Grant Bennati went from star athlete to Hollywood and back home again to real estate, where his magnetism made success inevitable.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published April 2, 2004
BEACH PARK - Grant Bennati was a big man and a terror on the football field. He was the star fullback on the Jesuit High School football team that played for the state championship in 1968 and went on to play at the University of Georgia.
But after he died March 20 at age 54, people who knew him didn't talk about his powerful athleticism. They remembered him as a tender, friendly and thoughtful man devoted to his friends and family.
"When our last day comes, a man is not measured by his size or his strength, nor by his possessions or his wealth," said his longtime friend Mike Shrenk. "He's measured by the size of his heart and in that Grant had no equal."
Mr. Bennati was born in Montreal but moved to the Tampa Bay area with his parents when he was a child and grew up in a waterfront home in Beach Park. He was an only child until he was 10, when his brother Al was born. Sister Liane came along about a year later.
"Al thought he was a superhero, and I had a crush on him," his sister said.
Besides being a football star, he was also an accomplished discus thrower, setting a school record that stood for many years.
He earned a four-year football scholarship to the University of Georgia but never attained the same status.
"He majored in girls," said his brother.
"The girls loved him," Liane said. "He was extremely fit, with big broad shoulders and a trim waist. And he was so charming. My mother used to say that he wouldn't just charm the girls he went out with, he'd charm their mothers, too."
Beside sports and girls, Mr. Bennati's biggest passion was movies. After college, he moved to California to try to make it as an actor and screenwriter.
He did better than most people seeking Hollywood fame and appeared in a made-for-TV movie called The Streets of L.A. in 1979. It was a small role, but he shared a one-on-one scene with Joanne Woodward.
He was never able to establish his movie career and in the mid 1980s returned to Tampa.
"I think that was a big defeat for him, to come home without having accomplished all he wanted to in movies," his sister said.
Soon he found another career that brought him much more success. He learned the real estate business from his younger brother, who along with the rest of the family owned all of the Buy Owner franchises between Atlanta and South Florida.
Mr. Bennati worked for himself for several years and finally went to work for his old friend Shrenk's company, New Millennial Homes, negotiating land sales.
"He loved it and he was great at it," his sister said.
A strange and seemingly minor accident in the early 1990s changed his life. Mr. Bennati cut his foot in his apartment. He didn't feel any pain, and didn't even know he was cut until he saw the blood.
The cut never healed and, when he finally went to a doctor, he was diagnosed with diabetes.
Several years later, a staph infection developed in the wound and spread throughout his body. He ended up wearing two prosthetic boots and a collar around his neck because his bones had become so weak that they wouldn't support his head.
"He was in excruciating pain, but he never complained," his sister said.
He also never slowed down. He went to movies with his sister, attended his two nephews' T-ball games and maintained a full work schedule.
Although he had been suffering for years, his death from a massive heart attack was sudden.
"It still doesn't seem real," his sister said more than a week later. "I can't believe he isn't going to call me later and say, "Let's go to the movies."'
Besides his brother and sister, Mr. Bennati is survived by his parents Alvin and Marge Bennati.
