Paul Benjamin

Paul Benjamin
Paul Benjamin
	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1966–2016
Known for	ML – Do the Right Thing; Jim Harris – Across 110th Street

Paul Benjamin (February 4, 1935^[1] – June 28, 2019) was an American actor.

Early life

Born to Fair, a

Baptist preacher (1890–1950) and Rosa Benjamin (née Butler; 1895–1940) in Pelion, South Carolina, Benjamin was the youngest of 12 children.^[1] Benjamin moved to Columbia, South Carolina with an older brother after the death of his parents. Benjamin attended C.A. Johnson High School and later enrolled at Benedict College.^[2]

Career

Benjamin relocated to

Robert E. Burns. On the big screen in the 1980s and 1990s, Benjamin worked with some well-known actors and directors. He acted in Some Kind of Hero (1982) opposite Richard Pryor, Martin Ritt's drama film Nuts (1987) starring Barbra Streisand, Pink Cadillac (1989) with Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989),^[3] Robert Townsend's The Five Heartbeats (1991),^[3] Bill Duke's Hoodlum (1997), and John Singleton's Rosewood

(1997).

On television, he appeared in the 1988 episode of

In The Heat of the Night as a death row inmate and in the 1994 pilot episode of ER, which led to his recurring role of homeless man Al Ervin during the next few seasons. Benjamin also worked on the American Masters documentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ralph Ellison, which aired on PBS. He also acted in an episode of the 14th season of Law & Order entitled "Identity" (2003) as well as an episode of The Shield. ^[3] After 2000, he acted mainly in independent films like Stanley's Gig, The Station Agent,^[3] Deacons For Defense, and James Hunter's 2005 drama Back in the Day

.