Benny Petti

Biography

Benjamin J. Pitti (aka Binnie Petti and Benny Petti) was born on September 4, 1892 in St. Louis Missouri and passed away on July 26, 1955 in Culver City, Californa. He married Ethel R. De Botto in 1915. They had two sons, Carl Pitti (1916-2003), who became an actor and stuntman, and Paul Pitti (1924-2012). Bennie Pitti started his show business career circa 1910 with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, and later performed with the Pawnee Bill show, Al G. Barnes Circus, and others. He was a knife thrower, bronco rider, trick roper and bullwhip expert, and his first film appearance was in the Tom Mix film "The Cowboy Millionaire (Selig Polyscope, 1909). Bennie later became a friend, business associate, and chauffeur to Will Rogers. In 1953, Ben bought Will Rogers Jr.'s ranch in Baldwin Hills, California. Subsequently, all three Pitti families moved there. Ben and son Carl worked with Will Rogers Jr. on two feature films, "The Story of Will Rogers" (Warners, 1952) and "The Boy From Oklahoma" (Warners, 1954). In the early 1950s, Ben was with a traveling show, in threatres, that starred Hopalong Cassidy sidekick Rand Brooks. He was seldom credited and many of his film roles. at the present time, were in B-westerns and Columbia short subjects (primarily The Three Stooges,as Moe Howard's stunt double and henchman roles))and are shown, on site, under a look-alike actor named Barney Beasley; some of those, pending corrections, include "Fighting Through (1934)", "Blue Steel (1934), "Blazing Frontier (1943)", 'Klondike Kate (144) and many others.