Ray Buktenica
Ray Buktenica is an actor, born 1943.
Since 1972 he has been on television, which is the sort of sentence that hides an entire career. The part people remember is Benny Goodwin on Rhoda, Brenda Morgenstern's boyfriend and eventually her fiance. Dr. Solomon on House Calls and Jerry Berkson on Life Goes On kept Buktenica employed through two more decades, and neither is among the credits gathered here.
The film credits collected on this page are the working reality of character acting: a naval officer in the 1976 King Kong, Danny in My Girl, Timmons in Heat, a shrink in Shopgirl. One scene, sometimes two, and the job is to make the star's scene function without pulling focus. He is good at it, and being good at it is exactly why the list runs long while the roles stay short.
Genre audiences know him from elsewhere: the voice of Hugo Strange in Batman: The Animated Series, and a Star Trek guest turn in 1997. Neither is listed among these credits. He is retired now, with the kind of resume that never made him famous and kept him working for four decades.
Movies (6)
TV (3)
Where to start with Ray Buktenica
Rhoda is the reason to be here, and it holds up better than most 1970s sitcoms because the writing treats its adults as adults. Benny is the decent, slightly bewildered boyfriend, and Buktenica plays decency without making it dull, which is harder than it sounds.
After that, take the films for the films rather than for him. Heat is a great picture and he occupies one corner of it. My Girl is a solid piece of early-nineties sentiment. Shopgirl is the most interesting failure of the three. King Kong is a curio and nothing more. Civil Wars and Hawkins suit people mapping American television history rather than anyone looking for something to watch tonight.