Meg Bennett

A part in the original Broadway cast of "Grease" led to the role of the good girl, Liza, on Search for Tomorrow (1951). Meg quickly beguiled the cast, which included Kevin Kline and Morgan Fairchild, who had beaten out Meg for the show's vixen role nine months earlier.

The eldest daughter of a printing company executive and a psychologist, Meg had a comfortable childhood in Pasadena, California. She majored in drama at Northwestern, acting in summer stock between terms. Hired in 1971 as the "Cadillac Eldorado convertible girl" for a New York auto show, she decided on Manhattan as home, which proved a fortuitous choice. In an elevator, a man asked Meg if she wanted to be on a quiz show. Thus was born a champion of NBC's Three on a Match, with winnings that included complete furnishings for her new apartment.

While recovering, she was approached about a part on The Young and the Restless (1973). A fragile character at first, Julia Newman then transformed into a strong and mature character. Also because Meg's on-the-set script doctoring had impressed the production staff, series creator William J.

Early in her career, she screen-tested for a role in a film produced by Gregory Peck titled The Dove (1974), but she didn't get the role. After she became a successful actress and writer for soap operas, she and her husband, a fellow soap opera writer, Robert Guza, Jr., bought a house Peck owned in the 1940s for $2.8 million in 2003.

In 1978 Meg left that soap and New York for acting opportunities in California. But a bout of hepatitis interrupted those plans. Meg's weight dropped to 95 pounds.