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Graceful, slender, and blonde Zina Bethune, renowned ballet dancer, choreographer, and instructor, also enjoyed a promising acting career during the late 1950s and 1960s.
Born in New York City on February 17, 1945, she was the daughter of William Charles Bethune (who passed away in 1950 when Zina was five) and the accomplished actress Ivy Bethune (née Vigner), known for her role in General Hospital (1963). Zina's mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant from Sevastopol.
Trained formally in dance from the age of six, she studied at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet and performed with the New York City Ballet as a teenager, despite being diagnosed at different times with scoliosis, lymphedema, and hip dysplasia.
As a teenager, she appeared in various daytime television dramas, including a breakthrough role (1956-1958) as the original "Robin Lang" on the serial Guiding Light (1952). Over time, she joined other soap operas, featuring in a long-running role on Love of Life (1951) from 1965 to 1971 and later a recurring role on Santa Barbara (1984). Zina co-starred with Shirl Conway on the TV drama The Nurses (1962) [initially titled "The Nurses," later renamed "The Doctors and the Nurses"], earning praise for her portrayal of a naive student nurse. She also portrayed "Amy" in one of several television adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's beloved Little Women (1958). As a young adult, she showcased strong dramatic talent in popular shows such as Route 66 (1960), Naked City (1958), Gunsmoke (1955), Lancer (1968), The Invaders (1967), Emergency! (1972), and CHiPs (1977).
Her film debut came as one of the Roosevelt children in Sunrise at Campobello (1960), starring Ralph Bellamy and Greer Garson. Though her film career did not reach the heights anticipated, she gained cult recognition for her poignant streetwise role opposite Harvey Keitel in Martin Scorsese's autobiographical feature debut Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967) [also known as Who's That Knocking at My Door?], a significant precursor to his acclaimed Mean Streets (1973).
Zina appeared in numerous musicals as a singer and dancer, making her Broadway debut at age 11 as "Tessie" in The Most Happy Fella. She toured in productions including Sweet Charity, Oklahoma!, Damn Yankees!, Carnival, Carousel, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Non-musical roles included The Member of the Wedding, Barefoot in the Park, and The Owl and the Pussycat. In 1992, she returned to Broadway as a replacement in Grand Hotel, portraying Russian ballerina Elizaveta Grushinskaya.
Nonetheless, Ms. Bethune's greatest passion and dedication remained with dance. At her peak, she was a highly respected prima ballerina. Her repertoire included Swan Lake, Le Corsair, Romeo and Juliet, Black Swan, Giselle, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, and Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. She was a guest artist with The Royal Danish Ballet, Nevada Dance Theatre, and San Francisco Ballet Theatre before founding her own New York-based company in 1969 — Zina Bethune and Company. Her work as a dance director and choreographer covered over 50 plays, films, videos, and ballets.
In later years, Bethune appeared occasionally on screen, including minor roles in the film The Boost (1988) as a dance choreographer, the TV movie Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder (1987), and the TV series Santa Barbara and Party of Five. Throughout her life, she remained committed to helping children with physical and mental disabilities, encouraging them to use dance as a form of self-expression and therapy, inspired by her own health challenges during childhood. She founded Theatredanse (also known as Theatre Bethune) in 1980 and established Dance Outreach (now Infinite Dreams) in 1982, which continues to offer dance programs to disabled children across Southern California.
On February 12, 2012, Bethune died in an apparent hit-and-run accident while visiting Griffith Park in Los Angeles. She was five days shy of her 67th birthday. She is survived by her husband, technical and visual effects artist Sean Feeley, and her mother Ivy.
