Grace_Bennett

Grace Bennett

Grace Bennett (née Standish) is a fictional character on the NBC/DirecTV soap opera Passions, portrayed by Dana Sparks from the series premiere on July 5, 1999, until January 22, 2007. Unknowingly gifted with supernatural powers, Grace is presented early on as the ideal wife, mother, and homemaker; however, Grace's perfect family life begins to noticeably fall apart in 2001, when her husband, Sam, is revealed to have fathered a son with another woman and a mysterious man arrives in Harmony, claiming to be her husband from her pre-amnesia days. Grace's Roman Catholic faith leads Grace to chose a life with David instead of Sam, and Sam and their children, hurt, turn their backs on her. Grace moves to Italy with David in mid-2004 and is not seen on-screen again until late in 2006, when her daughter Kay admits that Sam's ex, Ivy, had hired David to pretend to be Grace's husband in a ploy to win Sam for herself. While in London awaiting a flight back to the United States on January 4, 2007, Grace is killed in a bus explosion engineered by Vincent Clarkson.

Character history

Little is known about Grace's life prior to a fire in the 1970s, which left her with amnesia. Grace was saved by Sam Bennett, who took her back to his family home in Harmony. They married and raised their three children — Noah Bennett, Kay Bennett and Jessica Bennett. She also helped raised Sam's much-younger brother, Hank Bennett, after the death of his and Sam's parents. In 1999, after the death of her sister Faith, Grace also takes in her fifteen-year-old niece, Charity Standish.

Sam and Grace are happy for about 20 years before Ivy Crane comes back into Sam's life and plots to break up their marriage. In 2001, Grace discovers that she is pregnant for a fourth time with the second son that she and Sam so desperately want; however, upon the discovery that Sam already has a second son, Ivy's son Ethan, Grace falls down the stairs at the Crane mansion and miscarries the couple's unborn son, whom they planned to name Jack, on February 14, 2001.

Soon after, a man named David Hastings comes to town pretending to be Grace's first husband, from before the fire. David also claims that Grace is the mother of his teenage son, John Hastings. David is actually a con man hired by Ivy Winthrop to break up Sam and Grace, and Grace is not John's mother. Grace never realizes this due to her feelings for David and the dysfunction of her marriage to Sam; she decides to leave town with David and John and go to Italy.

Eventually, Kay exposes what she and Ivy did, causing Sam to kick Ivy out of his home. Sam contacts Grace and tells her everything, and Grace immediately plans to return to the United States. While getting ready to return back to Harmony, Grace receives a mysterious phone call. She exclaims to the mystery caller that "My mind is made up! I won't be a victim anymore!" before she hangs up. She is able to see Kay in her wedding dress thanks to a camera phone, and tells Kay, Jessica, Noah, and Sam that she loves them and will hopefully be back in time to see them at Fox and Kay's wedding reception. She also warns Sam that someone is going to try to hurt their family and friends, and she will tell him in person who it is when she returns. She is getting on a bus that will take her to a different airport so that she can return home when a man disguised as a priest blows up the bus, killing her on January 4, 2007. It is later revealed that Vincent Clarkson was behind the bomb, and it is implied that Grace discovered that Alistair Crane was alive in Europe and that he subsequently ordered her death.

Hidden Passions

In the book Hidden Passions, Grace and Faith's parents were Zachary Sutter and Mercy Standish. Information in the book has not been confirmed on-screen and is not considered to be official since the information seen on the show contradicts much of what was said in the book.