Award-Winning Soap Opera Actress And Scriptwriter Died At 75

Meg Bennett, an award-winning soap opera actress and scriptwriter, died on April 11. She was 75.

Her obituary, which was first published on April 21 in the Los Angeles Times, highlighted her career as an actress and a writer for The Young and the Restless, General Hospital, Santa Barbara and other daytime series.

“Meg lost her battle with cancer,” the obituary read. “Until nearly the end she was devotedly working with children, writing and engaging with her far-flung family and friends.”

Bennett — born Helen Margaret Bennett on Oct. 4, 1948, before taking the stage name of Meg Bennett — won a Daytime Emmy for Best Writing for General Hospital in 1995. She also earned three Writers Guild of America Awards for the same show in 1994, 1995 and 1997, as well as two wins for Santa Barbara in 1991 and 1992.

“Meg lost her battle with cancer,” the obituary read. “Until nearly the end she was devotedly working with children, writing and engaging with her far-flung family and friends.”

Bennett — born Helen Margaret Bennett on Oct. 4, 1948, before taking the stage name of Meg Bennett — won a Daytime Emmy for Best Writing for General Hospital in 1995. She also earned three Writers Guild of America Awards for the same show in 1994, 1995 and 1997, as well as two wins for Santa Barbara in 1991 and 1992.

Before finding success in the TV industry, Bennett grew up in Pasadena, Calif., graduated from John Muir High School and won homecoming queen at Northwestern University, where she majored in drama.

After graduating from Northwestern, Bennett moved to New York City in the 1970s to pursue acting.

“She got a modeling job as the ‘Cadillac Eldorado Convertible Girl,’ but her first real break was an acting and singing role in the off-Broadway musical Godspell,” the obituary said. “From there she went to Grease on Broadway, became a champion of the TV quiz show Three on a Match, and in 1974 began her long and successful soap opera career as the ingénue Liza on Search for Tomorrow.”
In the 1980s, Bennett moved to Los Angeles, where she played Julia Newman in The Young and the Restless and eventually started scriptwriting for the same show.

Bennett is survived by her husband, Robert Guza, Jr., whom she met while writing together on General Hospital.

“They would have celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary this year,” her family wrote in the obituary.

She is also survived by her brother, sister, two stepdaughters, four grandchildren and “a bevy” of nieces and nephews.