Actress Joan Benedict Steiger, who died age 96 on June 24, was best known for her work on Candid Camera, and her marriage (1962-92) to actor Rod Steiger. Like Rod, Joan started her career on the NY stage. She was a Group Theater girl, and in later years starred as Leona Helmsley in a one-woman show. “The theatre for me is like being in church,” she said. “When you feel the audience, and feel that communication with other souls, it’s like music.” In films and TV, Benedict was seen in The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington, The Incredible Hulk, Fantasy Island, Hotel, and Days of Our Lives. She met Rod Steiger when she was a teenager, and “I was in complete awe of him . . . I remember seeing him in the play Rashomon on Broadway, and seeing his face on the marquee across the street for the movie Al Capone. I thought, ‘what a life - starring on Broadway and starring in a movie!’ Knowing him at that age was like living in a fantasy.”
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