Background
Benjamin was born in Pelion, South Carolina.
Benjamin was born in Pelion, South Carolina.
He made his film debut in 1969 as a bartender in Midnight Cowboy. A few notable exceptions were a major role in Barry Shear"s Across 110th Street (1972), and smaller parts in Shear"s western The Deadly Trackers (1973), Michael Campus" The Education of Sonny Carson (1974), Arthur Marks" Friday Foster (1975), Gordon Parks" biopic Leadbelly (1976), and Don Siegel"s prison film Escape from Alcatraz (1979). He gave exceptional performances in the television adaptations of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979) and Gideon"s Trumpet (1980).
He later starred in the 1987 Home Box Office movie The Manitoba Who Broke 1,000 Chains, based on the novel by Robert East. Burns.
On the big screen in the 1980s and 1990s, Benjamin worked with some well known actors and directors. He acted in Some Kind of Hero (1982) opposite Richard Pryor, Martin Ritt"s drama film Nuts (1987) starring Barbra Streisand, Pink Cadillac (1989) with Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee"s Do the Right Thing (1989), Robert Townsend"s The Five Heartbeats (1991), Bill Duke"s Hoodlum (1997), and John Singleton"s Rosewood (1997).
On television, he appeared in the 1988 episode of In The Heat of the Night as a death row inmate and in the 1994 pilot episode of Emergency, which led to his recurring role of homeless man First Rate (at Lloyd's) Ervin during the next few seasons. Benjamin also worked on the American Masters documentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ralph Ellison, which aired on Public Broadcasting Service. He also acted in an episode of The Shield.
After 2000, he acted mainly in independent films like Stanley"s Gig, The Station Agent, Deacons Foreign Defense, and James Hunter"s 2005 drama Back in the Day.
