- Born
- Birth namePaula Ragusa
- Height5′ 9¼″ (1.76 m)
- Discovered by a talent scout at Northwestern University in 1958, Paula Prentiss was signed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer and teamed with Jim Hutton in a string of comedies. She rapidly became one of the best American comediennes of the 1960s. Her funny voice inflections, free acting style and brunette good looks established her as a leading lady in comedies of the screwball type, although she was very good in dramatic roles, too. Not much attracted to the Hollywood scene, she retired from films on several occasions, due also to illness and motherhood, but she was always admired and welcome whenever she made a comeback. She and her husband, the actor and director Richard Benjamin, are the parents of Ross Benjamin and Prentiss Benjamin.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Edgar Soberón Torchia <estorchia@gmail.com>
- SpouseRichard Benjamin(October 26, 1961 - present) (2 children)
- Children
- RelativesAnn Prentiss(Sibling)
- Husky & sultry voice and laugh.
- Her height
- Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#91).
- She and Jim Hutton were in five movies together: Where the Boys Are (1960), The Honeymoon Machine (1961), Bachelor in Paradise (1961), The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962), and Looking for Love (1964).
- Chosen by Cannes Film Festival as one of the "500 Names that Made Cannes".
- Paula Prentiss won the following awards for Where the Boys Are (1960): Film Daily's Famous Fives Awards - Best Performance by a Supporting Actress, and Find of the Year; Golden Laurel Award -Top Female Comedy Performance: third place, Top Female New Personality: ninth place; Motion Picture Herald's Star of Tomorrow Awards: sixth place, Photoplay Gold Medal Award: Favorite Female Newcomer.
- One day during shooting [What's New Pussycat (1965)], I just climbed up the ropes to the catwalk and started walking the beams. Very loudly and clearly I called down to everyone on the set, 'I'm going to jump.' A French technician grabbed me, and there I was, hanging by one arm.
[After transfer to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in New York]: It was horrendous. You're crazy because they say you're crazy. It was especially horrible because I couldn't figure out how to do what they wanted me to so I could get out. - He & She (1967) was worth it after what we'd been through. By working together we learned to live with each other again.
It took me a long time to find myself and I'm still looking around corners to see if I'm there. I used to wonder, why does Dick love me? After the baby [Ross Benjamin] was born, I could turn around and see it in myself. - Before I had the baby [Ross Benjamin] I felt lonely going to work. Now I have deeper, more generous feelings. I feel whole, like a human being.
- [on valuing her identity more than box-office success]. "I always kept a close . . . touch for what I really like. It's very easy to lose it, because sometimes it's ignored, who you are, so you begin to play other people's games. I didn't ever do that. Too big a loss if I had done that. To lose yourself-you don't want that. That's too scary".
- [About her psychological crisis while shooting "What's New Pussycat?" in Paris"]. "I was away from Dick, it was a very congenial group of people-to put it lightly!-and it's just what happened. A bit of a breakdown! I guess there was part of me that wondered, 'What's that like, if you go that far?' And then I knew."
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