Lucille Benson Biography

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.

Biography

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 around 1930 [This should be corrected. This year, 1930, makes her 16 years old when she heads off to NY after a short career as a teacher].

Acting career

Her career started in New York in the 1930s. She appeared on Broadway in several plays including, The Doughgirls, The Day Before Spring, Happy Birthday, As The Girls Go, Hotel Paradiso, Period of Adjustment and Walking Happy. 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."

Ms. Benson also played the role of the owner of the Snake-A-Rama in Steven Spielberg's 1971 movie Duel, starring Dennis Weaver.

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 Susan B. Anthony Hotel where two young men (Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari) dressed as women to take advantage of the dirt-cheap rent.

She is thought to be the actress seen reciting the Lord's Prayer in the memorable train holdup scene of the classic western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). However, she is uncredited, and no such role is listed in the Internet Movie Database. 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

She died on February 17, 1984, in her native Scottsboro, Alabama, aged 69, from liver cancer. She was cremated and her remains are in Cedar Hill Cemetery near the rear of Unclaimed Baggage Center.

Filmography

• WUSA (1970)
• Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970)
• Women in Chains (1971)
• Escape (1971)
• Duel (1971)
• Cactus in the Snow (1972)
• Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
• The Devil's Daughter (1972)
• Private Parts (1972)
• The Blue Knight (1973)
• Tom Sawyer (1973)
• The Day the Earth Moved (1974)
• Huckleberry Finn (1974)
• Reflections of Murder (1974)
• Mame (1974)
• Betrayal (1974)
• Silver Streak (1976)
• Collision Course (1976)
• Black Market Baby (1977)
• The Greatest (1977)
• Ebony, Ivory and Jade (1979)
• Charleston (1979)
• 1941 (1979)
• Concrete Cowboys (1979)
• Halloween II (1981)
• Amy (1981)
• When Your Lover Leaves (1983)
• Moon Face (released after her death in 1984)

Television appearances

• Alice
• Bonanza
• Bosom Buddies
• Bring 'Em Back Alive
• Cannon
• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Eight is Enough
• Emergency!
• How the West Was Won
• Little House on the Prairie
• The Love Boat
• Mannix
• The New Andy Griffith Show
• Petrocelli
• Police Woman
• The Ropers
• Simon & Simon
• Trapper John, M.D.
• The Waltons
• Wonder Woman
• The Wonderful World of Disney