Cause of death Cancer Parents Mrs. John Benson Role Actress | Name Lucille Benson Years active 1952–1983 | |
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Born July 17, 1914 ( 1914-07-17 ) Scottsboro, Alabama, U.S. Occupation American film, stage and television actress Died February 17, 1984, Scottsboro, Alabama, United States Education Huntingdon College, Northwestern University Movies and TV shows Duel, Bosom Buddies, Little Fauss and Big Halsy, Private Parts, The Fugitive Kind Similar People Telma Hopkins, Paul Bartel, Sidney J Furie, Robert B Sherman, Chris Thompson | ||
Lucille Benson (July 17, 1914 – February 17, 1984) was an American actress known for her roles in commercials, television, and movies in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Personal life
Born in Scottsboro, Alabama, on July 17, 1914, Benson was adopted by her aunt, Mrs. John Benson, after her mother died of tuberculosis. She was valedictorian and president of her Jackson County High School class at Jackson County High School. She attended Huntingdon College, in Montgomery, and later attended Northwestern's School of Drama, in Evanston, Illinois. After a short career as a teacher, she went to New York in the 1930s.
Acting career
Her career started in New York in the 1930s. She appeared on Broadway in several plays including Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath, Walking Happy, Hotel Paradiso, Good Night, Ladies, The Doughgirls, The Day Before Spring, Happy Birthday, As The Girls Go, Hotel Paradiso, and Period of Adjustment. She performed at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, in Miami, appearing in the Tennessee Williams play, Orpheus Descending.
Benson's break in motion pictures occurred while performing with Donald O'Connor in the play Little Me during a three-month run in Las Vegas. She said, "While I was in Las Vegas, a former agent in Hollywood called to ask me to come up Hollywood to tryout for a Paramount film. I went to Hollywood, tried out and was cast for the part in which I played opposite Robert Redford in Little Fauss and Big Halsy."
Benson played the owner of the Snake-A-Rama in Steven Spielberg's 1971 movie Duel, starring Dennis Weaver.
Benson portrayed Birdie Huff in the crime drama Nashville 99 (1977).:744 She had a recurring role on the sitcom The Ropers as Helen's mother.:910 Her big commercial break was Bosom Buddies, a situation comedy based on Some Like It Hot. During the show's first season (1980–1981), Benson played "Lilly Sinclair", the manager of the female only Susan B. Anthony Hotel where two young men (Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari) dress as women to take advantage of the inexpensive rent.
She may be the actress seen reciting the Lord's Prayer in the train holdup scene of the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). However, the actress is uncredited,. She did work with the stars of that film in the following year: with Paul Newman in WUSA, and with Robert Redford in Little Fauss and Big Halsy.
Death
Benson died on February 17, 1984, in a hospital in Scottsboro, Alabama, aged 69, from liver cancer. She was cremated and her remains are in Cedar Hill Cemetery.