I don\u2019t think there was a girl at my school in the \u201970s who didn\u2019t have a huge crush on Robby Benson!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With his light blue eyes and dark hair, Robby rose to fame through films such as Ice Castles and Ode to Billy Joe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But did you know that the popular heartthrob was hiding a secret he believed could end his career if made public?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, Robby Benson is 67 and he\u2019s an ideal example of someone aging to perfection. He still has his beautiful blue eyes and looks very handsome \u2013 perhaps he\u2019s more handsome now than he was when he was younger!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon, Robby would follow his father into show business, and started to appear in commercials, soap operas, and on Broadway at the age of six. When he turned 10, he started acting and took his mother\u2019s last name as his stage name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 1960s, Robby really caught the acting bug after seeing a stage production of the musical Oliver!. He hired an agent and soon toured Japan as the lead in the very same show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With his big, beautiful eyes and his extraordinary talent, Robby was destined for bigger things. He made his film debut in 1967 and landed a role on the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow, a long-running success on CBS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, most people will forever remember Robby for stealing young girls\u2019 hearts in 1970s movies like Ice Castles and The Chosen and Ode to Billy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ONE ON ONE written by and starring Robby Benson (WB 1977) Trivia: Robby talked Warner Bros. publicity department into\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dIt was a wonderful time. I had a blast, I really didn\u2019t know what I was doing, and I loved it. Show business has changed a lot, especially for young actors\u2026 But back then, I would have paid THEM to be in the movies,\u201d he told The Item in 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But after being a familiar face on screen through the late \u201970s and early \u201980s, Robby sort of disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the \u201990s, he did a lot of voice acting \u2013 including his most famous work as the Beast in Disney\u2019s Beauty and the Beast. I remember when I first heard that it was actually Robby who did the voice of the Beast \u2013 I didn\u2019t expect that harsh, scary voice to come out of someone as slender & well-spoken as Robby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dThey gave me an incredible amount of freedom. I didn\u2019t want Beast to be a cartoon character. I played it as though I were doing a Broadway show. As if this was a living person,\u201d Robby told Movieweb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robby was already a very experienced voice actor when he landed the job as the Beast in 1991. He had started working with voice acting when he was 14 \u2013 but starring as the Beast in the Disney classic made Robby an icon, and it has immortalized him in a way. The film is still very popular, and Beauty and the Beast remains one of Broadway\u2019s biggest successes of the current era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever video games or other projects involving the Beast are to be released, it\u2019s 67-year-old Robby who usually does the voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dI\u2019m always honored. They always come to me. They are very loyal. But I am sure, one day, they will find a sound alike. And pay them cheaper, and kick me out of the loop (laughs). Until that happens, I want to be the guy,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The role became crucial for Robby, who had felt hexed by his looks. He wanted to be appreciated for his artistry \u2013 but Disney initially delayed the announcement of his name in the cast. Producers apparently feared that people wouldn\u2019t like their choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, Robby has experienced some highs and lows in his career. The hardships have often been health-related, beginning in his teenage years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a young boy, Robby was diagnosed with a heart murmur \u2013 the actor first began experiencing symptoms in his late twenties. He started feeling dizzy at times, and once, he even lost consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dI remember passing out and was thinking, \u2019Wow, this is serious. But I better not tell anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of my greatest honors as an actor was playing Billy Mills in the movie Running Brave. Karla and I love Billy and his wife Pat, they are incredible people.Here is a pic from the film. xoxo- R<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Afraid of losing his job as an actor, he told many of his colleagues that he suffered from indigestion and fatigue. But while shooting The Chosen, Robby opened up and talked with his co-star, Rod Steiger, about his heart condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dHe said that if anything were to happen to my heart, to never let anyone know,\u201d Robby recalled. \u201cIt\u2019s career suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the set of Die Laughing, the actor fell very ill, and soon understood that he had to seek medical attention. Robby was just about to make the leap from teen idol to established star in Hollywood \u2013 so he didn\u2019t want to tell anyone about what the doctors had found on his heart years before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But after almost collapsing on location during the filming of Die Laughing, he was forced to act. All this led to him undergoing open-heart surgery in 1984. The surgeons repaired a valve defect and according to reports, the procedure went \u2018extremely well.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robby was discharged from the hospital after a month \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sadly, Robby\u2019s chronic heart condition would become a recurring source of worry and trouble. During his first surgery in 1984, he received a bovine valve transplant \u2013 but it had to be replaced after 15 years. He had a second surgery in 2000, but not long after that, the former teen star started having trouble breathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, Robby has undergone four open-heart surgery to fix the recurring problems and to correct previous damage to his heart. The recurring problems with Robby\u2019s heart took a toll on him \u2013 both privately and career-wise. Balancing those two things while fearing for his life wasn\u2019t easy. And this was hardly helped by Robby\u2019s initial attempts to hide his health problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But much thanks to his wife of 40 years, he pulled through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dShe helped me find doctors, she made sure I was getting the best treatment, the right medicine,\u201d he told USA Today. \u201dI\u2019m alive because of her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robby married rock singer Karla DeVito in 1982. The couple fell in love after meeting on the set of The Pirates of Penzance. Together, Robby and Karla have raised two children, daughter Lyric (b.1983) and son Zephyr (b.1992).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve been married 40 years! I am the luckiest man on the planet Earth \u2013 or as lawyers say, \u201cand in all universes and galaxies in perpetuity!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robby has also had a successful career outside of show business. He worked as a teacher at the University of South Carolina for two years, where he also lived for a period. When Robby and his wife DeVito moved to Los Angeles in the early 90s, Robby began working as a teacher at UCLA. He later became a professor of film production but retired in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2019, Robby, who is now a grandparent, reappeared on the screen in Apple Seed. He also starred as the father in a Hallmark Channel film called A Feeling of Home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve loved the relationship of the father I play and his daughter because as a parent, you always want to make sure there\u2019s an open and honest relationship with your children. Even if they\u2019re in their 20s or 30s, you wake up in the middle of the night still worried and hoping everything\u2019s OK. The most important thing to me on the planet is my love for my wife and my family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u2019t think there was a girl at my school in the \u201970s who didn\u2019t have a huge crush on Robby Benson! With his light blue eyes and dark hair, Robby rose to fame through films such as Ice Castles and Ode to Billy Joe. But did you know that the popular heartthrob was hiding a secret …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20991,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20989\/revisions\/20991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}