Zina Bethune, an actress, choreographer and dancer, died in the early morning hours Sunday after she apparently left her car along Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles to assist an injured animal and was struck by oncoming traffic.

Bethune suffered head injuries and died at the scene. She was 66.

As an actress, Bethune is perhaps best known for playing the girl with a past opposite Harvey Keitel in Martin Scorsese’s 1967 Catholic morality tale Who’s That Knocking at My Door.

Earlier, Bethune starred as a na?ve student nurse in the 1962-65 CBS primetime series The Doctors and the Nurses.

The native New Yorker was a regular on the daytime soaps Guiding Light, Love of Life and Santa Barbara, guest starred on The Judy Garland Show, starred on Broadway in Grand Hotel and appeared in such other series as Naked City, Route 66, Emergency!, Police Story and as a ballet teacher in Party of Five.

Her mother is actress Ivy Bethune, who survives her.

At age six, Zina Bethune began her dancing career at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet and performed with the New York City Ballet, where she starred as Clara in the first televised The Nutcracker.

In 1980, she founded Bethune Theatredanse (now Theatre Bethune) in Los Angeles, and she led her multimedia company on tours to Europe, Asia and North America. The company performed at the White House.

Bethune choreographed and directed more than 50 dance works, videos and theatrical productions — all while being hampered by dysplastic hips, scoliosis, severe lymphedema and other conditions. Theatre Bethune is the first professional dance program in the U.S. to create a participatory program for disabled youth called Infinite Dreams.

“Infinite Dreams is for all people and is about the spirit and joy of dance,” she once said. “Just because your spirit’s not disabled, why should what you do be disabled?”

In addition to her mother, Bethune is survived by her husband, visual effects veteran and actor Sean Feeley. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Theatre Bethune at

据报道,当地时间上周日晚,齐娜·贝休恩外出的时候,看到马路上躺着一只动物尸体,顿生恻隐之心,走向车流集中的马路,准备收拾这具尸体。孰料,齐娜·贝休恩一时大意,没有看到来往车辆,先是被一辆迎面而来汽车撞倒,接着,又被另一辆来不及刹车的汽车撞飞。

洛杉矶警察局披露,齐娜·贝休恩遭遇两辆汽车的连续撞击后,因头部严重受伤,当场宣布不治身亡。这位66岁的美国老牌女演员,如此惨死,实在是令人唏嘘。

作为演员,齐娜最著名的电影作品是在马丁·斯科塞斯的处女作《谁在敲我的门》(1967)。齐娜出身演艺世家,6岁就与纽约市立芭蕾舞团共同演出,并在百老汇登台。齐娜从未放弃对舞蹈艺术的追求。1980年,她在洛杉矶成立了非营利的舞蹈推广组织“贝休恩剧院”,在北美、欧洲、亚洲等多地演出,还曾在白宫进行演出。此外,她一生关怀弱势群体和动物保护,成立了关怀残疾人权益的公益组织“永恒之梦”。