The man behind the short film ‘How to Sleep’, a humorous clip on the technique of sleeping, Robert Benchley was an American humorist, writer and actor. Even though an established humorist by the time he made the short film, this film became his ticket to stardom. Not only did the film win an academy Award, it also facilitated his entry into mainstream Hollywood. His success as a humorist is not surprising given that he had always been funny starting from childhood. As a school student, he was often called to entertain people in campus shows. Whenever the young boy got on to the stage, people would burst into laughter. But the life of this funnyman was not without tragedies. His beloved brother died fighting in the army when Robert was just nine years old and this incident deeply impacted him. However there was a silver lining to this unfortunate incident as his late brother’s fiancee took the responsibility of educating Robert and thus he was able to attend prestigious institutions to study. He eventually made a career for himself as not just a humorist, but also as a writer and actor, even working with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock.