Paula Prentiss is an actress that is best known for such classic films
as 1965’s What’s New Pussycat? and 1975’s The Stepford Wives, as well as her on-
and off-screen partnership with husband Richard Benjamin. During the early days of Paula’s career,
her younger sister Ann made a semi-successful bid to follow in her footsteps. Ann never became quite
the star that Paula was during the peak of her success, leading to a good deal of jealousy. This
professional jealousy may have played some part in the crime that put Ann in jail until her death.
Join Facts Verse as we explore how Paul Prentiss is an icon, and her sister couldn’t stand it.
Body: Paula Prentiss was born on March 4, 1938, in San
Antonio, Texas. During college, Paula was studying to get into the medical field. However, taking a
summer course studying theater arts changed her mind about what she wanted to do with her future.
She changed her major to drama, and graduated in 1959 with dreams of Hollywood stardom.
Paula earned her degree at Northwestern University, and it was there that the actress met
the man that has gone on to become her longtime husband. That man, of course, is Richard Benjamin.
Paula met Richard when he was directing a play that she was starring in at the college. The two
fell quickly in love, and Paula moved in with him after the two graduated. Before graduating,
Paula had been offered a seven-year contract by MGM, and Paula and Richard ended up tying the knot
because the studio didn't want one of it's stars living with a man she wasn't married
to. Paula debuted on the screen in 1960 with a role in Where the Boys Are.
Paula had a younger sister named Ann, and it wasn’t long into Paula’s Hollywood career
that Ann was trying to follow in her footsteps. Capitalizing off of her sister’s name,
Ann Prentiss managed to secure some work on television,
though she never approached the celebrity status of her sister.
Ann’s career had essentially become non-existent by the 1990s, though an
infamous incident later in the decade would put Ann back on the map for all the wrong reasons.
In 1997, Ann Prentiss was arrested for assaulting her and Paula’s father
during a domestic incident at the latter's apartment in Beverly Hills.
The incident led to a physical struggle, during which Ann evidently hit her father over the head
with a flashlight before shooting off a gun. Thankfully, the shot didn't hit her
father. Ann was put in jail and charged with battery and assault with a firearm.
No one has ever figured out what exactly caused the domestic incident that resulted
in Ann Prentiss’ arrest, though things got stranger once Ann was in jail. Apparently,
Ann attempted to arrange to have her father killed behind bars. Not only did she try to arrange to
have her father killed, but she also attempted to arrange the murders of two other male relatives.
The two other relatives that Ann wanted to have murdered were Richard Benjamin and his son.
It seems that the universe wasn’t on Ann’s side in her quest to kill her father.
The failed star ended up being caught in the act of attempting to arrange the murders,
and these charges were added to her initial ones when she eventually saw her day in court.
Ann was sentenced to 19 years in prison as a result of her crimes,
though she only ended up serving 12 of those years before passing away while still incarcerated.
Ann Prentiss was sentenced on July 23, 1997, and died on January 12, 2010. She was being held
at the Central California Women’s Facility, which is located in Chowchilla, California.
Her death was the result of heart disease and emphysema, and the wannabe star was 70 years old.
Though it remains a mystery why Ann assaulted her father and later attempted to have him,
Richard, and his and Paula’s 23-year-old son murdered,
many have pointed out the odd fact that Ann’s targets were only the male members of the family.
Ann didn’t seem to have any interest in targeting her sister, though it’s
undeniable that she harbored professional jealousy against her more successful sibling.
Ann’s assault on her father and subsequent attempts to have him and other members of
her family murdered made major news, though it wasn’t the first time that one of the
Prentiss sisters had done something crazy. More than three decades prior,
Paula Prentiss similarly made headlines when she attempted suicide in 1965
during the filming of What’s New Pussycat? If you’re enjoying this video so far,
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Paula Prentiss is still alive today, and is still married to Richard Benjamin!
Though the two have been married since 1961 and remain alive and well, they have had
their fair share of bumps in the road. One such bump includes the time in 1965
when Paula attempted suicide after having a mental breakdown on the set of What’s
New Pussycat? and had to be put in the psychiatric hospital for nine months.
As Paula was appearing on the big screen in the 1960s alongside such major names as Rock Hudson
and Steve McQueen, her husband Richard Benjamin had to occupy himself with guest-starring roles
on various television series. Richard wouldn’t catch his own big break until later in the decade,
after Paula’s suicide attempt and psychiatric stay.
The two also began performing together later in the 1960s.
Paula’s mental breakdown and subsequent suicide attempt occurred while she was
filming the 1965 film What’s New Pussycat? According to Paula, she just snapped one day
and climbed to a high place on the set and screamed at her coworkers that she was going
to jump. By the time they got to her she was allegedly hanging by one arm about to fall.
During Paula's nine-month psychiatric stay, husband Richard Benjamin was allowed visitation.
However, he has recalled how Paula was nothing like her true self during this era because of
all the medication that she was on. After Paula’s release from the psychiatric hospital, she didn’t
return to acting for a little while because she was still undergoing therapy. In 1967,
Paula and Richard got a job together starring in a sitcom by the name of He & She.
Before He & She, Paula and Richard were having a hard time with their marriage.
The couple had been rushed into their marriage at the behest of MGM,
and there were numerous things that had strained the marriage throughout the 1960s. In addition to
Paula having found more success than Richard in her career up until that point, there was
also the matter of Paula's mental breakdown. Though Richard certainly felt for his wife and
had done his best to be there for her during the period, it had been difficult for him.
According to Paula, performing alongside her husband on the series He & She proved therapeutic,
and is arguably part of what helped their marriage make it through the 1960s. The two
continued acting together, making an even more memorable appearance together in the
1970 feature Catch-22. Besides Catch-22, the pair also went on to star together in a 1975
Broadway play named The Normal Conquests, and the 1981 parody film Saturday the 14th. In
1980, Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live together,
marking one of the very rare occasions that she show has ever been hosted by two people.
Though things have certainly cooled down in the celebrity couple’s careers, they remain working.
Some recent work that Paula Prentiss can be seen in includes the film I Am the Pretty Things That
Lives in the House, which premiered on the Netflix streaming platform in 2016.
Paula apparently took on the role due to the director being a friend of the family.
Meanwhile, Benjamin has been seen more on television recently,
appearing in episodes of the cable series Children’s Hospital and Ray Donovan.
Though Paula and Richard aren’t getting the roles that they used to,
they still persevere. This same perseverance is arguably what has allowed the couple to
stay married for so long, with the two having recently celebrated their 60th
marriage anniversary. Over the course of their six-decade marriage, the couple has had two
children. The two waited until 1974 to have their first child, who is a son named Ross.
Later, the couple had a daughter, and her name is Prentiss. Both of these children
have followed in their parents’ footsteps by making bids to become famous celebrities.
It’s been over two decades since Paula and Richard had to suffer through the incident
involving Paula’s younger sister, and it remains uncertain why Ann Prentiss wanted to have Richard
and Ross Benjamin murdered, in addition to her father. If Ann had gotten her way, she would’ve
put an early end to what has proved to be one of the longest and most successful marriages in
Hollywood history. Similarly, if Paula and Richard had given up on their marriage when things were at
their toughest during the late 1960s, then they wouldn’t still have each other today. Both of
the stars are currently 83 years old. Perhaps, before they pass away,
they can shed some light on what Ann’s motivations were!
Although Ann Prentiss never became quite as big of a star as her sister, she ended up becoming
a much more notable figure later on in life for the unusual crimes that she committed against her
family. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Paula Prentiss was still around today
and that her sister was arrested in the late 1990s and died in prison for assaulting their father?
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