Paula Prentiss

Actresses

Paula Prentiss (née Ragusa; born March 4, 1938) is an American actress. She’s worked frequently with her husband Richard Benjamin, including the short lived sitcom He & She (1967), with Jack Cassidy, Hamilton Camp, and Kenneth Mars – for which she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She made her film debut in Henry Levin’s Where the Boys Are (1960), with Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton, and Frank Gorshin.

Other films in the early 1960s include Richard Thorpe’s The Honeymoon Machine (1961), with Steve McQueen, Brigid Bazlen, Jim Hutton, Jack Mullaney, and Dean Jagger; Jack Arnold’s Bachelor in Paradise (1961), with Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Janis Page, Hutton, Don Porter, Virginia Grey, and Agnes Moorehead; The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962), with Hutton, Jack Carter, Jim Backus, Charles McGraw, Miyoshi Umeki, and Marty Ingles; and Follow the Boys (1963), with Connie Francis, Paige, Dany Robin, and Russ Tamblyn.

Films in the mid 1960s include Howard Hawks’s Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964), with Rock Hudson, Maria Perschy, and Charlene Holt; George Roy Hill’s The World of Henry Orient (1964), with Peter Sellers, Angela Lansbury, Tippy Walker, Merrie Spaeth, Phyllis Thaxter, Bibi Osterwald, and Tom Bosley; Otto Preminger’s In Harm’s Way (1965), were with John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Henry Fonda, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Brandon deWilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, and Franchot Tone; and Clive Donner’s What’s New Pussycat? (1965), with Peter Sellers, Peter O’Toole, Romy Schneider, Capucine, Woody Allen, and Ursula Andress.

Films in the 1970s include Mike Nichols’s Catch-22 (1970), with Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Martin Balsam, Benjamin, Olimpia Carlisi, Marcel Dalio, Art Garfunkel, Jack Gilford, Charles Grodin, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Austin Pendleton, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, and Orson Welles; Stuart Rosenberg’s Move (1970), with Elliott Gould and Geneviève Waïte; Ivan Passer’s Born to Win (1971), with George Segal, Karen Black, Hector Elizondo, Jay Fletcher, and Robert De Niro; Gene Saks’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972), with Arkin, Sally Kellerman, and Renée Taylor; Carlo Lizzani’s Crazy Joe (1974), with Peter Boyle, Fred Williamson, Rip Torn, Luther Adler, Henry Winkler, and Eli Wallach; Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974), with Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, and William Daniels; and Bryan Forbes’s The Stepford Wives (1975), with Katharine Ross, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman, Tina Louise, and Patrick O’Neal.

Later films include Harold Becker’s The Black Marble (1980), with Robert Foxworth, Harry Dean Stanton, Barbara Babcock, and John Hancock; Saturday the 14th (1981), with Benjamin, Severn Darden, Jeffrey Tambor, and Kari Michaelsen; Billy Wilder’s Buddy Buddy (1981), with Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Klaus Kinski; Hard Four (2010), with Ross Benjamin (her son), Edward Asner, Ed Begley Jr., Hamilton Camp, Coleman, Bryan Cranston, and John Getz; and Osgood Perkins’s I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016), with Ruth Wilson, Balaban, and Lucy Boynton.

TV films include The Couple Takes a Wife (1972), with Bill Bixby and Myrna Loy; No Room to Run (1977), with Having Babies II (1977), with Tony Bill, Cliff Gorman, Carol Linley, Lee Meriwether, Nicholas Pryor, Wayne Rogers, Susan Sullivan, and Cassie Yates; Friendships, Secrets and Lies (1979), with Cathryn Damon, Shelley Fabares, Sondra Locke, and Stella Stevens; Top of the Hill (1980), with Adrienne Barbeau, Mel Ferrer, and Gary Lockwood; Packin’ It In (1983), with Benjamin, Tony Roberts, and Molly Ringwald; and M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (1983), with Harriette Hartley.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • Where the Boys Are (1960) – directed by a Henry Levin
  • The Honeymoon Machine (1961) – directed by Richard Thorpe
  • Bachelor in Paradise (1961) – directed by Jack Arnold
  • The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962) – directed by Richard Thorpe
  • Follow the Boys (1963) – directed by Richard Thorpe
  • Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964) – directed by Howard Hawks
  • The World of Henry Orient (1964) – directed by George Roy Hill
  • Looking for Love (1964) – directed by Don Weis
  • In Harm’s Way (1965) – directed by Otto Preminger
  • What’s New Pussycat? (1965) – directed by Clive Donner
  • Catch-22 (1970) – directed by Mike Nichols
  • Move (1970) – directed by Stuart Rosenberg
  • Born to Win (1971) – directed by Ivan Passer
  • Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972) – directed by Gene Saks
  • The Couple Takes a Wife (1972) – directed by Jerry Paris – TV movie
  • Crazy Joe (1974) – directed by Carlo Lizzani
  • The Parallax View (1974) – directed by Alan J. Pakula
  • The Stepford Wives (1975) – directed by Bryan Forbes
  • No Room to Run (1977) – directed by Robert Michael Lewis – TV movie
  • Having Babies II (1977) – directed by Richard Michaels – TV movie
  • Friendships, Secrets and Lies (1979) – directed by Marlene Laird & Ann Zane Shanks – TV movie
  • Top of the Hill (1980) – directed by Walter Grauman – TV movie
  • The Black Marble (1980) – directed by Harold Becker
  • Saturday the 14th (1981) – directed by Harold R. Cohen
  • Buddy Buddy (1981) – directed by Billy Wilder
  • Packin’ It In (1983) – directed by Jud Taylor – TV movie
  • M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (1983) – directed by William A. Graham – TV movie
  • Mrs. Winterbourne (1996) – directed by Richard Benjamin – uncredited
  • Hard Four (2010) – directed by Charles Dennis
  • I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016) – directed by Osgood Perkins