Actor Denise Alexander, most known for her roles in both General Hospital and Days of our Lives, has died. She was 85.
On Friday, Variety and Soap Opera Digest reported that Alexander had died two months ago, on March 5.
General Hospital’s executive producer, Frank Valentini, posted a tribute to the actor on X, thanking her for her contributions to the soap opera world and for being one of the first female doctors on television.
“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,” his post read.
“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.”
Prior to her standout roles on General Hospital and the Days of our Lives, Alexander began acting in the 1950s on Broadway’s The Children’s Hour. Her career quickly grew as she earned guest-starring roles on Father Knows Best, The Twilight Zone, and The Danny Kaye Show.
Her soap acting career started in 1960, when she landed a role on CBS’s The Clear Horizon. Six years later, she was cast as Susan Martin in Days of Our Lives and played that character for seven years before making the decision to leave the show.
In 1973, she joined the cast of General Hospital, playing Lesley Webber, who was involved in a well-known love triangle with Rick Webber (played by Chris Robinson) and Monica Bard (played by the late Leslie Charleson, who died earlier this year). At another point during her tenure on the show, Lesley confessed to the murder of David Hamilton, a crime her daughter Laura committed.
After winning an Emmy nomination for outstanding actress in a Daytime drama series, General Hospital killed off Alexander’s character in 1984, only to bring her back from the dead in 1996.
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Her last appearance on the soap opera was in 2021.
Alexander previously talked about her time playing Lesley, where she discussed how soap opera fans differ from television or movie fans.
“It’s not necessarily that soap opera breeds bigger stardom than movies do,” she said in 1997 to The Hour. “It’s just that the public feels closer to afternoon stars than to the movie types. After all, we are with them daily, and they feel they know us. You’d be surprised how personal my fan mail is — and I don’t mean erotic personal. Our lives on the shows supersede their own lives, become part of their daily living.”
