Benton may refer to:

Places[link]

United Kingdom[link]

• Benton, Devon, near Bratton Fleming
• Benton, Newcastle upon Tyne

United States[link]

• Benton, Alabama
• Benton, Arkansas
• Benton, California
• Benton, Illinois
• Benton, Indiana
• Benton, Iowa
• Benton, Kansas
• Benton, Kentucky
• Benton, Louisiana
• Benton, Maine
• Benton, Missouri
• Benton, New Hampshire
• Benton, New York
• Benton, Pennsylvania (disambiguation)
• Benton, Tennessee
• Benton, Wisconsin
• Benton (town), Wisconsin
• Benton Charter Township, Michigan
• Benton Crossing, California
• Benton Harbor, Michigan
• Benton Hot Springs, California (ghost town)
• Benton Paiute Reservation, California
• Benton Ridge, Ohio
• Fort Benton, Montana
• Lake Benton, Minnesota

People[link]

• Benton (surname)

Non-placenames[link]

• The Benton meteorite of 1949, which fell in New Brunswick, Canada (see Meteorite falls)

See also[link]

• Benton City (disambiguation)
• Benton County (disambiguation), any of several in the United States
• Benton Township (disambiguation), any of several in the United States

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Brook Benton (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988) was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.

He made a comeback in 1970 with the ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia." Benton scored over 50 Billboard chart hits as an artist, and also wrote hits for other performers.

Biography[link]

Rise to fame[link]

Benjamin Franklin Peay was born on September 19, 1931 in Lugoff, South Carolina. When Peay was young he enjoyed gospel music, wrote songs, and sang in a Methodist church choir in nearby Camden, where his father, Willie Peay, was choir master.^[1] So in 1948 he went to New York to pursue his music career. He went in and out of gospel groups such as The Langfordaires, The Jerusalem Stars, and The Golden Gate Quartet. Returning to his home state, he joined a R&B singing group, The Sandmen, and went back to New York to get a big break with his group. The Sandmen had limited success, and their label, Okeh Records, decided to push Peay as a solo artist, changing his name to Brook Benton, apparently at the suggestion of label executive Marv Halsman.^[2]

Brook earned a good living writing songs and co-producing albums. He wrote songs for artists such as Nat King Cole, Clyde McPhatter (for whom he wrote the hit "A Lover's Question"), and Roy Hamilton. Soon he released his first minor hit, "A Million Miles from Nowhere". Later he went on to the Mercury label, which would eventually bring him larger success. Also he appeared in the 1957 film Mr Rock And Roll with Alan Freed

Big break[link]

Finally in 1959 he made his breakthrough with his hits "It's Just a Matter of Time" and "Endlessly". "It's Just a Matter of Time" peaked at #3 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart, while "Endlessly" made it to #12. Both of the first two hits were written by Benton with Clyde Otis. They were originally offered to Nat King Cole, but when Otis became an A&R official at Mercury, he convinced Benton to sign with the label and record them himself, while asking Cole not to record the songs as planned.^[3] He followed this success with a series of hits, including "So Many Ways" (#6), "Hotel Happiness" (#3), "Think Twice" (#11), "Kiddio" (#7), and "The Boll Weevil Song" (#2). In 1960, he had two top 10 hit duets with Dinah Washington: "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" (#5) and "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)" (#7).^[4]

He also recorded his own version of "Take Good Care of Her" in 1962. In the mid- and late 1960s, Benton recorded for RCA Records and Reprise Records with minimal commercial success. In 1969 he signed with Cotillion Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, where the next year he had his last major hit with "Rainy Night in Georgia".^[4]

Benton eventually charted 49 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, with other songs charting on Billboard's rhythm and blues, easy listening, and Christmas music charts.^[5] The last album made by Benton was Fools Rush In, which was released posthumously in 2005. At one point he was recording on Groove Records.^[6]

Death[link]

Weakened from spinal meningitis, Brook died of pneumonia in Queens, New York City, at the age of 56 on April 9, 1988.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Soulwalking.co.uk - Brook Benton Fan Page
• VH1.com - Artist Listing
• Tsimon.com - Brook Benton Fan Page
• http://www.shewins.com/bio.htm
• Brook Benton at Discogs
• Brook Benton at Find a Grave

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2012)

Alain Delon
Delon in 2011
Born	Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (1935-11-08) 8 November 1935 (age 76) Sceaux, France
Citizenship	French, Swiss (since 1999)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1957–present
Spouse	Nathalie Barthélemy (m. 1964-69)
Partner	Romy Schneider (1959-63) Mireille Darc (1968-82) Rosalie van Breemen (1987-2002)
Children	Christian Aaron Boulogne, born on (1962-08-11) 11 August 1962 (age 49) Anthony Delon, born on (1964-09-30) 30 September 1964 (age 47) Anouchka Delon, born on (1990-11-25) 25 November 1990 (age 21) Alain Delon Jr., born on (1994-03-18) 18 March 1994 (age 18)
Website
alaindelon.ch

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (French pronunciation: [alɛ̃ dəlɔ̃]; born 8 November 1935) is a French-Swiss actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot. Over the course of his career, Delon has worked with many well-known directors, including Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michelangelo Antonioni and Louis Malle.

Delon acquired Swiss citizenship on September 23, 1999, and the company managing products sold under his name is based in Geneva. He is a citizen of the community of Chêne-Bougeries in the canton of Geneva.

Early life[link]

Delon was born in Sceaux, Seine (now Hauts-de-Seine), Île-de-France, a suburb of Paris. His parents, Édith (née Arnold) and Fabien Delon, divorced when Delon was four.^[1] Both remarried, and Delon has a half-sister and two half-brothers. He attended a Roman Catholic^[2] boarding school, the first of several schools from which he was expelled because of unruly behavior. Teachers once tried to convince him to enter the priesthood because of his aptitude in religious studies.

At 14, Delon left school, and worked for a brief time at his stepfather's butcher shop. He enlisted in the French Navy three years later, and in 1953/54 he served as a fusilier marin in the First Indochina War. Delon has said that out of his four years of military service he spent 11 months in prison for being "undisciplined". In 1956, after being dishonorably discharged from the military, he returned to France. He didn't have any money, and got by on whatever employment he could find. He spent time working as a waiter, a porter, a secretary and a sales clerk. During this time he became friends with the actress Brigitte Auber, and joined her on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival, where his film career would begin.

Career[link]

At Cannes, Delon was seen by a talent scout for David O. Selznick. After a screen test Selznick offered him a contract, provided he learned English. Delon returned to Paris to study the language, but when he met French director Yves Allégret, he was convinced that he should stay in France to begin his career. Selznick allowed Delon to cancel his contract,^{[citation needed]} and Allégret gave him his debut in the film Quand la Femme s'en Mêle (When the Woman Butts In). Delon then appeared in the film Faibles Femmes (Women Are Weak/Three Murderesses). This was also the very first of his films to be seen in America, where it became a huge success.

In 1960, Delon appeared in René Clément's Purple Noon, which was based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. He played protagonist Tom Ripley to critical acclaim; Highsmith herself was also a fan of his portrayal.^[3] He then appeared in Luchino Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers. Critic Bosley Crowther of the New York Times said Delon's work was : "touchingly pliant and expressive." John Beaufort in the Christian Science Monitor said:

"Rocco's heartbroken steadfastness furnishes the film with the foremost of its ironic tragedies ... [I]ts believability rests finally on Mr. Delon's compelling performance."

Delon made his stage debut in 1961 in John Ford’s play Tis Pity She’s a Whore alongside Romy Schneider in Paris. Visconti directed the production. Delon would work with him again for Il Gattopardo (The Leopard). Delon also worked with Jean-Pierre Melville, who directed him in Un Flic, Le Cercle Rouge, and Le Samouraï.

In 1964, the Cinémathèque Française held a showcase of Delon's films and Delon started a production company, Delbeau Production, with Georges Beaume. They produced a film called L’insoumis, which had to be re-edited because of legal issues. Delon then started his own production company, Adel, and starred in the company’s first film, Jeff. Delon followed the success of the film with Borsalino, which became one of France’s highest grossing films of the time. In 1973, he made a duet with the French pop singer Dalida on "Paroles, paroles". He also played Johnston McCulley's popular masked hero in 1975's Zorro. In 1976, Delon starred in Monsieur Klein, which won him the César awards (French equivalent of Oscars).

Alain Delon at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

He was awarded the Best Actor César Award for his role in Bertrand Blier's Notre histoire (1984), and portrayed the aristocratic dandy Baron de Charlus in a film adaptation of Marcel Proust's novel Swann in Love in the same year. Then followed a string of box office failures in the late 1980s and 1990s, culminating in the failure of Patrice Leconte's Une chance sur deux. Delon announced his decision to give up acting in 1997, although he still occasionally accepts roles.

In 1990, he worked with auteur Jean-Luc Godard, on Nouvelle vague, in which he played twins. In 2003, the Walter Reade Theater showed a series of Delon's films under the aegis, Man in the Shadows: The Films of Alain Delon.

Products[link]

Since the formation of a perfume label in his name, Delon has had a variety of products sold under his name including wristwatches, clothing, eyewear, stationery and cigarettes.^[4]

Delon's sunglasses brand became particularly popular in Hong Kong after actor Chow Yun-fat wore them in the 1986 crime film A Better Tomorrow (as well as two sequels). Delon reportedly wrote a letter thanking Chow for helping the sunglasses sell out in the region.^[5] The film's director John Woo has acknowledged Delon as one of his idols and wrote a short essay on Le Samourai as well as Le Cercle Rouge for the Criterion Collection DVD releases.^[6]

Relationships[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2012)

On 20 March 1959, Delon was engaged to actress Romy Schneider, whom he met when they co-starred in the film Christine (1958). During their relationship, he had an affair with German actress, singer and model Nico. On 11 August 1962, Nico gave birth to a son, Christian Aaron "Ari", fathered by Delon. The child was raised mostly by Delon's parents. Nico died in 1988, from a bicycling accident.

In December 1963, Schneider and Delon decided to break the engagement. On 13 August 1964, Delon married Nathalie Barthélemy. Their son, Anthony Delon, was born in September. The couple divorced on 14 February 1969.

In 1968, during the shooting of the film Jeff, he met French actress Mireille Darc with whom he started a 15-year relationship, lasting until 1982.

In 1987, Delon met Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen on the shooting of the video clip for his song "Comme au cinéma" and started a relationship. They had two children: Anouschka (25 November 1990) and Alain-Fabien (18 March 1994). The relationship ended in October 2002.

Alain Delon lives in Chêne-Bougeries in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland with his two youngest children.

Honours[link]

• At the 45th Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Honorary Golden Bear.^[7]
• At the 60th Cannes Film Festival, he presented the Best Actress Award to South Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon for her role in Lee Chang Dong's Secret Sunshine. She became the first South Korean to win a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
• At the 2008 César Awards on February 22, 2008, he presented the César Award for Best Actress to Marion Cotillard, who two days later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for La Vie En Rose.
• Delon appears on the cover of the 1986 album The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths.
• He was made Officier (Officer) of the Ordre national du Mérite in 1995.^[8]
• He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur on 21 February 1991.^[9] He was promoted to Officier (Officer) in 2005.^[9]

Filmography[link]

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: chronological order (should be oldest to newest). Please help improve this section if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (February 2012)

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Film portal
	Television portal
	Theatre portal

• List of French actors
• List of Swiss people

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alain Delon

• alaindelon.ch, his official website
• Alain Delon at the Internet Movie Database

v t e César Award for Best Actor 1976 Philippe Noiret · 1977 Michel Galabru · 1978 Jean Rochefort · 1979 Michel Serrault · 1980 Claude Brasseur · 1981 Gérard Depardieu · 1982 Michel Serrault · 1983 Philippe Léotard · 1984 Coluche · 1985 Alain Delon · 1986 Christophe Lambert · 1987 Daniel Auteuil · 1988 Richard Bohringer · 1989 Jean-Paul Belmondo · 1990 Philippe Noiret · 1991 Gérard Depardieu · 1992 Jacques Dutronc · 1993 Claude Rich · 1994 Pierre Arditi · 1995 Gérard Lanvin · 1996 Michel Serrault · 1997 Philippe Torreton · 1998 André Dussollier · 1999 Jacques Villeret · 2000 Daniel Auteuil · 2001 Sergi López · 2002 Michel Bouquet · 2003 Adrien Brody · 2004 Omar Sharif · 2005 Mathieu Amalric · 2006 Michel Bouquet · 2007 François Cluzet · 2008 Mathieu Amalric · 2009 Vincent Cassel · 2010 Tahar Rahim · 2011 Éric Elmosnino · 2012 Omar Sy

Dave Benton
Dave Benton in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Efrén Eugene Benita
Born	(1951-01-31) 31 January 1951 (age 61)
Origin	Aruba
Genres	Pop

Dave Benton (born 31 January 1951, real name Efrén Eugene Benita) is a pop musician and 2001 winner of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Benton was born on the Caribbean island of Aruba in 1951 and in his 20s moved to the United States. As a drummer and a backing vocalist, he worked with The Drifters, Tom Jones, Billy Ocean, José Feliciano and the Platters.

While living in the Netherlands in the 1980s, he met his future Estonian wife Maris on a cruise ship, then settled in Estonia in 1997. He has had a varied musical career in Northern European countries. He now lives in Estonia with his wife and two daughters, Sissi and Lisa. He performed in the German production of the musical 'City Lights' after which he was asked to replace Engelbert Humperdinck on his Australian tour.

Though he has released and produced quite a few albums already, one of which in his native tongue, Papiamento, his career to date shows him to be more of a performing artist rather than a recording one.

In 2001 he performed with budding Estonian rock singer Tanel Padar and boyband 2XL to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with their song "Everybody".

Trivia[link]

• He contested in 1981 in Latinoamerican Festival OTI at Mexico, he was representing Netherlands Antilles with the song "Vaya un amigo" as Efrén Benita, he finished in 20th place at this contest.
• Benton won the Eurovision Song Contest for Estonia, but at the time he did not speak Estonian.
• He is also a grandfather. His oldest daughter from his first marriage, Nathaly, gave birth recently to a girl called Tanisia.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dave Benton

• Dave Benton at Yahoo! Music
• Dave Benton at Estonian Bands Database
• Dave Benton at the Internet Movie Database
• Aruba-born Dave Benton Joins with Tanel Padar for Top 2001 Eurovision Honors
• Dave Benton: 'I was asked in Estonia and Finland'
• Estonians record previews, Dave Benton is back!

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Olsen Brothers with "Fly on the Wings of Love"	Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest (with Tanel Padar and 2XL) 2001	Succeeded by Marie N with "I Wanna"
Preceded by Ines with "Once in a Lifetime"	Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest (with Tanel Padar and 2XL) 2001	Succeeded by Sahlene with "Runaway"

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This Estonian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e