Beverlee McKinsey, a well-known soap opera actress of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s who played memorably strong women on “Another World” and “Guiding Light,” died on Friday in Los Angeles. She was 72 and lived in Los Angeles.

The cause was complications of a kidney transplant, her son, Scott McKinsey, said.

From 1970 to 1979, Ms. McKinsey played Iris Carrington, a manipulative, father-obsessed woman, on “Another World,” broadcast on NBC. She reprised the role in 1980 and ’81 on the spinoff “Texas,” also on NBC.

From 1984 to 1992, Ms. McKinsey played the wealthy matriarch Alexandra Spaulding on “Guiding Light,” on CBS.

Beverlee Magruder was born on Aug. 9, 1935, in McAlester, Okla. She earned a bachelor’s degree in drama from the University of Oklahoma in 1956. In the 1960s and afterward she made guest appearances on many TV shows, including “Mannix,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “McMillan & Wife.”

On Broadway, Ms. McKinsey appeared in the short-lived play “Mert & Phil” (1974), which starred Estelle Parsons. She played the young wife, Honey, in the original London production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in 1964, opposite Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill.

Ms. McKinsey returned briefly to soap operas in 1994, in the role of Myrna Slaughter on “General Hospital,” on ABC.

Ms. McKinsey’s first marriage, to Mark McKinsey, ended in divorce, as did her second, to Angus Duncan. She married her longtime companion, Berkeley Harris, shortly before his death in 1984. Besides her son, a director of “General Hospital,” she is survived by a grandson.