Roswell G. Flemington, who insists upon running his business, and his home, in strict maritime fashion. This includes an abundance of loud...
Petticoat Junction: Cannonball Christmas
1963
Every Christmas, the Hooterville Cannonball goes on a caroling tour throughout the community. All this may come to a screeching halt this year, thanks to the machinations of...
Petticoat Junction: A Night at the Hooterville Hilton
1963
Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) takes it upon himself to write a new brochure for the Shady Rest Hotel. Since he's describing what he hopes will be the "future" Shady Rest, Joe is a...