‘General Hospital’ actress Joan Benedict dies

Soap opera actress Joan Benedict has died at the age of 96.

Her death on June 24 was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by a family spokesperson, who said Benedict died of complications from a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Benedict was among the “Candid Camera” castmembers, saying about the stunt reality show, “Essentially, it’s acting. I can’t laugh or the whole stunt is broken up.”

She also appeared on “The Steve Allen Show” performing in comedy bits and as the spokesperson for Hazel Bishop cosmetics.

Benedict was on several other shows through the years including “Fantasy Island” and “The Incredible Hulk.”

She may be best known for her roles on soap operas specifically as Edith Fairchild on “General Hospital.”

While her career was mostly on the small screen she made a name for herself on Broadway in several one-woman shows and Off-Broadway productions, People magazine reported.

Benedict was born in Brooklyn in 1927 and took dance lessons as a child at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She eventually studied at the Rome Opera Ballet School, Deadline reported.

She took acting classes at The Actors Studio after she returned to New York.

She was married twice —once to John Myhers until 1992 and then Rod Steiger, with whom she had a brief romance when she was 19 after they reconnected in the late 1990s.

“I got a call from him out of the blue,” Benedict said, according to Deadline. “He’d been at a party where someone had mentioned me, and we got together again after all those years.”

They married in 2000 and were together until his death in 2002.

She then was in a relationship with Jeremy Slate from “One Life to Live” until he passed in 2006.

“Strangely, I met all three of these men when I was in New York, just beginning my career while I was still a teenager,” she said in 2016, according to Deadline. “Both of my husbands, and my lifetime partner Jeremy, were wonderful men who respected me as an actress. They all died from different forms of cancer, so my memories are sometimes bittersweet, but with no regrets.”

Benedict leaves behind her daughter and two granddaughters, People magazine reported.

© 2024 Cox Media Group