Renee Roy, 74; Actress Best Known for Role on Daytime Soap Opera

Renee Roy, 74, perhaps best known as the tough-as-nails nightclub owner on the daytime soap opera “Love of Life” in the 1960s, died Saturday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Roy’s son, David Steinhardt, said the cause of death was colon cancer, according to the Hartford Courant, which first reported the death. Roy was a native of Hartford, Conn.

After winning a beauty title, Miss Television, Roy began working steadily on the small screen. She modeled on “The Big Payoff” quiz show and played a dancing girl on “The Jackie Gleason Show,” the Courant said.

But her biggest claim to fame was in the role of the temperamental nightclub owner Clair Bridgeman on “Love of Life” from 1967 to 1970, in the days before the Daytime Emmy Awards.

Roy appeared in more than 300 commercials, pitching such products as Tide detergent, Chux diapers, Armstrong floors, Lanacane itch cream and Air Wick air fresheners.

She later taught acting at what became the School for Film and Television in New York City.

Roy was a 19-year-old college sophomore when she was named Miss Connecticut in 1950. She went on to win the talent competition at that year’s Miss America pageant.