Meg Bennett, The Young and the Restless star and Emmy-winning veteran soap writer, dies at 75

Longtime The Young and the Restless actress and soap opera writer Meg Bennett has died.

Meg Bennett, best known to soap audiences in front of the screen as Victor Newman's first wife Julia, died on April 11 at the age of 75 after a battle with cancer. Her obituary was released to the Los Angeles Times by her family on April 21.

Bennett was born Helen Margaret Bennett on October 4, 1948, and grew up in Pasadena, CA. She earned a degree in drama at Northwestern University and later became a Miss America contestant before moving to New York to pursue a career in theater.

Her big break came with the off-Broadway hit Godspell, followed by a stint in the original Broadway production of Grease, playing Pink Lady Marty Marachino. Soon, the world of New York soaps came calling, and in 1974, Bennett landed the role of Liza Walton on CBS' Search for Tomorrow.

After two years on Search, Bennett moved back to her native California, where she took on the role of Julia Newman. That role led to a career behind the scenes as a soap writer, but Bennett still brought Julia to life on-screen as recently as 2020 when she brought the character back to Genoa City for a celebration honoring Victor.

Bennett's career as a soap writer went beyond Y&R, and she spent decades as a scribe on various popular soaps. She was also a member of the writing teams for Santa Barbara, Sunset Beach, Generations, The Bold and the Beautiful, and General Hospital. Bennett won a Daytime Emmy in 1995 as part of the GH writing team. She picked up additional nominations for GH in 1995, 1997, and 2000. Other Daytime Emmy writings nods were earned in 2003 for The Bold and the Beautiful and in 1986 for The Young and the Restless.

Elsewhere as an actress in daytime, she brought Megan Richardson to life on Santa Barbara from 1991 to1993 and played Allegra Montenegro on General Hospital in 2005.

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General Hospital is also where Bennett met her husband of nearly 20 years, former Head Writer Robert Guza Jr. Bennett is survived by Guza, her two stepdaughters, four grandchildren, and a brother and a sister, as well as several nieces and nephews.

Do you have favorite memories of Meg Bennett on soaps? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.

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