Benjamin Landis, Retired Superior Court Judge, Dies

Benjamin Landis, a retired Los Angeles Superior Court judge, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a long illness . He was 79.

Landis was appointed to the Superior Court bench by Gov. Goodwin J. Knight in 1958 after several years in private law practice representing entertainment industry figures such as Eddie Cantor and the Marx Brothers.

Born in Russia, Landis immigrated at a young age with his parents, who settled in Chicago. After graduating from law school at the University of Chicago in 1930, he worked for the U.S. attorney in Chicago and became part of the team that prosecuted mobster Al Capone.

He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1930s.

While he retired from the bench in 1977, he argued against mandatory retirement of Superior Court judges after 20 years, saying that such retirements were a waste of knowledge and experience and should be discretionary. He then continued to take cases on assignment as a retired judge.

A resident of Century City, he is survived by his wife, Gloria; a daughter, Lynn Jacobs of Ventura; a son, James Henry Landis of Prescott, Ariz., and three grandchildren. He was the uncle of film director John Landis, now facing trial in the “Twilight Zone” manslaughter case.

At Landis’ request, family members said, there will be no funeral services.