RBHS Alumni Achievement Recipients 2003

Dr. Robert L. Benedetti, a graduate of the class of 1956, is teaching Film Directing at the California Institute of the Arts. He received his BSc, MA and PhD from Northwestern University. He started his career as the Artistic Director of Chicago’s Court Theatre from 1959 to 1963 and then joined the Second City Theatre. After Second City he became Company Director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. In 1967 he joined the Carnegie-Mellon University faculty, and in 1969 he became Chairman of the Acting Program at Yale Drama School. In 1971, Robert was named Chairman of the Theatre Program at York University in Toronto and was a Master Teacher at the National Theatre School of Canada. He was a tenured Professor at the University of California, Riverside, in 1973. From 1974 to 1981 he served as Dean of the School of Theatre at California Institute of Arts. Later he was a master teacher at Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art and the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. Of the several books he has authored, The Actor at Work, is now in its 8^th printing and remains a leading text in the acting field. Some of his theater directing credits include the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Berlin Festival, Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and South Coast Repertory Theater. He began his career as a film and television writer-producer in the 1990s, working with companies such as Paramount, NBC, ABC, and the Disney Channel. Robert Benedetti has won two Emmy awards as producer of the Best Television Movie and was named Producer of the Year by the Producers Guild of America. In 1999 he produced A Lesson Before Dying, which won Emmys for Best Picture and Best Script, the Humanitas Prize, Best TV Movie of the Year by the National Board of Review, and the prestigious Peabody Award.

Janet Charlton, a graduate of the class of 1960, is a well-known gossip columnist in the entertainment field. She earned a BA in Psychology at Bradley University. While attending Bradley, she won a national contest in Glamour Magazine’s “Ten Best Dressed College Girls” and appeared as a model in the magazine. She continued her modeling career while studying journalism at Northwestern Graduate School. In addition to school and modeling, Janet, along with partners, opened a clothing store in Chicago called “The Garment District.” Later, she moved to Hollywood and opened her own store on the Sunset Strip which attracted movie and rock stars. During the mid-seventies, Janet closed her business and became a columnist for Rona Barrett and a freelance writer for other movie publications. For 16 years she has had her own weekly column, “Star People.” In addition to writing, Janet is a guest on radio talk shows both here and abroad. She has appeared daily on Fox News in New York, and has appeared on shows such as Oprah, Larry King Show, Montel, Sally Jesse Rafael, and others. She currently writes monthly columns for Shop Lift Magazine and a Japanese fashion magazine, Ginza, in addition to freelancing for Touch Magazine and News of the World in England. She has also appeared in commercials for IKEA and Miller Beer and was profiled on 48 Hours. Recently she has appeared on VH1, the E! channel, Granada TV and the BBC in England. Janet is now writing a book pertaining to her Hollywood experiences.

Robert Daily, a graduate of the class of 1978, is a television writer and producer. Bob has a B.A. from Carleton College and a MA in English Literature from the University of Chicago. He became a Chicago journalist and also a contributing editor for Chicago Magazine. He also wrote for publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Spy, Men’s Journal, Playboy, and Boston Globe. Bob is the author of six children’s books with his Elvis biography selected as one of 1997’s best books for teens by the New York Public Library. In Los Angeles he became a writer and producer for various television shows including Rugrats (Nickelodeon), Hitz (UPN), and Costello (Fox). In addition Bob worked on Frasier for five seasons. In 2004, he won an unprecedented second consecutive Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Script-Television Comedy. While serving as writer and co-executive producer for Frasier, he was honored for his work for the 2002 and 2003 seasons. He also received an Emmy nomination for Frazier, two gold medals from the New York Film Festival, and a Humanitas Award nomination. He has signed with Paramount Pictures to develop his own television series.

Roy Overholt, a graduate of the class of 1942, served in the United States Army from 1943-1945. In 1951 he became an electrician with the Lyons Electric Company, where he later became the Superintendent until his retirement in 1986. From 1957-1960, Roy served as Village Trustee of Bridgeview. Roy and his family returned to Brookfield in 1961. In 1963 he started a Little League Baseball tournament, and in 1978 this tournament was named after him. In 1980 Roy was honored by Brookfield when they renamed the Kiwanis field to the “Roy Overholt Field.” A few tributes Roy has received include the Brookfield Kiwanis Club Citizen of the Year, 1981; Cicero Little League Humanitarian Award, 1982; Honorary Coach of RB for the Crystal Lake football game, 1987; Senior Medal of Honor for Commitment to Volunteerism, 2001; and Grand Marshal of the 4th of July Brookfield Parade, 2002. In 1997 Roy started the first annual RB alumni softball game. Most recently in 2003, Roy was received as a member of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants as a direct descendant of Pilgrim John Alden.