Actress and Soap Scribe Meg Bennett Dead at 75
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Former The Young and the Restless actress and soap writer Meg Bennett has passed away at the age of 75. Bennett, best known for her role as Julia Newman, Victor's (Eric Braeden) first wife, died April 11 after a battle with cancer, her family announced.
Bennett was born Helen Margaret Bennett on Oct. 4, 1948, in Los Angeles and raised in Pasadena by her father, a printing company executive, and her mother, a psychologist at Pasadena City College. Bennett graduated from John Muir High School in Pasadena and studied drama at Northwestern University, where she was a classmate of Shelley Long.
Bennett moved to New York after she graduated in 1970 to break into acting and wound up appearing in the off-Broadway musical Godspell and later joined Grease as an original cast member. Bennett came into a windfall after being a contestant on the NBC game show Three on a Match, where she won a car, furniture, a sailboat, a car, and a trip to Jamaica. Later, Bennett first broke into soaps as Liza Walton on Search for Tomorrow. Bennett then headed west and ended up playing Julia Martin, who wound up marrying ruthless businessman Victor Newman, a role she would portray throughout the years.
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During her tenure on the show, Bennett's re-writing of scripts impressed the show's creator, Bill Bell, so much that he offered her a job as a scriptwriter once she vacated the role. Bennett went on to write for The Bold and the Beautiful, Generations, Santa Barbara, Sunset Beach, and General Hospital, where she met her husband, former GH head writer Bob Guza, in 2004. Bennett also starred on GH as evil businesswoman Allegra Montenegro in 2005.
Bennett is survived by her husband, two stepdaughters, grandchildren, brother, sister, and other family members.
