‘General Hospital’ Actress Meg Bennett Dies After Cancer Battle

Meg Bennett, an actress who made a name for herself in prominent soap opera television shows such as The Young and the Restless, General Hospital and Santa Barbara, has reportedly passed away at the age of 75.

Bennett, according to her family, passed away after a battle with cancer. The beloved actress died on April 11th, 2024. She began her career in daytime television in 1974. The actress had won a pair of WGA Awards in her lifetime.

Bennett played the role of Liza Walton on CBS’ Search for Tomorrow. She joined The Young and the Restless in 1980.

In addition to being a television actress, Bennett also played the role of Marty Maraschino on the original Broadway of Grease. That hit musical began in 1972.

Her family has posted the following obituary commemorating the amazing life in the Los Angeles Times,

Helen Margaret Bennett, known throughout her professional career on stage and screen as “Meg,” lost her battle with cancer on April 11th 2024. Until nearly the end she was devotedly working with children, writing, and engaging with her far-flung family and friends.

Meg 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, and upon graduating moved to New York to pursue an acting career. She got a modelling job as the “Cadillac Eldorado Convertible Girl” but her first real break was an acting and singing role in the off-Broadway musical Godspell.

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. After moving back to Los Angeles, she became Julia Newman in The Young and the Restless in 1980, playing a major role on and off for six years and with cameo appearances thereafter, the last in 2020.

She segued into script-writing for The Young and the Restless and never looked back, writing for The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital, Santa Barbara, and Sunset Beach. She received five Daytime Emmy nominations for writing, with her General Hospital team winning in 1995, and five nominations for Writers Guild of America awards, with wins for Sunset Beach and General Hospital. She never abandoned acting, with various stage appearances, including You’ve Got Hate Mail in New York in 2011, and multiple appearances on television, perhaps most notably as the General Hospital villainess Allegra Montenegro.

Meg met her husband, Robert Guza, Jr., while writing for General Hospital; they would have celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary this year. She is survived by her husband, two step-daughters and four adored grandchildren, along with a brother and sister and a bevy of nieces and nephews.

Bennett Family on Passing of Meg Bennett

Rest in peace, Meg Bennett!