Bennett “lost her battle” with cancer on April 11, the family said in its obituary, first published in the Los Angeles Times.
Audiences knew Bennett as the striking brunette Julia Newman on CBS’ long-running soap opera. She played Megan Richardson on “Santa Barbara” in the 1990s and Allegra Montenegro on “General Hospital” in 2005.
Bennett also found a rewarding career behind the camera. She became a scriptwriter on “Young & the Restless” and later, “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “General Hospital,” “Santa Barbara” and “Sunset Beach.”
Bennett received five Daytime Emmy nominations for writing. She was part of a “General Hospital” writing team that won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1995. She was also nominated for Writers Guild of America awards, capturing prizes for “Sunset Beach” and “General Hospital.”
Born Helen Margaret Bennett on Oct. 4, 1948, she grew up in Pasadena and attended John Muir High School. After high school, she attended Northwestern University, where she majored in drama. She was homecoming queen and a Miss America contestant. After graduation, she moved to New York to pursue an acting career and soon got a job as a model: the “Cadillac Eldorado Convertible Girl.”
Bennett eventually got a break in show business when she landed an acting and singing role in the off-Broadway musical “Godspell.” She appeared in “Grease” on Broadway and, in 1974, began her soap opera career as Liza on “Search for Tomorrow.”
In 1980, she returned to Los Angeles and joined the cast of “The Young and the Restless.” She made a cameo appearance on that show in 2020.
It was on “General Hospital” that she met her husband, former head writer Robert Guza Jr. In addition to her husband, Bennett is survived by two stepdaughters, four grandchildren, and a brother and a sister, as well as several nieces and nephews.