Soap opera veteran Denise Alexander, best known for her starring roles on long-running sudsers General Hospital and Days of Our Lives, has died at the age of 85.
A mainstay in the soap world in the ’60s and ’70s, she portrayed Susan Hunter Martin on the NBC drama and Lesley Webber on the ABC series.
Alexander began her career in the 1950s, making her Broadway debut in The Children’s Hour. She made her film debut four years later and appeared as a frequent guest star on primetime television, including The Twilight Zone.
Embarking on her eventual soap stardom, the actress debuted in CBS’ short-lived sudser The Clear Horizon in 1960, after which she appeared in a 1962 unaired pilot for General Hospital, then titled Emergency Hospital. Three years later, she portrayed a minor character on the show, before returning in full force in 1973; this year also marked her exit from Days, to the chagrin of fans who were unhappy to see her depart as a bad influence and driver of many of the series’ dramatic twists and turns.
From 1966 to 1973, Alexander logged over 800 episodes for Days. While there, she also met her longtime husband, Richard Colla, a director and actor who died in 2021. The two were married for over 40 years.
The move from Days to General Hospital, as Alexander recalled, generated a “big press uproar” and sent shockwaves throughout the entertainment industry, and was not a decision she took lightly as she did not initially want to leave the “lovely, cozy, loving nest” of the Days set.
At the time, General Hospital was struggling creatively and ratings-wise, but soon righted the ship with a new head writer and executive producer, as well as a simmering love triangle between Alexander’s Lesley, Chris Robinson’s Rick Webber and the late Leslie Charleson’s Monica Quartermaine. In 1976, Alexander earned a Daytime Emmy nod for the role.
In 1984, shockwaves once again diffused among soap fans, who protested Alexander’s departure from GH due to shifting personal priorities and failed contract negotiations (her character was killed off). During this time, Alexander appeared on the soap Another World.
However, she returned to GH in 1996 — as her character was revealed to be alive and with her daughter Laura (Genie Francis) — off and on through 2009. She returned again in 2013 for the show’s semicentennial, as well as 2017, 2019 and her last appearance in 2021. Overall, the actress marked over 1,000 episodes with the series.
In a new interview with TV Insider, Francis remembered of Alexander: “I loved her. She loved me. I stole her good stuff. When I look at myself sometimes on television, which I don’t do often because I don’t really like to watch myself, but I have seen myself do stuff and been kind of taken aback because I realized I just did Denise. So when I say I stole her good stuff, I’m saying I was so young, she imprinted on me. And some of my acting, some of my style of acting, was directly imprinted on me by Denise Alexander. And she was very, very good to me as I was growing up.”
Susan Seaforth Hayes — her longtime friend and co-star on Days — paid tribute to Alexander, who was established as an on-screen rival to her character Julie Olson Williams. “Denise Alexander was a friend to treasure and an actress to applaud. She was well established on Days when I joined the cast as Julie #4 (a replacement for 4 previous actresses). She watched [the late Days star] Billy [Hayes] and I fall madly in love and, being a romantic lady herself, cheered us on. Such happy memories of her years in Salem and her great success on General Hospital. We both began as child actors, both had strong mothers and both were raised as Christian Scientists in our early years. I was grateful for her wisdom, taste, humor, and goodness every time I saw her. It was never enough. And my love for her will never be over. ❤️#DeniseAlexander,” she wrote on Instagram.
Meanwhile, GH executive producer Frank Valentini wrote in a social media remembrance post: “I am so very sorry to hear of Denise Alexander’s passing. She broke barriers on-screen and off, portraying Dr. Lesley Webber – one of the first female doctors on Daytime Television – for nearly five decades. It meant so much to have her reprise her role in recent years and I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with her. On behalf of the entire General Hospital family, I extend my heartfelt sympathies to her family, friends, and longtime fans. May she rest in peace.”
