Actress Meg Bennett — who had a long-running role on CBS’s The Young and the Restless and transitioned into a soap opera writer for several popular shows, including ABC’s General Hospital — has died at 75 .
Meg Bennett died on April 11 after a battle with cancer, her family wrote in an online obituary that published Sunday in the Los Angeles Times.
“Until nearly the end she was devotedly working with children, writing, and engaging with her far-flung family and friends,” her family wrote.
In her long career in daytime television, Bennett became a familiar face for playing the character Julia Newman — the first wife of villainous tycoon Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) — in The Young and the Restless. She played the role from 1980 to 2002.
The Young And The Restless actor Eric Braeden and actress/writer Meg Bennett pose for a portrait in 1992 in Los Angeles, California. (Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Her ability to improve scripts on the spot led her to be hired as a writer for the show. Her writing talents led to jobs on several other hit soaps, including General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful, Santa Barbara, and Sunset Beach.
Bennett shared a daytime Emmy Award for her work on General Hospital in 1995.
Meg Bennett grew up in Pasadena, attending John Muir High School. She majored in drama at Northwestern University, where she was homecoming queen and a Miss America contestant, performed in summer stock, according to her family’s obituary.
Her survivors include her husband, Robert Guza Jr., who served as head writer for General Hospital.
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