Robert Charles Benchley

Robert Charles Benchley 1889-1945, American humorist, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1912. He was drama critic of Life (1920-29) and of The New Yorker (1929-40). Benchley was known for a series of short satirical films that he wrote, directed, and acted in himself. His books, which are rich in anecdotes and clever interpretations of everyday situations, include Of All Things (1921), My Ten Years in a Quandary (1936), and Benchley beside Himself (1943).

Benchley, Robert [Charles] (1889–1945), drama critic, humorist, and actor, after graduating from Harvard (1912) wrote for New York newspapers and magazines, and was theater critic of Life (1920–29) and The New Yorker (1929–40). His sketches of the tribulations of the average man are collected in Of All Things (1921), Love Conquers All (1922), Pluck and Luck (1925), The Early Worm (1927), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; or, David Copperfield (1928), The Treasurer's Report (1930), No Poems (1932), From Bed to Worse (1934), My Ten Years in a Quandary (1936), After 1903—What? (1938), Inside Benchley (1942), and Benchley Beside Himself (1943). He also played in motion pictures and on the radio.

His son Nathaniel Benchley (1915–81), also a humorist, was the author of light novels, films and plays, and lives of his father and of his friend Humphrey Bogart (1975).