Actress Lisa Banes dies after getting struck by hit-and-run scooter driver
Actress Lisa Banes, who appeared in the movie “Gone Girl,” died on Monday due to injuries sustained after getting struck by a hit-and-run scooter driver on the Upper West Side, a source said. She was 65.
Banes, a Los Angeles resident visiting the Big Apple for the first time since the pandemic began, was on her way to meet her wife, Kathryn Kranhold, for a dinner party when she was mowed down by a red and black scooter on June 4 at West 64th and Amsterdam Avenue, friends and police have said.
She suffered a traumatic brain injury and was unable to recover.
An NYPD spokesperson said Monday night that no arrests have been made in the case. The scooter was last seen going northbound on Amsterdam Avenue.
Born in Ohio and raised in Colorado, Banes attended Juilliard before launching a long and storied career in New York and Hollywood, appearing in dozens of TV shows and movies.
Banes married Kranhold, a former Wall Street Journal writer, at an intimate ceremony roughly four years ago at City Hall.
On the small screen, the actress had roles on “One Life to Live,” “China Beach,” “Royal Pains” and “Nashville.”
On the big screen, she was Tom Cruise’s older love interest in 1988’s “Cocktail.” In “Gone Girl,” she was the mother of the missing woman, played by Rosamund Pike.
After reading the script for “Gone Girl,” Banes thought, “‘Oh, I’m right for this,’” she said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times at the 2014 Hollywood Film Awards.
Banes said her character in the film seemed to be a natural fit for her.
“I just have an affinity for her,” she told the newspaper from the red carpet. “It seeped in right away.”
On Broadway, she appeared in “Present Laughter” and “High Society,” among other plays.
She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for best featured actress in a play in 1984 for “Isn’t it Romantic.”
She won a Theatre World Award in 1981 for the off-Broadway play “Look Back in Anger” and an Obie in 1982 for her role in “My Sister in This House.”
“She’s a great character,” friend Cynthia Crossen had told The Post following the crash.
“She’s funny. She’s fun. She’s vibrant. She’s just a person of many talents and interests.”
