Soap Opera Actress, Writer Was 75

Meg Bennett, the Daytime Emmy winner who did double responsibility as an actress and author on the daytime cleaning soap operas The Younger and the Stressed, Basic Hospital and Santa Barbara, has died. She was 75.

Bennett died April 11 after a battle with most cancers, her household introduced.

Bennett portrayed Marty Maraschino for greater than two years in the course of the unique Broadway run of Grease that kicked off in 1972, then started her long term in daytime two years later with a flip as Liza Walton on CBS’ Seek for Tomorrow, the place Kevin Kline and Morgan Fairchild have been castmates.

She joined CBS’ The Younger and the Stressed in 1980 as Julia Newman — spouse of Eric Braeden’s Victor Newman — however as her character was being written off, she was requested by Y&R creator Invoice Bell to stay round as a author.

“I’d been appearing on the present for nearly two years when this occurred, so I knew the characters,” Bennett stated in a 1985 interview. Nonetheless, she continued to point out up as Julia on and off all through the years, the final time in 2020.

Bennett wrote for NBC’s Santa Barbara from 1991-93 (and performed writer Megan Richardson) and wrote for ABC’s Basic Hospital from 1993-2011 (and portrayed the villainess Allegra Montenegro).

She shared her Daytime Emmy for her work on G.H. in 1995 and was nominated for writing Y&R in 1986, G.H. once more in 2000 and 2012 and The Daring and the Stunning in 2003. She additionally wrote for NBC’s Generations from 1989-91 and NBC’s Sundown Seashore from 1997-98 and gained a pair of WGA awards throughout her profession.

Helen Margaret Bennett was born on Oct. 4, 1948, and raised in Pasadena. Her mom, Margaret, was a psychologist at Pasadena Metropolis School.

Bennett attended John Muir Excessive Faculty in Pasadena, and whereas majoring in drama at Northwestern College — the place Shelley Lengthy was a classmate — she was a homecoming queen, a Miss America contestant, a mannequin in Life journal and a performer in summer season inventory.

She moved to New York after commencement in 1970 to pursue appearing, landed a modeling job for Cadillac and appeared off-Broadway in Godspell earlier than becoming a member of Grease. She additionally gained money, a automotive, three rooms of furnishings, a sailboat and a visit to Jamaica on the NBC sport present Three on a Match, hosted by Invoice Cullen.

In her 1985 interview, she puzzled if concentrating on both appearing or writing would have been sufficient for her. “I’ll admit, appearing makes me a little bit loopy generally: You wait to audition. You await the half,” she stated. “Whenever you’re writing, you’re in management. I can provoke issues alone after I’m writing.”

Survivors embrace her husband of 19 years, Sundown Seashore co-creator and nine-time Daytime Emmy winner Robert Guza Jr. — they met on G.H. and have been frequent writing companions on soaps — two stepdaughters, 4 grandchildren, a brother and a sister.

She and Guza bought a house in Beverly Hills in 2003 that had been owned by Boris Karloff after which Gregory Peck.