Paula Prentiss facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Paula Prentiss
Prentiss in 1963
Born	Paula Ragusa (1938-03-04) March 4, 1938 (age 87) San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Education	Lamar High School
Alma mater	Northwestern University
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1960–present
Spouse(s)	Richard Benjamin ​ (m. 1961)​
Children	2
Relatives	Ann Prentiss (sister)

Paula Prentiss (born March 4, 1938) is an American actress. She is famous for her roles in many movies and TV shows. Some of her best-known films include Where the Boys Are (1960), Man's Favorite Sport? (1964), and The Stepford Wives (1975).

From 1967 to 1968, Paula starred with her husband Richard Benjamin in the TV show He & She. She was even nominated for an Emmy Award for her acting in that show.

Early Life of Paula Prentiss

Paula Prentiss was born Paula Gardner Ragusa in San Antonio, Texas. She was the older daughter of Paulene and Thomas J. Ragusa. Her younger sister, Ann Prentiss, also became an actress.

Paula was always very tall, even before high school. She grew to be 5 feet 10 inches! She went to Lamar High School in Houston, Texas. In 1958, while studying drama at Northwestern University, she met her future husband, Richard Benjamin. He was taller than her, which she liked. While at Northwestern, she was discovered by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a big movie studio, and was offered a film contract.

Paula Prentiss' Acting Career

Paula Prentiss became famous playing the role of Tuggle in the movie Where the Boys Are (1960). She starred alongside Jim Hutton. The movie was a big success, and people really liked Paula and Jim together. So, MGM decided to put them in three more comedies. They were seen as a new famous movie pair, like William Powell and Myrna Loy. These movies included The Honeymoon Machine (1961) with Steve McQueen, Bachelor in Paradise (1961) with Bob Hope, and The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962). Paula and Jim were the tallest male and female actors working for MGM at the time.

Paula was also supposed to be in Follow the Boys (1963), another comedy similar to Where the Boys Are. However, Jim Hutton left the project, and Russ Tamblyn became her co-star instead.

The famous director Howard Hawks chose Paula to star opposite Rock Hudson in Man's Favorite Sport? (1964). This was her first movie not made by MGM.

In 1963, Paula also acted on stage in a play called As You Like It. This play was part of the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park.

She had important roles in The World of Henry Orient (1964) and In Harm's Way (1965). She also made a quick appearance as herself in Looking for Love (1964). She played a strong supporting role in What's New Pussycat? (1965) with Peter Sellers. During the filming of this movie, Paula faced some health challenges and took a break from acting for a while to focus on her well-being. She spent nine months recovering.

For one TV season (1967–1968), Paula starred with her husband, Richard Benjamin, in the CBS comedy show He & She. For her role, Paula was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Comedy.

In 1969, she appeared in two plays Off-Broadway (smaller New York theaters) called Arf and The Great Airplane Snatch. Her husband, Richard Benjamin, directed these plays.

Paula returned to movies as Nurse Duckett in the film Catch-22 (1970), based on a famous book. She played the main female role in Move (1970) with Elliott Gould and Born to Win (1971) with George Segal. She was also one of the main actors in Last of the Red Hot Lovers with Alan Arkin. After that, Paula was in a made-for-television movie called The Couple Takes a Wife (1972).

She was the female lead in Crazy Joe (1974) and had a small but important part in The Parallax View (1974) with Warren Beatty. She was the second main actress in The Stepford Wives (1975), starring alongside Katharine Ross.

In 1976, Paula and Richard Benjamin appeared together on Broadway in a play called The Norman Conquests. After that, they traveled to Australia to make the movie No Room to Run (1977).

Paula was also 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 seen by many people.

She made Saturday the 14th (1981) with her husband. She was also in director Billy Wilder's last movie, Buddy Buddy (1981), with famous actors Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

Paula Prentiss also appeared as a guest star on TV shows like Murder, She Wrote and Burke's Law.

For more than 30 years, Paula Prentiss did not appear in a feature film, except for a few quick appearances. But in 2016, she starred in the horror film I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. This movie was directed by Oz Perkins and first showed on September 10, 2016, at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Paula Prentiss' Personal Life

Paula Prentiss has been married to actor and director Richard Benjamin since 1961. They have two children together, a son named Ross and a daughter named Prentiss.

There is even a street named after Paula Prentiss in San Antonio, Texas, her hometown.

Filmography

With Richard Benjamin in a publicity photo for He & She, 1967

Film Roles

Television Roles

See also

In Spanish: Paula Prentiss para niños