Denise Alexander

Denise Alexander (November 11, 1939 – March 5, 2025) was an American actress born in New York City and raised on Long Island. Her father, Alec Alexander, was a talent agent whose clients included Frank Gorshin and Sal Mineo. When he relocated the family from the East Coast to the West Coast, Alexander eventually settled in Los Angeles, where much of her career would be based.

Alexander began performing at a young age, accumulating television and radio credits before she reached her junior year at the University of California, Los Angeles. In November 1949, at age ten, she appeared on NBC's Perry Como's Chesterfield Supper Club in a Thanksgiving-themed broadcast that also featured Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln, with Alexander playing Como's daughter. She made her feature film debut at fourteen in Crime in the Streets, a Don Siegel production starring John Cassavetes. Her Broadway career began in 1952, when she appeared in the play The Children's Hour.

Alexander entered the soap opera genre in 1960, playing Lois Adams on The Clear Horizon. In 1962, she appeared as Mildred Kroeger in the episode "Impasse" during the first season of the television western The Virginian. Her profile in daytime television rose considerably when she was cast as Susan Hunter Martin on Days of Our Lives, a role she held from 1966 to 1973. During contract negotiations in 1973, the character was temporarily written out, and ABC Daytime responded by offering Alexander a salary and perks package that was exceptional for the period, bringing her to General Hospital as Lesley Webber. When Susan Hunter Martin eventually returned to Days of Our Lives, the role was taken over by Bennye Gatteys.

Alexander remained on General Hospital for eleven years as one of the show's prominent leading players before departing in 1984 following a contract dispute. In 1986, she joined Another World in the role of Mary, the McKinnon family matriarch, at a substantial salary. The demands of commuting between her Los Angeles home and the show's New York City studio proved difficult, and she filmed her final scene in 1989, with a brief guest return in 1991. Alexander came back to General Hospital in 1996, with Lesley Webber resurrected after nearly thirteen years, and continued in the role on a recurring basis until 2009. She reprised the character for the show's 50th anniversary in 2013, returned for a short appearance in December 2017, and appeared in a single episode in April 2019 marking the show's 56th anniversary. She played the role again from January to February 2021.

Alexander died on March 5, 2025, in Boulder, Colorado, at the age of 85. Her stepson reported that she died of natural causes.