Who was Joan Benedict married to? Family explored as General Hospital alum dies at 96

General Hospital star Joan Benedict Steiger passed away on Monday, June 24, 2024, at the age of 96. A family spokesperson for the actress announced that she died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles as a result of complications from a stroke. Benedict was famous for starring in the original Steve Allen Show and Candid Camera.

Joan was married to actor John Benjamin Myhers from 1962 until he died in 1992. She later married Oscar-winning actor Rod Steiger of In the Heat of the Night fame from 2000 until his death two years later. She was also in a serious relationship with One Life to Live star Jeremy Slate until his passing in 2006.

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Joan Benedict was married to Academy Award-winner Rod Steiger

Joan Benedict Steiger's family spokesperson announced that the actress had passed away on June 24 due to complications from a stroke. Joan was widely recognized for her stint in General Hospital where she portrayed the character Edith Fairchild.

Joan Benedict first met and had a short-lived romance with Waterloo star Rod Steiger when she was only 19 but they ended up going different ways at the time. The actress later got married to John Benjamin Myhers in 1962. Myhers was famous for his role as Bert O. Bratt in the 1967 film adaptation of the Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

The couple remained happily married for three decades before Myhers' passing in 1992. The actress reconnected with Rod Steiger in the late '90s after he randomly called her after someone mentioned her name at a party he was at. The couple got married in 2000.

Rod Steiger was a prominent Hollywood actor known for his roles in films like On the Waterfront, The Pawnbroker, and In the Heat of the Night. He was nominated for an Oscar for all three roles and won the Best Actor Academy Award for In the Heat of the Night. Steiger passed away in 2002 as a result of complications from gallbladder tumor surgery.

After Steiger's death, Joan got into a relationship with actor and songwriter Jeremy Slate. Slate was known for films like True Grit (1969), Hell's Angels '69 (1969), Dream Machine (1991), and The Lawnmower Man (1992). He passed away after an esophageal cancer surgery in 2006. Joan had opened up about all her relationships in a 2016 interview. The actress stated:

"Strangely, I met all three of these men when I was in New York, just beginning my career while I was still a teenager,"

Joan Benedict added:

"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."

The Brooklyn native was born on July 21, 1927, and took dance lessons from the Brooklyn Academy of Music as a kid before moving to the Rome Opera Ballet School and later studied acting under actor and director Robert Lewis and actress Stella Adler at The Actors Studio.

Joan rose to fame in the '50s after working on the original Candid Camera and The Steve Allen Show. Some of her other prominent roles include TV roles in The Incredible Hulk (1980), Fantasy Island (1981-82), and movie roles in The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977) and Perfect Victims (1988).

Apart from General Hospital, Joan Benedict had a notable stint in another famous soap Days of Our Lives. Joan also did a lot of work on the regional theater circuit, appearing in Off-Broadway productions of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Traveling Lady, and Promises, Promises. She also did several solo shows like The Loves of My Life and Leona.

Joan Benedict's last acting credit was for the 2017 Ali Zamani film Opus of an Angel. The actress is survived by her daughter Claudia Myhers Tschudin and grandchildren Hanna Tschudin and Ashley Tschudin.