Soap opera star Meg Bennett passes away at 75

Washington [US], April 23 (ANI): Meg Bennett, a Daytime Emmy-winning actor and writer for the soap operas The Young and the Restless, General Hospital (GH), and Santa Barbara, died. She was 75, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Bennett died on April 11 after a battle with cancer, her family announced on Sunday (local time).

Bennett played Marty Maraschino for more than two years during the original Broadway run of Grease, which began in 1972, before beginning her long stint in daytime two years later as Liza Walton on CBS’ Search for Tomorrow, alongside Kevin Kline and Morgan Fairchild.

She joined CBS’ The Young and the Restless in 1980 as Julia Newman, wife of Eric Braeden’s Victor Newman; however, as her character was being written out, Y&R creator Bill Bell encouraged her to stay on as a writer.

“I’d been acting on the show for almost two years when this happened, so I knew the characters,” Bennett said in a 1985 interview. Still, she continued to show up as Julia on and off throughout the years, the last time in 2020.

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

She received a Daytime Emmy for her work on G.H. in 1995 and was nominated for writing Y&R in 1986, GH again in 2000 and 2012, and The Bold and the Beautiful in 2003. She also wrote for NBC’s Generations (1989-91) and Sunset Beach (1997-98), winning two WGA awards throughout her career.

Helen Margaret Bennett was born on Oct. 4, 1948, and raised in Pasadena. Her mother, Margaret, was a psychologist at Pasadena City College.

Survivors include her husband of 19 years, Sunset Beach co-creator and nine-time Daytime Emmy winner Robert Guza Jr — they met on GH and were frequent writing partners on soaps — two stepdaughters, four grandchildren, a brother and a sister, as per The Hollywood Reporter.