| Robert Benchley |
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Born in Worcester, Massachusetts , Benchley's essays were published in collections including ''Of All Things'', ''Benchley Beside Himself'', ''Inside Benchley'', ''Benchley or Else'', and ''Chips Off the Old Benchley''. His books were illustrated by Gluyas Williams , whose spare, knowing line drawings added to Benchley's success. Benchley's humor was based on everyday life, news oddities, and absurd, almost -winning humorist Dave Barry who said Benchley influenced him more than anyone other than Barry's own mother. FILM WORK In . At the same time, he found frequent work, at several studios, as a character actor in feature films, often playing a variation on the befuddled burgher of his shorts or else a Dipsomaniacal sophisticate. He appears in Alfred Hitchcock 's '' Foreign Correspondent '', in Rene Clair 's ''I Married a Witch'' and with Fred Astaire in ''The Sky's the Limit.'' One of Benchley's specialties in film was the "embarrassing speech" -- nervous, stammering, clearing his throat, making no sense whatsoever. It's the nightmare of every friend of the groom or business analyst who must give a talk and finds his mind has gone completely blank... painfully funny to watch. Benchley also appeared in the 1941 Feature Film '' The Reluctant Dragon '', giving a loose tour of the then-new Walt Disney Studios facility in Burbank, California . Benchley was awarded a star on the Walk Of Fame in Hollywood . He is the father of author Nathaniel Benchley author of '' The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming '', and grandfather of '' Jaws '' writer Peter Benchley . On his passing in 1945 , Robert Benchley was cremated and his ashes were interred in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket, Massachusetts . EXTERNAL LINKS
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