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Unlike his alter ego Harry Bentley, Paul Benedict is not British. The New Mexico native was first recognized as The Number Painter on Sesame Street before he became George Jefferson’s wacky neighbor.
With his tall stature and prominent features, Benedict is an oft-busy character actor. An alumnus of the Christopher Guest canon of films, he was the man mistaken for Mort Guffman in the 1996 mockumentary Waiting for Guffman. He also was the memorable professor in The Freshman. Other films include The Goodbye Girl, Arthur 2: On the Rocks, This is Spinal Tap, The Addams Family, and A Mighty Wind. On TV, he has been on The Drew Carey Show, Tales from the Crypt, Murder, She Wrote, A Different World, Kojak, and another All in the Family spin-off, Maude.
He has had an illustrious Broadway career, most recently as the mayor in the revival of The Music Man and Al Pacino’s only co-star in Eugene O’Neill’s Hughie.
In the final season of The Jeffersons, Benedict directed an episode, The Truth Hurts.
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