Actress Lisa Banes is in critical condition after a hit-and-run scooter driver struck her during her first time back in New York City in months. Banes, 65, was crossing a street to meet her wife for a dinner party at a friend’s home near Lincoln Center when a person struck her on a scooter or motorbike at around 6:30 p.m. Friday night, friends and police told the New York Post. Banes has starred on the stage and screen, appearing in movies like Gone Girl and A Cure for Wellness and TV shows including Nashville and Royal Pains.
Banes was in the crosswalk at the time of the accident and had the right of way, police said. She is still in critical condition in an intensive care unit at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital. She suffered a traumatic brain injury. “We’ll know more in the next few days,” Banes’ wife, Kathryn Kranhold, told the Post. Kranhold said she was unfamiliar with New York City’s rules on scooters, “but it feels like it is a lawless roadway.”
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Banes lives in Los Angeles, but she was in New York City to spend time with friends she had not seen in months because of the coronavirus pandemic. “She loves, loves, loves New York,” friend Cynthia Crossen told the Post. “She’s an LA girl, but she spent so many happy years here.”
The accident happened after Banes reunited with the cast of The Niceties, a 2018 play she starred in. After the event, Banes called Kranhold at around 6:20 p.m. They made plans to meet at Crossen’s home. Banes did not arrive, and Kranhold began calling Banes’ phone. Someone at the hospital picked up to share the sad news.
As of Saturday evening, police still do not have a suspect. They are not even sure what kind of vehicle the suspect was riding in the accident. “No one knows for sure. Some witnesses said it was a scooter. Some said it was a motorcycle with no plate,” an NYPD spokesman told the Post.
Banes was born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and studied acting at Juilliard in New York City. She began acting in movies and television in the mid-1980s. She starred in Broadway productions of Present Laughter and High Society. She earned a Drama Desk Award nomination in 1984 for Isn’t It Romantic?. Her other credits include Cocktail, Six Feet Under, The Good Wife, King of Queens, One Life to Live, Masters of Sex, Madam Secretary, and Once Upon a Time.
