Paula Prentiss & Richard Benjamin

Paula Prentiss is absolutely hilarious in "The World of Henry Orient" as the married housewife nervous she will be discovered having an affair.

Paula Prentiss in Stepford Wives was so fun. She woulda been a fun friend

[quote]even if they don't act anymore

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

I always wondered if Prentiss was bipolar or at least troubled in some way. She kind of bowed out mid-career. Wonder if she could have had a stage life. A great Auntie Mame?

Wasn't Paula's sister the batshit one?

Yes R5 - Ann Prentiss even spent some time in lockup

Wow Ann Prentiss was a real whack job. Gonna say it was pathological jealousy. She wanted to kill Dick Benjamin.

Dick and Paula fucked over their stage careers way back in1975 when they fucked over Carole Shelley over a stage mishap involving a pillow (truth) and got bad reps for their craziness backstage during the run of "The Norman Conquests". They both came off as pretty nuts and control freaks, and the Broadway community shunned them. They never came back.

R8 -- What? You're just gonna let that sit there?

Both Ragusa sisters (Paula and Ann) had long histories of mental illness. Obviously, Ann's was far worse than her sister's.

Paula's career slowed down considerably in the mid-60s because of her multiple hospitalizations. It's a shame because she was terrific!

Richard Benjamin always came across as gay to me.

I saw them in Power Plays in 1998 when they replaced Elaine May and Alan Arkin (who I saw as well).

Northwestern grads.

I saw thier 6O's tv show and Paula sounded weird or had a speech impediment? Sometimes it was hard to understand her as her words came out slurred.

R9-During a scene change, Carole accidentally hit Paula with a sofa pillow. Paula assumed it was deliberate (it probably was, because everyone in the show except Dick hated her) and it escalated intro a complaint to Equity. Benjamin Demanded Shelley be fired and she was. Box office fell off after that.

There was a brief second when their 1967 sitcom HE AND SHE was expected to be a big hit. Jack Cassidy played as ever an egotistical narcissist. Lasted only one season.

But it was a WONDERFUL season, r16.

Legendary, if perhaps apocryphal story: when Paula (Ragusa) was an undergraduate at Northwestern she was rehearsing for a production of “The House of Bernarda Alba,” and a fit of stage giggles. The director, uber-dyke star maker Alvina Krause, went onstage and slapped Paula across the face and said, “Feel like laughing now, Paula?” Lilla Heston, who was playing the title role (Bernarda not the house) told the story on numerous occasions. I’ve heard from others that the face-slapping was a common technique Krause used in rehearsal to get an emotional response.

She’d be fired today. (And rightly so, IMO.) she must have gotten a perverse pleasure from it.

Jack Cassidy, the gayer Ted Knight.

Paula did a full frontal scene in "Catch 22".

R11- Jack Klugman thought so in Goodbye Columbus because he ate like a bird.

I'm a a gay and I eat like a horse.

R10- She looks OLD and batshit in this video.

It looks like they're both made up to look old for a part but they both ARE old.

Damn R22, she sure does look batshit cray cray. They could've fixed her up a little. Still love her though. It's nice they've stuck together all these years.

That Norman Conquests story reminds me of crazy Judy Carne getting into an onstage altercation with Betsy Von Furstenberg in the touring company of Absurd Person Singular (what is it with Ayckbourn and crazies). Not sure if Judy got fired but Betsy was immediately moved to the Broadway company. I think she swapped places with Carol Lynley. The tour didn't last long after that.

I’ve always liked them, too, both as actors and as a couple who seem like genuinely real and warm people.

[quote]r25 I'm watching a rerun of the '75 version of "Stepford Wives" and Paula just underwent the "conversion." Katharine Ross stabs her to see if she'll bleed -- she doesn't. "I thought we were friends."

Isn’t stabbing your friend in the stomach a rather [italic]extreme [/italic]test to see if they’re a robot?

Paula was extra good in The Parallax View.

Guess combs and brushes were in short supply at the Benjamin-Prentiss household.

She's nuts and you can see the career decline slowly, from leading lady to supporting in features to television then to Broadway and touring theatre and a few days on a lower budget and regional theatre and personal appearances.

She irritated Howard Hawks on Man's Favorite Sport because she's so spontaneous she never does it the same way twice so her shots don't match.

What must be mental illness looks like acting brilliance sometimes, because she's so "in the moment." But then repeat that to get multiple angles, or try to repeat it eight times a week onstage, and you have to have craft and discipline, and no one cares what you really feel like in real life, can you muster the feelings required for the performance and the character.

She was hilarious in What's New Pussycat?

She also had a nervous breakdown during the filming of 'Pussycat', and had to be hospitalized.

22 years ago, I saw Paula Prentiss play the lead in THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE, with David Hedison and Marj Dusay, at the Cape Playhouse. As I recall, she was OK but miles from the (admittedly) high bar set by DL fave Linda Lavin.

Richard Benjamin at least stayed quite active as a director of TV and feature films through the '80s, '90s and early '00s.

I wanted to see Paula Prentiss star in a project as Geena Davis' mother

LOVE Paula, even her sis Ann. Great voice and appeal.

Many years ago I bought a DVD of a Neil Simon play turned into a lousy movie, Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972). Why? Two of my favorite crazy ladies are in it - Paula Prentiss and Sally Kellerman. AND Renee Taylor and Arkin.

^ Plus, the Prentiss sisters are (were) 5'10" tall.

I saw a summer stock tour of Last of the Red Hot Lovers with George Gobel. The part of Bobbi Michele (Paula's role) was played by Jane Curtin. Jane is the *only* thing I remember about that production.

That pillow story was peak DL.

Paula deserved a Best Supporting nomination for THE STEPFORD WIVES.

The book was different. The two women faced off in the kitchen, but Joanna asked Bobbie to cut herself and bleed a little to prove she was real. Bobbie picked up a knife that was too big for the job ... and then they cut to the famous supermarket scene where Joanna was shopping like all the other robots.

Richard was hilarious in Love at First Bite.

Ann was gut-bustingly funny in an episode of [italic]Emergency!,[/italic] playing an accident-prone woman trying to prep for a first-time meeting of her boyfriend's mother.

Shit….Ive been bat shit crazy my whole life. I’m 52 and don’t care what the East Hampton community thinks.

LIke R1 said, PP was incredible in The World of Henry Orient, one of the most underrated comedies of all time. But yes, apparently she was quite nuts and doomed her own career with her antics. Still, comic genius.

I always thought that Paula and Joan Hackett were the most talented, least employed actresses of the 60s and 70s. They were both offbeat, both nutty, but Joan did better with drama. She was the best in The Group, and also excellent in The Last of Sheila, a part that Paula wanted. TLOS was a good movie but the worst part of it was Richard Benjamin, who was playing the handsome hunk but he just came across as a sniveling dork.

I adored Joan Hackett.

So much so that during a very gay conversation among friends about favourite dearly-departed actresses I mentioned Joan Hackett. A close friend's "bisexual" plus-one commented, "Buddy Hackett's daughter? Just kidding."

My close friend's admiration for Joan Hackett exceeded mine. He was the one who pointed out to me how great she was. His companion was quietly dispensed with 20 minutes later. The rest of us carried on for another few hours.

What was the basis for Prentiss’ nervous breakdowns? Wasn’t she even institutionalized?

R44 = dialing in from a 1964 Joan Crawford movie

for some reason, whenever I read the name "Paula Prentiss" I will hear a cigar-smoking Walter Matthau slowly saying the name.

Paula sounds like a early version of Jenna Elfman. Quirky and somewhat amusing but unable to really connect with most people

Jenna Elfman has no talent

Their daughters name is Prentiss Benjamin.

Ann Prentiss died in prison. I think I remember reading that their father abused them .

Sad.

I loved HE AND SHE. Hamilton Camp was part of the cast, too. It was a well-written show, sorry it didn't last.

R47, Paula connected with plenty of people. The problem was she was hard to pigeon hole.

Paula could have been a pretty good Mame.