Paul Benjamin born 1938 is an American actor Benjamin was born in Pelion South Carolina He made his film debut in 1969 as a bartender in Midnight Cowboy After a small role in Sidney Lumets The Anderson Tapes he did extensive television work in the 1970s A few notable exceptions were a major role in Barry Shears Across 110th Street and smaller parts in Gordon Parks biopic Leadbelly Arthur Marks Friday Foster and Don Siegels prison film Escape from Alcatraz He gave exceptional performances in the TV adaptations of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Gideons Trumpet He later starred in the HBO movie The Man Who Broke 1000 Chains based on the novel by Robert E Burns On the big screen in the 1990s Benjamin worked with some well known directors He appeared in Spike Lees Do The Right Thing Robert Townsends The Five Heartbeats Bill Dukes Hoodlum and John Singletons Rosewood On television he appeared in the 1994 pilot episode of ER which led to his recurring role of homeless man Al Ervin during the next few seasons Benjamin also worked on the American Masters documentary of Pulitzer Prizewinning author Ralph Ellison which aired on PBS After 2000 he appeared primarily in small independent films like Stanleys Gig The Station Agent Deacons For Defense and James Hunters 2004 drama Back in the Day He recently made a special appearance in the independent film The Talk Man directed by Gene Gallerano Description above from the Wikipedia article Paul Benjamin licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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