benton jennings
Began acting at age seven, portraying his boyhood hero "Robin Hood" in a school play. Thirty years later, he got to reprise the character in a professional theatrical production, plus choreographing the fight sequences.
A 4th generation Texan, he fulfilled another boyhood dream -- that of performing in an Alamo movie...and not just one, but two Alamo movies.
He earned a BFA in theatre arts from TCU (Texas Christian University) with additional studies in cinematography. Studies also include London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, The Film Actors Lab in Dallas, DeVera Marcus' Improv Class in L.A., & numerous L.A. voice-over coaches.
Benton has performed in over 100 stage productions and national tours including 25 years with 2 partners in an award winning sketch comedy act -- "The Gunfighters" -- with over 6000 performances nationally, quite literally everywhere from being introduced onstage by Tony Randall at Madison Square Garden to performing alongside Clayton Moore of The Lone Ranger (1949) fame at a festival in Texas. In Los Angeles Benton was a member of the hit Sketch Comedy troupe "Good Spanky" and also a charter member of the SkyPilot Theatre company having performed lead roles in critically and publicly acclaimed productions of "Taking Sides" by Ronald Harwood as conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, "Death And The Maiden" by Ariel Dorfman as Dr. Roberto Miranda, and "Requiem For A Heavyweight" by Rod Serling as Maish Resnick (a role he learned in 4 days when the actor cast as Maish took ill), wrote and directed SkyPilot's first Children's Outreach production of Peter Cottontail, Jr., and also played Sidney Redlitch in Colony Theatre's production of John van Druten's original stage script for "Bell, Book And Candle".
With a natural and nurtured knack for embodying the roles he plays, Benton has portrayed a vast swath of characters ranging from psycho killers, FBI agents, good ol' boy farmers, upscale butlers and maitre'ds, cranky patients and caring physicians, Shakespearean kings and high school janitors, Priests and Rabbis, news anchors, senators, paraplegic British officers and even Hitler. (He has the dubious distinction of having played Hitler five times. First on NBC'S Passions (1999), David Zucker's feature film An American Carol (2008), again in the indie feature Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury (2011), on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003) in the "Captain Mexico" parody sketch, ep 9.163 26 July 2011), and February 2012 in a professional photo essay which depicts a time traveling assassin shooting Hitler.
Benton also has worked as an historical consultant, historical military technical advisor and fight director.
Began acting at age seven, portraying his boyhood hero "Robin Hood" in a school play. Thirty years later, he got to reprise the character in a professional theatrical production, plus choreographing the fight sequences.
A 4th generation Texan, he fulfilled another boyhood dream -- that of performing in an Alamo movie...and not just one, but two Alamo movies.
He earned a BFA in theatre arts from TCU (Texas Christian University) with additional studies in cinematography. Studies also include London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, The Film Actors Lab in Dallas, DeVera Marcus' Improv Class in L.A., & numerous L.A. voice-over coaches.
Benton has performed in over 100 stage productions and national tours including 25 years with 2 partners in an award winning sketch comedy act -- "The Gunfighters" -- with over 6000 performances nationally, quite literally everywhere from being introduced onstage by Tony Randall at Madison Square Garden to performing alongside Clayton Moore of The Lone Ranger (1949) fame at a festival in Texas. In Los Angeles Benton was a member of the hit Sketch Comedy troupe "Good Spanky" and also a charter member of the SkyPilot Theatre company having performed lead roles in critically and publicly acclaimed productions of "Taking Sides" by Ronald Harwood as conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, "Death And The Maiden" by Ariel Dorfman as Dr. Roberto Miranda, and "Requiem For A Heavyweight" by Rod Serling as Maish Resnick (a role he learned in 4 days when the actor cast as Maish took ill), wrote and directed SkyPilot's first Children's Outreach production of Peter Cottontail, Jr., and also played Sidney Redlitch in Colony Theatre's production of John van Druten's original stage script for "Bell, Book And Candle".
With a natural and nurtured knack for embodying the roles he plays, Benton has portrayed a vast swath of characters ranging from psycho killers, FBI agents, good ol' boy farmers, upscale butlers and maitre'ds, cranky patients and caring physicians, Shakespearean kings and high school janitors, Priests and Rabbis, news anchors, senators, paraplegic British officers and even Hitler. (He has the dubious distinction of having played Hitler five times. First on NBC'S Passions (1999), David Zucker's feature film An American Carol (2008), again in the indie feature Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury (2011), on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003) in the "Captain Mexico" parody sketch, ep 9.163 26 July 2011), and February 2012 in a professional photo essay which depicts a time traveling assassin shooting Hitler.
Benton also has worked as an historical consultant, historical military technical advisor and fight director.
benton is ONLINE and available to read with you NOW.
If you need a Reader, please connect immediately rather than message.