Barbara Benedetti, 38, Playwright, Dancer, Director, Versatile Actress

Barbara Benedetti, a local actress who originated the role of Bev, a mother who becomes a punk-rock performer, in the popular play "Angry Housewives," has died from cancer. She was 38.

When "Angry Housewives," a comic musical about financially strapped women who decide to form a band to win money, opened at the Pioneer Square Theater in 1983, it became a theatrical phenomenon. It ran for six years and has since spawned other productions.

After a year in Seattle, Miss Benedetti recreated the role for a Chicago production of the play, and later rejoined the Seattle cast. It was a role she played for four years.

"Barb played guitar live onstage and she was great," recalled Laura Kenny, a fellow actress and friend who also was in the play. "She looked like a real rock-and-roll punk guitarist."

Miss Benedetti, who was born and reared in Portland, moved to Seattle 17 years ago. She studied acting at Cornish College of the Arts, where she received a bachelor of fine arts degree.

In the course of her career, Miss Benedetti also was a writer, a dancer and a playwright. But it was acting that remained her focus. Her credits include roles in other local plays as well as parts in movies filmed in Seattle, including the Shirley MacLaine movie "Waiting for the Light" and this year's "Dogfight."

"She was very versatile and she had great comic timing," said Carol James, a longtime friend and Miss Benedetti's agent. "There was nothing I wouldn't have sent her out for. She was very well-respected in the theater community and she was extremely professional."

Two years ago, Miss Benedetti learned that she had cancer of the lymph glands and was given six months to live.

Her friends said she fought back and, for a while, the disease went into remission. During this time, she continued acting and also started to focus more on directing and writing.

"She was a trouper," said Vicki Hollenberg, another friend. "She had a powerful will. She was a strong, intelligent, highly creative woman who made her own way in this world. She was one of the strongest women I've ever known."

A month ago, Miss Benedetti's health began to decline again and she never recovered. She died Saturday at Swedish Hospital Medical Center.

Miss Benedetti is survived by her father and stepmother, Chuck and Mary Anne Benedetti, of Hermiston, Ore.; her mother and stepfather, Norma and Frank Molinari, of Portland; and two brothers, David, of Portland, and Michael, of Seattle.

Services will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Green Lake Funeral Home, 7217 Woodlawn N.E. Memorials should go toward the American Cancer Society or the Actors Equity Emergency Actors Fund.