Director of Iconic Film 'Kramer v Kramer' Dead at 92 Nearly 50 Years After Winning Oscar Alongside Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep
Director Robert Benton has died at age 92.
May 13 2025, Published 5:42 p.m. ET
Oscar-winning director and writer Robert Benton has died aged 92, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Benton passed away at his New York City home on Sunday, May 11, his longtime manager and agent Maria Forzano confirmed.
Benton died at his New York City home on Sunday, May 11.
A cause of death for the 92-year-old has not been released at this time.
Benton was best known for his work on the 1979 legal drama Kramer V. Kramer starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, which touched on controversial issues for the time like divorce and gender norms.
The film grossed over $100million domestically and was nominated for eight Oscars. Benton took home Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Hoffman also won for Best Actor and Streep for Best Supporting Actress.
He won his third Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for 1984's Places in the Heart.
Benton won three Oscars over his career.
Over the course of his decades-long career Benton was nominated for three more Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay for 1967's Bonnie and Clyde and 1977's The Late Show, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay for 1994's Nobody's Fool.
Benton also co-wrote 1978's Superman starring Christopher Reeve.
He additionally worked on films including 1972's What's Up, Doc? and 1983's Still of the Night.
His final film credit came in 2007 when he directed Feast of Love starring Morgan Freeman, Selma Blair, Radha Mitchell and Greg Kinnear.
While discussing his 2003 movie The Human Strain, Benton opened up on his creative process and revealed who he admired in the industry, including which actors he wanted to work with.
Benton said when it comes to project selection, he focused on "looking for something that's different from what I did last time."
He added: "Scripts survive a kind of winnowing process, and I reach the point where I enjoy these characters enough to spend two years with them."
The director said he felt "the greatest living director" was Ermanno Almi, who passed in 2018, "loved" and "admired" Francis Ford Coppola's work and "would love to work with (Robert) Duvall and (Adrien) Brody."
Benton co-wrote 'Bonnie and Clyde' and 'Superman.'
In the same interview, Benton dismissed the backlash suggesting his first screenplay Bonnie and Clyde, which he co-wrote with David Newman, "glorified criminals."
He explained: "I don't think so. It wasn't intended to. It was to see them in a different light. I wanted to see criminals without moralizing (about) them. I want to see them as people.
"They led a wretched life and they had maybe 15 minutes of fun. They were people who wanted to be stars. In a world where they had no outlet, they wanted to be stars. And that ambition for stardom is so heartbreaking.
"(Yet) I know that if I were in a room with them, they would shoot me first."
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Benton is proceeded in death by his wife Sallie (Rendig) Benton, who died in 2023. The couple shared son John together and were married from 1964 until her death.
The iconic filmmaker was born in Waxahachie, Texas, on September 29, 1932.
He attended the University of Texas at Austin and Colombia University.
