Kramer

Robert Benton, the Texas-born filmmaker who surpassed the difficulties of severe dyslexia in his childhood to become the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter behind films including “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “Bonnie and Clyde,” has died.

Robert Benton, during a career that spanned from the mid-1960s to the early aughts, was best known for projects that explored common lives and the connections between family and community, from the fallout of a divorce in “Kramer vs. Kramer” to the toll of loss on a single mother in “Places in the Heart.”

He also received writing Oscars for “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “Places in the Heart.”

Newman received a lead actor nomination for “Nobody’s Fool” and Hoffman and Streep each won their first Oscars for “Kramer vs. Kramer.”

“Kramer vs. Kramer,” which premiered in 1979, was an adaptation of Avery Corman’s novel of the same name.