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Joan Benedict, known for her roles in Candid Camera and General Hospital, has died. She was 96.
Benedict died in a Los Angeles hospital on 24 June from complications caused by a stroke, a family spokesperson said.
She studied dance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as a child before going to the Rome Opera Ballet School. In New York, she changed focus to acting, taking lessons at The Actors Studio and working with Robert Lewis and Stella Adler.
She started her acting career in the 1950s, appearing in The Steve Allen Show and Candid Camera. She subsequently landed roles on television shows like The Smith Family, The Incredible Hulk, Apple’s Way, and Fantasy Island, and films such as The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington, The Trials of Rosie O’Neill, Dollhouse, and Perfect Victims.
Benedict had a recurring role on General Hospital as Edith Fairchild and also appeared in Days of Our Lives.
Alongside her TV and film roles, Benedict was known for stage acting. She played hotel magnate Leona Helmsley in the play Leona and her solo autobiographical show The Loves of My Life.
“The theatre for me is like being in church. When you feel the audience and feel that communication with other souls, it’s like music,” she told Deadline.
“As a performer, I’m always pursuing that wonderful experience where you are completely alert and clear, and yet transported through your imagination.”
Her final acting projects included the television show Dollhouse in 2009 and the 2017 movie Opus of an Angel.
In 2016, Benedict released a memoir titled Brooklyn Baby: A Hollywood Star’s Amazing Journey Through Love, Loss & Laughter.
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Benedict was married to actor John Myhers from 1962 until his death in 1992. She then reconnected with Rod Steiger, who she had a brief romance with when she was 19, and married him in 2000.
“Both of my husbands, and my lifetime partner, Jeremy, were wonderful men who respected me as an actress,” she said in an interview with Women Fitness in 2016.
“They all died from different forms of cancer, so my memories are sometimes bittersweet, but with no regrets.”
Benedict is survived by daughter Claudia Myhers Tschudin and granddaughters Hanna Tschudin and Ashley Tschudin.
