Paula Prentiss

Prentiss was born Paula Ragusa in San Antonio, Texas, the elder daughter of Paulene (née Gardner) and Thomas J. Ragusa, a social sciences professor at San Antonio's University of the Incarnate Word. Her father was of Sicilian descent, and Prentiss was raised Roman Catholic.{{cite web|work=Comet Over Hollywood|title="The next 58 years will be a breeze": An interview with RiverRun Master of Cinema awardees Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin|date=April 7, 2019|url-status=live|url=https://cometoverhollywood.com/2019/04/07/the-next-58-years-will-be-a-breeze-an-interview-with-riverrun-master-of-cinema-awardees-paula-prentiss-and-richard-benjamin/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20211228070532/https://cometoverhollywood.com/2019/04/07/the-next-58-years-will-be-a-breeze-an-interview-with-riverrun-master-of-cinema-awardees-paula-prentiss-and-richard-benjamin/|archive-date=December 28, 2021|access-date=December 28, 2021}} She had a younger sister, Ann Prentiss, who was also an actress.

Before high school, Paula, who grew to {{height|ft=5|in=10}}, was always the tallest person in class.{{cite web |url=http://www.uiw.edu/thewordonline/fall01/devoverview.html |title=The Word Online:2000–2001 |publisher=University of the Incarnate Word |access-date=December 19, 2010}}{{cite web |url=http://www.uiw.edu/thewordonline/summer01/memoriam.html |title=In Memoriam: Summer 2001 |publisher=University of the Incarnate Word |access-date=December 19, 2010}}{{cite web |url=http://home.comcast.net/~cratonkiwi/paulaprentiss/bio.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121220135826/http://home.comcast.net/~cratonkiwi/paulaprentiss/bio.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 20, 2012 |title=Paula Prentiss Biography |publisher=Cratonkiwi |access-date=December 19, 2010}}{{cite web |url=http://www.filmbug.com/db/195505 |title=Paula Prentiss |publisher=Filmbug |access-date=December 19, 2010}} She attended Lamar High School in Houston.Mesinger, Maxine. [http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1987_480635 "Lamar High marks 50th anniversary"]. Houston Chronicle. August 7, 1987. Retrieved October 13, 2012. In 1958, while studying drama at Northwestern University, she met future husband Richard Benjamin, who impressed her with his sophistication and height (he was taller than she was). While attending Northwestern she was discovered by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was offered a film contract.{{cite web |url=http://www.movieactors.com/actors/paulaprentiss.htm |title=Paula Prentiss |publisher=MovieActors.com |access-date=December 19, 2010}}

Prentiss leapt to fame playing the role of Tuggle in Where the Boys Are (1960).{{cite web|url=http://emanuellevy.com/review/where-the-boys-are-iconic-spring-break-movie/|title=WHERE THE BOYS ARE (1960): Iconic Spring Break Movie, Starring Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux|website=EmanuelLevy.com|author=Levy, Emanuel|date=25 March 2013 |publisher=Emanuel Levy – Cinema 24/7|access-date=25 March 2013}}{{cite web|url=https://letterboxd.com/film/where-the-boys-are/|title=Where the Boys Are (1960) Directed by Henry Levin|website=LETTERBOXD|access-date=11 October 2018}} Her co-star was Jim Hutton.{{Cite news|title=MGM Reactivates 'Spring' Musical: It's 'Early' Lerner-Loewe; Paramount Takes New Play|author=Scheuer, Philip K.|date=Oct 13, 1960|work=Los Angeles Times|page=B17}} The film was a hit and response to Prentiss and Hutton was very favorable, so MGM decided to reteam them in three more comedies, promoting them as a new William Powell and Myrna Loy: The Honeymoon Machine (1961) with Steve McQueen, Bachelor in Paradise (1961) with Bob Hope, and The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962).[https://movies.yahoo.com/person/paula-prentiss/biography.html;_ylt=AnrzzSRHiE8doJbhqQrPojv3TssF;_ylu=X3oDMTI2ajBnaDlrBG1pdANQZXJzb24gRW50aXR5IEFib3V0BHBvcwMxBHNlYwNNZWRpYUVudGl0eUFib3V0TGlua3NQYWNrYWdlQXNzZW1ibHk-;_ylg=X3oDMTE2Z2ppM3RwBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdAMEcHQD;_ylv=3 Paula Prentiss- Biography], Yahoo! They were the two tallest male and female contract players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.Paula Prentiss's commentary track on the DVD for Where the Boys Are{{cite news|title=Jim and Paula: Shades of Powell, Loy?|author=Alpert, Don|work=Los Angeles Times|date=July 16, 1961|page=N4}}

Hutton and Prentiss were also meant to be in Follow the Boys (1963), a Where the Boys Are-style comedy, but he dropped out, and so Prentiss' co-star became Russ Tamblyn.

Howard Hawks cast her as the female lead opposite Rock Hudson in Man's Favorite Sport? (1964) at Universal, her first film outside MGM. Hawks would later say: "Paula Prentiss was good, but she couldn't remember what she was doing from one shot to the next. Her shots never matched."{{cite book |last=Willis |first=Donald C |title=The Films of Howard Hawks |year=1975 |url=https://archive.org/details/filmsofhowardhaw0000will |url-access=registration |publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc |isbn=0-8108-0860-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/filmsofhowardhaw0000will/page/208 208]}}

Prentiss appeared on stage in a production of As You Like It in 1963 at the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park.

She had notable roles in The World of Henry Orient (1964) and In Harm's Way (1965) and made a cameo as herself in Looking for Love (1964). She also had a strong supporting role in What's New Pussycat? (1965) with Peter Sellers. However, on the set of that film she had a nervous breakdown. "One day during shooting," she told People in 1976, "I just climbed up the ropes to the catwalk and started walking the beams. Very loudly and clearly I called down to everyone on the set, 'I'm going to jump.' A French technician grabbed me, and there I was, hanging by one arm." She was hospitalized for nine months.{{cite magazine|url=https://people.com/archive/dick-benjamin-paula-prentiss-their-sunshine-boy-is-the-baby-who-made-us-grow-up-vol-5-no-7/|title=Dick Benjamin & Paula Prentiss: Their Sunshine Boy Is the Baby Who 'Made Us Grow Up'|first=Lois|last=Armstrong|magazine=People|date=February 23, 1976|access-date=June 13, 2021}}

For one season (1967–1968), Prentiss co-starred with her husband, Richard Benjamin, in the CBS sitcom He & She. For her role, Prentiss was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy.

In 1969 she appeared Off-Broadway in the double production, Arf and The Great Airplane Snatch, directed by Benjamin.

Prentiss returned to films as Nurse Duckett in the film adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 (1970). She had the female lead in Move (1970) with Elliott Gould and Born to Win (1971) with George Segal. She was one of the leads in Last of the Red Hot Lovers with Alan Arkin. Next, Prentiss was in the made-for-television film, The Couple Takes a Wife (1972).{{Cite news|title=Wanted: A Reliable Rabbit for Paula|author=Haber, Joyce.|date=Oct 10, 1972|work=Los Angeles Times|page=d11}}

She was the female lead in Crazy Joe (1974) and had a small but pivotal part in The Parallax View (1974) with Warren Beatty.{{cite web|url=https://letterboxd.com/film/the-parallax-view/|title=The Parallax View (1974) Directed by Alan J. Pakula|website=LETTERBOXD|access-date=11 October 2018}} She was second lead in The Stepford Wives (1975), alongside Katharine Ross.{{cite web|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-stepford-wives-1975|author=Ebert, Roger|title=The Stepford Wives|website=RogerEbert.com|publisher=Chicago Sun-Times|date=1 January 1975}}

In 1976, Prentiss and Benjamin appeared on Broadway in The Norman Conquests. After that, they traveled to Australia to make No Room to Run (1977).

Prentiss was in Having Babies II (1977), Friendships, Secrets and Lies (1979), and Top of the Hill (1980). She had a starring role in The Black Marble (1980), but it was not widely seen.

She did Saturday the 14th (1981) with her husband and was in director Billy Wilder's last film, Buddy Buddy (1981), with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. She then made Packin' It In (1983) with her husband and did the made-for-television film, M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (1983).

Prentiss guest starred on TV shows like Murder, She Wrote and Burke's Law.

Except for brief cameo roles, Prentiss had not appeared in a feature film for more than 30 years, until 2016's I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, a horror film directed by Oz Perkins. It premiered September 10, 2016 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Prentiss has been married to actor-director Richard Benjamin since 1961.{{cite web|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20066194,00.html|title=Dick Benjamin & Paula Prentiss: Their Sunshine Boy Is the Baby Who 'Made Us Grow Up'|date=February 23, 1976|author=Armstrong, Lois|work=People|access-date=December 19, 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/09/22/1998-09-22_an_off-b_way__power__couple_.html|title=An Off-B'way Power Couple: Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin|date=September 22, 1998|author=O'Haire, Patricia|work= New York Daily News |access-date=December 19, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110207065446/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/09/22/1998-09-22_an_off-b_way__power__couple_.html|archive-date=February 7, 2011}} They have two children, son Ross and daughter Prentiss.{{cite book|first=Victoria|last=Houseman|title=Made in Heaven: The Marriages and Children of Hollywood Stars|year=1991|publisher=Bonus Books|isbn=9780929387246|page=26}}

There is a street named after Prentiss in San Antonio, Texas.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Merrisa |date=September 30, 2014 |title=San Antonio street names and groupings |url=https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/slideshow/San-Antonio-street-names-and-groupings-94695.php |website=mysanantonio.com}}

File:Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin 1967.jpg in a publicity photo for He & She, 1967]]

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Category:1938 births

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:Actresses from San Antonio

Category:American film actresses

Category:American people of Italian descent

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:Catholics from Texas

Category:Living people

Category:Lamar High School (Houston) alumni

Category:Northwestern University School of Communication alumni

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players