Nick Benedict, All My Children And Days Of Our Lives Actor, Dead At 77

Beloved soap opera star, Nicholas "Nick" Benedict, died on July 14, as reported on the Jake's Steakhouse Facebook page – a restaurant where his wife Ginger was a bartender. The statement read: "Nick Benedict's birthday was July 14. He went to be with the Lord this day. Please pray for Ginger." Jake's had previously organized a GoFundMe campaign for Ginger after Nick had emergency spinal cord surgery on July 2 and became paralyzed from the neck down.

The owner of Jake's Steakhouse in Tehachapi, California, Barbara Ferrante, confirmed Benedict's passing to Soap Opera Network. According to the site, Ginger and several other loved ones were present at their Arizona home when he died. Known for appearing in several primetime shows, including "Medical Center," "Tribes," and "Hawaii 5-0" among others, Benedict became a staple of the daytime scene, playing on such shows as "The Young and the Restless," "Santa Barbara," and appeared as Kate Robert's first husband, Nick Reed on "Days of Our Lives." He also appeared in the film, "The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend," which was a biographical tale of a professional basketball player named Pete "Pistol Pete" Maravich, who unexpectedly died at age 40 from a heart attack in 1988. One of Benedict's first roles was an uncredited part in the 1955 film Noir, "Wiretapper."

Nick Benedict gained super popularity playing Phillip Brent, the second and one of the longest-appearing husbands of the infamous Erica Kane on "All My Children." The role garnered him a nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series for the 1979 Daytime Emmys. Benedict would return to play Phillip for a short stint in 1988. He had been in the US Navy for a couple of years, then later became an actor, training at the Professional Theatre Workshop Academy. He also became an extra in films produced by Universal Studios and was an accomplished artist and carpenter on the side.

While some outlets have reported that Benedict's age at the time of his death was 77, the general consensus is that since he was born in 1947, he would have been 76 on July 14, 2023. One of Benedict's most infamous storylines was portraying Michael Scott on "The Young and the Restless," who had fallen in love with Victor Newman's first wife, Julia Newman, unaware that her insanely jealous husband would capture him and feed him rats as revenge for daring to go near his wife.

Benedict certainly made his mark on the soap world, and he will be sorely missed.