Bennett, Michael orig. Michael Bennett Difiglia (b. April 8, 1943, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.—d. July 2, 1987, Tucson, Ariz.) U.S. dancer, choreographer, and stage musical director. He began dancing at age three and left high school to tour in a production of West Side Story His major contribution to dance was as choreographer-director of Broadway musi¬ cals such as Promises, Promises (1968), Company (1970), Follies (1971), and Dreamgirls (1981). His most remarkable musical was A Chorus Line (1975, Pulitzer Prize), which he conceived, directed, and choreographed. Bennett personally received eight Tony awards during his career.
Bennett (of Mickleham and of Calgary and Hopewell), Richard Bedford Bennett, Viscount (b. July 3, 1870, Hopewell, N.B., Can.—d. June 27, 1947, Mickleham, Surrey, Eng.) Canadian prime minister (1930-35). Bennett was admitted to the bar in 1893 and prac¬ ticed in New Brunswick. He then moved west and served in the legisla¬ tures of the Northwest Territories and Alberta and in the Canadian House of Commons (1911). He was named director general of national service (1916) and later minister of justice (1921). He became head of the Con¬ servative Party in 1927 and, promising relief from the Great Depression, prime minister in 1930. But he underestimated the severity of the crisis, and his measures were ineffective. He was defeated by the Liberals under W.L. Mackenzie King. In 1939 he retired to England, where he was made a viscount in 1941.
Bennett, Tony orig. Anthony (Dominick) Benedetto (b. Aug. 3, 1926, Astoria, Queens, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. popular singer. His first job was as a singing waiter, and he later sang under the name Joe Bari. In 1949 Pearl Bailey asked him to join her nightclub revue, and in 1950 Bob Hope suggested his new name. He had many hits in the 1950s, but “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” (1962) became his signature song. His style grew increasingly jazz-oriented over the years, and in the mid-1990s a special appearance on MTV heralded his comeback.
Benny, Jack orig. Benjamin Kubelsky (b. Feb. 14, 1894, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—d. Dec. 27, 1974, Beverly Hills, Calif.) U.S. comedian. He took up the violin as a boy and played it in vaudeville from 1912. After dis¬ covering a talent for comedy while in the navy, he returned to vaudeville as a comedian. He made his film debut in 1927 and appeared in 18 films in the years 1930-45. His weekly Jack Benny Program on radio (1932— 55) and television (1950-65) won loyal audiences, and he became famous for a unique comic style characterized by subtle verbal inflection, mean¬ ingful pauses, seriocomic violin playing, and the stage image of a vain, stingy man.
Benois \'byi-noi\, Alexandre (Nikolayevich) (b. May 4, 1870, St. Petersburg, Russia—d. Feb. 9, 1960, Paris, Fr.) Russian theatre art direc¬ tor, painter, and influential ballet set designer. With Sergey Diaghilev he cofounded the avant-garde art magazine Mir Iskusstva (“World of Art”) in 1899. He began his scenic-design career in 1901 and designed many of the innovative Ballets Russes decors from 1909 to 1929. He designed sets for numerous other ballet companies in the 1940s and 1950s.
Benoue River See Benue River
bent grass Any of the annual or perennial GRASSes that make up the genus Agrostis, in the family Poaceae (or Gramineae), found in temperate and cool regions and at high altitudes in subtropical and tropical areas. At least 40 species are found in the U.S.; some are weeds, others forage and turf plants. They have slender stems and flat blades. Many spread by creeping stolons. Redtop (A. gigantea ) is a hay and pasture grass.
Creeping bent (A. stolonifera variety palustris) and colonial bent (A. tenuis ) are popular lawn grasses; the many strains of both species are planted in golf courses and bowling greens, where they are closely cut to develop a fine, spongy, firm turf.
Bentham Vben-thomV Jeremy (b. Feb. 15, 1748, London, Eng.—d.
June 6, 1832, London) British moral philosopher and legal theorist, the earliest expounder of utilitarianism. A precocious student, he graduated from Oxford at age 15. In his An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, he argued that mankind was governed by two sovereign motives, pain and plea¬ sure. The object of all legislation, therefore, must be the “greatest hap¬ piness of the greatest number”; and since all punishment involves pain and is therefore evil, it ought only to be used “so far as it promises to exclude some greater evil.” His work inspired much reform legislation, especially regarding prisons. He was also an exponent of the new laissez- faire economics of Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Though a vocal advo¬ cate of democracy, he rejected the notions of the social contract, natu¬ ral law, and natural rights as fictional and counterproductive (“Rights is the child of law; from real law come real rights; but from imaginary laws, from ‘law of nature,’ come imagi¬ nary rights”). He helped found the radical Westminster Review (1823). clothed skeleton is permanently exhibited at University College, London.
Bentham, Sir Samuel (b. Jan. 11, 1757, England—d. May 31, 1831, London) British engineer, naval architect, and navy official. He was the
Creeping bent (Agrostis stolonifera variety palustris)
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Jeremy Bentham, detail of an oil paint¬ ing by H.W. Pickersgill, 1829; in the National Portrait Gallery, London
In accordance with his will, his
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Bentinck ► Benzer i 201
brother of Jeremy Bentham and father of the botanist George Bentham (1800-84). An early advocate of explosive-shell weapons for warships, Bentham led Russian vessels fitted with shell guns to victory over a larger Turkish force in 1788. In England he developed the Arrow class of sloops used against France. He served as commissioner of the navy (1807-12).
Bentinck, William (Henry Cavendish), Lord (b. Sept. 14, 1774, Bulstrode, Buckinghamshire, Eng.—d. June 17, 1839, Paris, France) Brit¬ ish colonial administrator. Born to wealth and rank, he was appointed governor of Madras in 1803. Recalled in 1807 after a mutiny of Indian troops at Vellore, he pressed for the next 20 years for a chance to vindi¬ cate his name. In 1828 he was named governor-general of Bengal (in effect, of all India), and he served until 1835. He reformed the country’s finances, opened up administrative and judicial posts to Indians, sup¬ pressed bands of assassins known as thugs, and abolished suttee. His poli¬ cies helped pave the way to independence more than a century later.
Bentley, Eric (Russell) (b. Sept. 14, 1916, Bolton, Lancashire, Eng.) British-born U.S. drama critic and translator. He was a stage director in several European cities (1948-51); in Munich, after working with Bertolt Brecht on a production of the playwright’s Mother Courage , he translated Brecht’s plays into English. His reporting on European theatre for sev¬ eral magazines helped introduce many European playwrights to the U.S. He wrote numerous critical works, including Life of the Drama (1964), and taught at Columbia University (1953-69) and elsewhere.
Bentley, Richard (b. Jan. 27, 1662, Oulton, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. July
14, 1742, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) English clergyman and classical scholar. He was appointed Boyle lecturer at Oxford in 1692, became keeper of the Royal Library in 1694, and was named master of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1700. He displayed his skill in textual emenda¬ tion and his knowledge of ancient metre in Epistola ad Joannem Millium (1691). In Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris (1699), he proved the epistles to be spurious; his dispute with Charles Boyle over their authen¬ ticity was satirized by Jonathan Swift in The Battle of the Books (1704). He also published critical texts of classical authors, including Horace, and made linguistic contributions to the study of ancient Greek.