One on One

Director: Lamont Johnson (1977)

Screenplay: Robby Benson and Jerry Segal

Cast: Robby Benson, Annette O’Toole, GD Spradlin, Gail Strickland, Melanie Griffith

This was the first movie to examine the NCAA College Basketball world in which the cut throat coaches will do anything to win. It was also a great vehicle for rising star Robbie Benson to exhibit his sporting skills and work with his dad.

Coming off of the success of “Ode to Billy Joe” a year earlier 18-year-old Robby Benson was a hot property in Hollywood and his father, veteran screenwriter Jerry Segal had an idea that they can do together. The father son tandem got together and co-wrote “One on One.” it's a story about Henry Steele, a high school phenom from the Midwest who has to adjust to playing on the West Coast in a university that demands to win and a head coach who tries to. take his scholarship away from him. Will he succeed? With a music score by an then-unknown band called Seals and Croft, no way!

Fun Fact: This was very early early appearance for Melanie Griffith.

During filming, Robby Benson hid the fact he had medical issues in the form of bicuspid aortic heart disease: He was born with two flaps on his aortic valve where there should be three to control blood flow. Benson experienced shortness of breath and dizziness , but he hid the symptoms for fear of health problems ending his acting career. Benson has since undergone at least 4 open heart surgeries