General Hospital’s Denise Alexander, who played Lesley Webber on the soap from 1973 to 1984, has died. She was 85.
Variety and Soap Opera Digest reported on Friday, May 9 that the actress, who was also well known for her portrayal of Susan Hunter Martin on Days of Our Lives, died on March 5.
General Hospital showrunner Frank Valentini, 62, shared news of her passing via a statement posted to X.
“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,” he wrote.
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“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.”
Alexander’s acting career began in the 1950s when she debuted on Broadway with a role in The Children’s Hour. In the same decade, Alexander scored TV guest roles in Father Knows Best, The Twilight Zone and The Danny Kaye Show.
The actress moved to soaps in the 1960s, nabbing a part in CBS soap opera The Clear Horizon.
In 1966, she was cast as Susan Martin in Days of Our Lives, a role she played for seven years, before turning to General Hospital in 1973 to portray Lesley Webber.
Alexander spoke to The Hour in 1977 about how invested and passionate soap fans were — including General Hospital’s audience, many of whom felt a strong affinity for Lesley.
“It’s not necessarily that soap opera breeds bigger stardom than movies do,” Alexander, who last appeared on General Hospital in 2021, told the outlet at the time. “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.”
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Alexander’s character was controversially killed off in 1984, but the actress later made a brief return in 1996 when they brought Lesley back from the dead.
“I was sad when I left the show,” she told We Love Soaps at the time. “When you have played a character that long and had fun with it, you can feel the fan’s sorrow. I missed the character, and it’s a fun thing for me she came back to life. It’s a character I know, and there’s still a few people I know there.”
Alexander was married to Richard A. Colla, a director and producer, who died in 2021.
