Remembering Sheila Benson, L.A. Times’ Chief Film Critic In The ’80s, Who Died At 91
deadline.comSheila Benson, who was chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times from 1981-1991, died February 23 in Seattle. She was 91.A gregarious enthusiast who always hoped for the best when the lights went down, Benson came from a family with strong ties to the film industry.
She was born in New York City, where her father, Dwight Franklin, created dioramas for the American Museum of Natural History before heading for Hollywood in the mid-1920s to work on the Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckler The Black Pirate.
For the next 25 years, Franklin worked in various capacities on many films, notably handling costumes on several major Cecil B.
DeMille productions.Benson’s mother, Mary C. McCall Jr., studied at Vassar and Trinity College in Dublin, and in 1932 published her first novel, The Goldfish Bowl.
Read more on deadline.com
