Robby Benson is a popular and beloved show business veteran who has literally done it all from the time he was a child star. He’s an actor, director, writer, composer, lyricist, educator, filmmaker and best-selling author. On Broadway, he appeared in “Zelda”, “The Rothschilds” and “The Pirates of Penzance”.
In the movies, you’ve seen him in “Jeremy”, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. He also starred in “Lucky Lady”, “Ode to Billy Joe”, “One on One”, which he also wrote, “Ice Castles”, “Tribute”, “The Chosen”, “Running Brave”, “Modern Love”, which he also wrote and directed, and many more. And of course, he’s been immortalized as the voice of “Beast” in the Disney blockbuster Oscar-winning movie, “Beauty and the Beast”.
On television, he’s appeared in dozens of shows, movies and miniseries including “Death Be Not Proud”, “The Last of Mrs. Lincoln”, “The Death of Richie”, “Our Town”, “Two of a Kind”, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, “Homewrecker”, “Precious Victims”, “American Dreams”, “Brave New World”, “A Feeling of Home”, and most recently, he can be seen in Season 2 of the popular Apple TV hit series, “Severance”.
Robby Benson has also directed over a hundred episodes of top 10 TV shows including “Ellen”, “Friends”, “Dharma & Greg”, “The Naked Truth”, “Sabrina The Teenage Witch”, “Evening Shade” and “Dream On”, for which he was nominated for a Cable Ace Award for Best Director of a Comedy Series.
As a composer, he’s written many movie scores, and together with his wife, the brilliant music superstar Karla DeVito, he co-wrote the hit song “We are Not Alone” from the movie, “The Breakfast Club”, AND the wonderful song “Nobody Makes Me Crazy” recorded by Diana Ross on her “Swept Away” album. Robby Benson also wrote the libretto and composed the music for the critically acclaimed musical, “Open Heart”.
Robby Benson is also an award-winning professor of filmmaking, having taught at The University of Utah, the University of South Carolina and NYU. And if all of that weren’t enough, he’s written TWO best-selling books – a novel entitled, “Who Stole The Funny?”, and a highly compelling and very poignant memoir entitled, “I’m Not Dead Yet”, which chronicles not only his amazing career, but his miraculous journey as a survivor of FOUR open heart surgeries.
Harvey Brownstone is a retired judge of the Ontario Court of Justice and was the first openly gay judge in Canada. He is also the bestselling author of “Tug of War: A Judge’s Verdict on Separation, Custody Battles and the Bitter Realities of Family Court” and hosted “Family Matters with Justice Harvey Brownstone,” a television talk show on matters involving the family justice system.
After a distinguished legal career, Harvey was appointed a judge at the age of 38 in 1995. He has presided in family and criminal courts. He has been a trailblazer in several ways. He was the first openly gay judge in Canada. He was the first sitting judge in the world to write a national best seller and to host a TV talk show.
Harvey has been a role model and icon in the LGBTQ community. When same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada in 2003, he was the only judge to make himself publicly available to officiate at weddings for lesbian and gay couples travelling to Toronto from all over the world to get married. In 2007, he officiated at the wedding of Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, the American couple whose marriage triggered the 2013 United States Supreme Court decision overturning the definition of “spouse” in the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
In February 2021, Harvey launched his online talk show “Harvey Brownstone Interviews” on his own YouTube channel. He saw this as an interesting hobby. Within several months, the show attracted hundreds of thousands – and then eventually, millions – of viewers. Because of the overwhelming success of the show, Harvey decided to retire from the judiciary on December 31, 2021 after having presided as a full-time judge for 26 1/2 years. Free from the constraints imposed upon judges regarding the expression of opinions and the endorsement of private enterprise, Harvey now happily devotes his full-time attention to hosting “Harvey Brownstone Interviews” as a regular member of the public – albeit one with a rather illustrious and unique career history.
Watch Robby Benson on Harvey Brownstone Interviews on Youtube here:
The official website for Harvey Brownstone Interviews may be found at https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com
Get “The Talk Show Blend” – Coffee For The Modern Day Trailblazer! By Harvey Brownstone from Breakfast At Dominique’s available at https://www.HollywoodBlends.com
For more information about Harvey Brownstone, here’s his Wikipedia page: