Robert Benton, 1932 – 2025

Film director and screenwriter Robert Benton, 92, died on May 11. Benton wrote and/or directed such hits as Kramer vs. Kramer (which won him two Oscars), Bonnie & Clyde (his first screenplay), What’s Up, Doc?, The Late Show, Superman, and Places in the Heart (another Oscar), among others. Benton started his career as an art director and writer; he got the idea for Bonnie & Clyde from his father, who claimed to have attended the funerals of both. “My next film is always shaped by the last one,” Benton said. “By the things I feel I didn't get right, or the things I like and want to try to develop further, but it always comes out of the last picture.”