Margaret DePriest, a celebrated actress and veteran soap writer whose work shaped some of daytime television’s most iconic stories, has died at 94.
Her daughter, Sara Kimbell, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that DePriest passed away on September 29 of natural causes at her home in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Born April 19, 1931, in Bristow, Oklahoma, DePriest rose from a Depression-era upbringing to earn a drama scholarship at the University of Oklahoma.
She began her career as an actress on stage and television, later transitioning into writing, a move that helped define her legacy.
Her early acting roles included Abby Cameron #1 on The Edge of Night from 1965 to 1966, as well as social worker Mrs. Berger on The Doctors.
She also appeared in guest spots on The Catholic Hour, True Story and N.Y.P.D. during the late ’50s and ’60s.
DePriest eventually moved behind the camera, co-writing The Edge of Night in the mid-1960s.
In 1969, she co-created and served as co-head writer for CBS Daytime’s Where the Heart Is.
Her writing career grew to include major roles on General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, All My Children, Another World, One Life to Live, and most recently Sunset Beach.
Her work earned her five Daytime Emmy nominations for Best Writing including for General Hospital in 1985, Days of Our Lives in 1984 and 1985, All My Children in 1990, and One Life to Live in 1992.
She also received a Writers Guild Award nomination in 1998 for Another World. Earlier in her career, she won an Obie Award for Best Actress in 1965 for The Place for Chance.
DePriest was married to writer Paul Price, who died in 2012.
Through decades of storytelling, DePriest helped define the emotional heart of daytime dramas, leaving behind an enduring creative legacy admired by colleagues and longtime soap fans.