Nat Benchley

Nathaniel Robert Benchley is an American actor who has performed for stage, television, and cinema.

Early life and education Benchley is the son of Nathaniel Benchley, an author, and Marjorie (Bradford). He is the grandson of humorist Robert Benchley, a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. He is the brother of author Peter Benchley, who authored the novel Jaws. He is a graduate of The Choate School and Stanford University.

Career Benchley served in the United States Navy and was assigned to the Naval Security Group during the Vietnam War. He later worked for a public television station in Washington, D.C. During the early-1970s, he wrote and acted in an anti-shoplifting film for the Florida Attorney General's office titled "High Pockets At Full Noon". In 1999, he wrote a script for the FBI National Academy explaining their multi-national networking program.

Since 1996, Benchley has been performing a show named Benchley Despite Himself, which he describes as "a compilation of Robert Benchley's best monologues, short films, radio rantings and pithy pieces as recalled, edited, and acted by his grandson, and combined with family reminiscences and friends' perspectives". He has performed it in Washington, D.C.; New York, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; and other locations. The Washington Post termed it "an engaging work that breaks with the usual conventions of one-man plays. Rather than inhabit the character of Robert Benchley the entire evening, Nat Benchley blends his own observations with re-creations of the routines and sketches that made his grandfather famous. The effect is at once seductive and distancing, perhaps a bit like Robert Benchley, whose humor often obscured his unhappiness." In 2011, he recorded audio versions of four of his father's children's books for the HarperCollins "I Can Read" series.

Filmography

Film

Television