Longtime soap opera star Denise Alexander, best known for her portrayall of Lesley Webber on General Hospital and Susan Hunter Martin on Days of our Lives, died on March 5 at age 85.
Early in her career Alexander voiced characters on multiple radio soaps before making her Broadway debut in “The Children’s Hour”. On primetime television she made appearances on classics Father Knows Best, The Twilight Zone and The Danny Kaye Show. In the eraly 1960s she moved to daytime TV on the CBS soap The Clear Horizon.
She joined the cast of Days of our Lives in 1966 as Susan, where she rose to stardom during her seven-year run. She left Days in 1973 and joined the cast of ABC's General Hospital as Lesley to help give the ratings-challenged soap a boost. Lesley fell for Ric k Webber (Chris Robinson) and became entangled in a triangle with rival Monica Bard (played by the late Leslie Charleson, who died earlier this year). Lesley also confessed to the murder of David Hamilton, a crime her daughter Laura (Genie Francis) committed. Her acting earned Alexander a Emmy nomination for outstanding actress in a Daytime drama series.
When storyline called for Lesley to be killed off in a car accident in 1984, fans became outraged. It wasn’t until 12 years later in 1996 that it was revealed that Lesley was actually alive. In between the two soaps, Alexander appeared on NBC’s Another World as Mary McKinnon, working once again with Robinson a portion of her three-year stint.
“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,” GH executive producer Frank said on social media. “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 last appeared on General Hospital in 2021. *** Check out our interviews with Denise Alexander from 2010 and 2013 below.
First published in November 2010
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: You were involved in the industry when it was transitioning from radio to TV.
Denise Alexander: At the tail end of it. I got to do a little bit of everything.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: I compare that to what's happening now with the web. A lot of people are doing a lot of different types of shows and experimenting.
Denise Alexander: That's the fun of it. That's why I'm involved with PRETTY. My dear friend Steve [Silverman, creator of PRETTY] asked if I would like to come and play and it's really a kick. I never thought about it as a kid. There was television, there was radio, I did theater, I did everything there was to to do, and it seemed natural. Now when I look back I think, "How lucky was I," because a lot of people didn't have those experiences. Here I am now because of Steve. And this is really such a baby form of entertainment.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: We post a lot of classic articles and I remember one from 1960 when the last four old radio soaps ended. The writer was still saying television soaps would not catch on.
Denise Alexander: They said television wouldn't last because people wanted to go to the movies. They always...
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: There are always skeptics.
Denise Alexander: Yes.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: You did a lot of TV in the 1950s - FATHER KNOWS BEST, the ROBERT MONTGOMERY show, TWILIGHT ZONE, but your first soap was CLEAR HORIZON in 1960.
Denise Alexander: On television. I did tons of radio soaps. My dad at one point counted up the number I had done and it was 2,500 radio shows. You would get out of school and go from one show to the next. They were 15 minute or half-hour shows and you would sit around the table, read the script, rehearse a couple of times and do it. Then you were out of there and onto the next one. And sometimes it was in the next studio. I did way more than people know I did. IMDb doesn't list all the episodes.
I did a thing for Showtime which I co-produced and acted in and IMDb refused to accept it because it's not in their database. Showtime did a series called SHOWTIME ON BROADWAY and I have the tape. It was a concept somebody had of taking interesting video pieces and filming them. I don't know how many they did. Something else I did called SHAFT OF LOVE, which was actually a kind of soap opera spoof or farce written by a fellow who had been a head writer, will not be listed by IMDb either. And you have no way to reach them! I've probably done thousands of shows with GENERAL HOSPITAL and they only show 40. So if you're really proud of your body of work, and the only place they have to go is there, well, it's not going to do you any good.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Do you remember anything about CLEAR HORIZON and the character of Lois Adams. It's the 50th anniversary of you joining the show. Was it live?
Denise Alexander: I'm the worst person to ask this [laughs]. I'm going to hold my breath and tell you that I think it was on tape. It was set in Cape Canaveral. It was families who were on an air base entering into the space age. There was an older teenager, and I played the younger teenager in the family, just discovering boys and getting into trouble. Back in the half-hour format, it was common to share a stage with another soap. One show would work in the morning and one in the afternoon.
I remember doing a scene in a bathing suit with this guy who was like a young military guy on the base. My character was somebody's daughter, the leading man. I remember that scene between the two younger people on the beach. You ask me what I remember about that show, that's about it [laughs].
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: I read somewhere the show was canceled then came back a while later and was then canceled again.
Denise Alexander: I don't remember that.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Then you did BEN JERROD where you played Emily Sanders.
Denise Alexander: I don't remember BEN JERROD at all [laughs]. You have to remember I've been doing this 156 years and other people know more about what I did than I do.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: [Laughs] 156 years is a long time!
Denise Alexander: I've gotta get my story straight.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Let's talk about DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Your character, Susan Hunter Martin, was very popular, one of the stars on the show for a long time.Denise Alexander: It wasn't meant to be like that. I adored DAYS OF OUR LIVES. I had worked for the Cordays in New York, so when they started DAYS [in 1965], they called and asked me to play this teenager character. When you're an actor and you get a call and don't have to audition it's like a high point in your life and you're going to remember that. It was the character of Julie. I was a fanatic and hated the idea of long contracts and getting tied down. I was used to free-lancing. When I worked in New York I had been under contract, even as a kid, but I wasn't aware of that. So I said no and went into college [at UCLA].
Then later they called again [in 1966] with another character that was going to start on April 1st. They had a summer story with the Julie character, who was played by Charla Doherty at the time. This role was going to be Julie's nemesis through the summer with all the teenagers and I thought it could be fun. In the summer, soaps liked to do stories to catch the kids who were out of school. I was trying to decide if I wanted to keep acting at that point. I knew the Cordays and was very fond of them and it was something I went and did.
She started out as the bad girl and was thrown out of boarding school for smoking and drinking just as her mother was starting a romance with Mickey Horton. Suddenly she had this problem teenager on her hands. The character caught on and sparked something with the audience and that is how Susan became an important part of the show. I was there for almost seven years.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Were you finished with college at that point?
Denise Alexander: No, I was still in college. I was doing both.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Do you have a favorite storyline or memory from working on DAYS?
Denise Alexander: I just have to tell you, I had such a wonderful time on DAYS. It was like going to camp every day for me. I loved the people, loved the show and loved what I got to do. They loved the character and liked me as an actor and gave me lots of neat stuff to do.
I didn't even ask for a vacation for five years because if I worked 365 days a year I thought I was great. It was a very good time in my life.
What I didn't like is more of what didn't happen. At one point I remember getting a petition and went around the studio with this piece of paper for all the actors and the crew to sign that said, "Whereas the show would be much more interesting if the character of Susan Martin got into a romantic relationship." I never got the part where you got to neck and make out with the guys. I started out as the bad girl but wound up as a good girl. Her big activity was baking at one point. So it was more of, "Boy, I wish I could have something like...," but I loved the show.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: I've read that you left DAYS OF OUR LIVES during a period of time when your contract had lapsed and GENERAL HOSPITAL snapped you up.
Denise Alexander: It's a longer story than that, but that is absolutely true.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: So you were a star on DAYS and GH wasn't doing well in the ratings at the time and wanted to add some star power?
Denise Alexander: The reason why my contract on DAYS had lapsed was Corday Productions was getting ready to start THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. That was Bill Bell and Betty Corday and all of their attention was going toward that. There had been some sticking point in the negotiations. It wasn't anything bad or terrible. I was probably ready for a vacation at that point. I remember having a conversation with Betty and Bill, and Bill was trying to figure out what the storyline would be. He had focused on the character of Susan for so many years and needed to focus on this new show and also keep some of the other characters going on DAYS. The agreement kind of was we would take a little break so they could get the other show going and then we would, in good faith, start up the negotiations again.
Somehow the guys at ABC heard about that and I got a call from a vice president there and they asked if it was true. I said, "Yes, but you have to understand that we have an agreement and I made a promise that I would talk to them as soon as they could get this show started, and we would try to work out a contractual agreement." He did one of those, "Oh, don't talk to anybody. We'll meet or beat anything they have to offer. Go to Palm Springs on vacation and we'll pay for it. Don't talk to them." I said, "I can't do that. I have to be honorable." So what started was the old "offer you can't refuse" situation.
I went back to Betty and said, "I have to tell you what's going on." I told her what they had offered me. I can't tell you how many times more, and it was because they were in terrible trouble and, as you said, they thought if they could get some star power it would help them. They were trying to keep it on the air because ABC owned the show and it wasn't from a production company.
It was Betty Corday who sent me to GENERAL HOPSITAL. She said, "You must do this." I told you what wonderful people they were. So when I went to GENERAL HOSPITAL, they didn't have a character for me. They had a character that was coming in, a woman doctor who was going to have a romance with John Beradino. And that was obviously wrong for me or for John. But they took the character and a couple of scripts of her arrival they had written and had to scramble to create a storyline.
I have to tell you, at that time I was walking around with my head in a little pink cloud. I didn't sit down with people and say, "Tell me what you're going to do with this character before I make a decision." I just said, "Oh, that sounds like fun." And, "That much, huh?"
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: In your early stories, Lesley was married to Cameron and then she found out her daughter Laura was alive.
Denise Alexander: Yes. I think they already had the character of Cameron, a very moneyed, very gorgeous man.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: And you worked with Michael Gregory.
Denise Alexander: Yes. He was the first Rick Webber.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: I mention him because we posted a "Where Are They Now" story about him recently. He was doing a political ad in Seattle. He played a grocer.
Denise Alexander: Michael has always kept working and we do keep in touch. He's a very lovely person.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Then you worked with Chris Robinson as Rick, and he would later come onto ANOTHER WORLD after you had joined that show.
Denise Alexander: When it was Chris and me, Rick and Lesley were the Luke and Laura of their day. GENERAL HOSPITAL went to number one for the first time during the Rick and Lesley and Monica triangle storyline. Of course, Luke and Laura took it heights of ratings no one had ever hit before or since. Gloria [Monty] and I used to laugh about that. I remember Gloria coming down to the stage and saying, "We just made number one."
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Gloria wasn't there when you first started though.
Denise Alexander: Right. When I started it was a production company that was really a problem with ABC, and they had to wait out that company's hold on the show contractually. Then they were able to hire their own people and brought on a man named Tom Donovan, a brilliant man who came out from New York and took over the show [in 1975] not long before it went to 45 minutes [in 1976]. He changed everything. The other production company was not up to date. We had really bad lighting and bad cameras and the studio wasn't set up properly. Tom made a huge turnaround in how the show was done technically. The show was about to go off the air and he got the show technologically brought up to the 20th century. Then it had problems again after change to the 45 minute format and the ratings started to drop and they brought Gloria in. She was a genius dramatically. So we had the benefit of several people pulling us out of being a few weeks away from ABC almost canceling their own show.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Including Douglas Marland.
Denise Alexander: Doug Marland did write the show at one point.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: As someone who had been doing this a long time, what you were thinking in 1980-1981 when GENERAL HOSPITAL was at the height of fame? The show as everywhere.
Denise Alexander: I have a theory. There are different types of people who work on soaps. There are people who are beginning their career, who are pretty and they start and learn, and "it's a great training ground" is a phrase you'll hear a lot. There are people who are working actors and have a background in acting, and this is another venue to do what they love doing. And there are some people who go on from that to other things and people who stay with it. I was a person who loved acting By the time I got to do soaps from a way of life, I was a working actor who was highly regarded enough that I never had to work under five or never had to do extra work or had to starve. I worked in features in what would be called "guest starring roles" now. So I had a lot of success and satisfaction. For me, to have a place to go to work where I had an important role, and the people in charge liked and respected what I did and valued what I offered and brought to it, was wonderful.
The early '80s on GENERAL HOSPITAL? The Webber family got all the great sitcom scenes. We were like a sitcom within this drama show. And I had some searing dramatic scenes to do. And I had the boring stuff that you did to just keep the storyline going. Or I was the one at the party who had just three lines to say but you made your same salary so you were fine. It was a great experience. It was like actors being a part of rep theater because you're doing a different play every week. You get to stretch and you are challenged, sometimes as the lead and sometimes as the background.
Lesley was really important on the show, and I got to go to work every day in a leading role. The audience would surround your car and scream when you would try to drive away from some appearance. Financially it was great. And I didn't have to go out on audition and be told I was too young, too old, too short, too fat, too boring, nothing. It was a great place to be and a great job and a great gift for an actor. And everybody got famous and that was fun. Then everyone once in a while I got to be jealous because where was all that fame when we were the Luke and Laura [laughs]. I had it all and was so grateful and thankful, and figured I would be able to work the rest of my life on the basis of this.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: In 1984 the character of Lesley was killed off GENERAL HOSPITAL. Was it your choice to leave at that point?
Denise Alexander: I had been working a long time. I had a very strong contract and the network was cutting back on a lot of people and guarantees where you were going to get paid even if you didn't do the episodes. They were letting people go but they offered me a raise. Because I had been kind of a big noise in the field, and had a great agent who was very trend setting in how he negotiated for his clients, I had a three show guarantee. They could not book me for four shows more than half a dozen times a year. They had some storylines coming up and didn't want those restrictions.
They offered me a raise but wanted to get rid of the "no four show week" restriction. I was really tired and asked them if I could have a couple of months off becase I was exhausted. They wouldn't give it to me and said, "No, no, you're too important, we have this great storyline coming up." I said, "Look, I'm really happy with everything I have now, I don't need the raise." No actor ever says this. It drove my agent crazy. I just wanted my same contract to continue but need a little vacation time.
My agent negotiated directly with the head of daytime because he knew her for many years and they were very friendly and worked together a lot. They had often just talked through deals without business affairs getting involved. He was having conversations where she would get very angry saying I was so "ungrateful" because they were offering me this and cutting everyone else back. She was being a little more antagonistic than he was used to. At one point she said, "We will kill off the character," in a kind of threatening way. He was so stunned and that came out of nowhere. All he could say to her was, "It is your character, of course, you can do whatever you want." He said to me at one point, "Look, you've been talking about stopping, maybe you should think about that."
Anyway, there was a falling out between them and it became a mutual decision that nobody was happy about. The network wasn't happy, and I wasn't happy. I didn't get fired and I didn't quit. But I did get out of it a couple of years to live out sort of a fantasy dream. I wanted to see what life would be like if I wasn't working. I had been working since I was five-and-a-half or six years old. I didn't know if the people I loved knew anything about me if I wasn't this actor person with whatever fame I had then or wasn't working. I said to myself that I needed to spend some time just living like a person and have a home and learn how to be a good cook and do all those things.
So I kind of eased myself into it and moved away from thinking of myself as an actor. It was exactly what I wanted. I had the opportunity to do that and have as many animals as I wanted and live in the country. I did get to be a good cook and learned what it was like without having the structure of being an actor in it.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: You had been memorizing pages and pages of dialogue for decades. What was it like to suddenly not be doing that and have that mental break?
Denise Alexander: At first I was like, "Wee! I'm free!" I had never known what it was like. No one was setting my schedule but me. I didn't have to worry about what time I had a call or if I could take a vacation in a month and a half. Nobody controlled what I was going to do. It was the first time in my life it had happened. It was total and complete freedom. I had exactly the life I wanted. I bought a house in the country. The man I was in love with and have since married was working around the world and anytime he was working in Paris or wherever it was I could go. It lasted a couple of years and I was thrilled with it.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: How did NBC talk you into moving across the country to New York to play Mary McKinnon on ANOTHER WORLD in 1986.
Denise Alexander: I was sitting in my house in the country in a town that I loved and realizing I wasn't structuring my life myself. I think the truth of it was I was missing the work that I did, but I didn't read it that way. I read it as I needed to go back to work. I didn't want to be a person who has a messy, sloppy life where you need a little more structure. I was thinking all that to myself and that afternoon I got a phone call from the lady who had represented me. She said she had just heard from NBC that I wanted to come back and do a soap in New York. I think it was Brian Frons actually. They knew me from my history and John Whitesell knew of me and they were looking for star power.
They had two wonderful leading ladies and it was always a difficult situation but they needed somebody new and exciting because the show had been around for the while and they thought I could bring some audience with me. They called me at a time when I was thinking, "Gee, maybe I need to go back to work a little while." I didn't ask any of the right questions and wound up in New York in a very difficult logistical situation for me in my life. Lovely darling people every one of them, and lovely show, but very difficult situation because I had to be away from home for years and didn't set it up right.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: I enjoyed Mary a lot and her relationship with Vince, played by both Duke Stroud and Robert Hogan.
Denise Alexander: I really knew Bob [Hogan] best. John Considine (Reginald) and Bob became my two best friends in New York.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Did you know John before ANOTHER WORLD?
Denise Alexander: I met both of them there. John was a Beverly Hills kid and I had moved there. We had interesting connections in our lives but had kind of missed each other. But what delicious men to work with they were.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: A year after you joined the cast, they brought on Chris Robinson as well.
Denise Alexander: When I came on it was again "can you lift our ratings?" And the ratings went up. Then somebody got the idea, because of whatever was going on with my character at the time, to have another guy for this character to play against. It was the network's decision to call in Chris. And then they gave us almost nothing to do together.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: In the mid-1990s GENERAL HOSPITAL revealed Lesley wasn't dead after all. You've been on and off the show ever since.
Denise Alexander: It's been good for me. You either live as an actor or you don't live as an actor. How you keep in shape and how you go on auditions is the primary thing in your life as an actor. I had gotten away from that. I've been so blessed all these years to get to go play a few times a year and not have to audition. Anything I can do and not have to audition is wondrous [laughs].
I was sad when I left the show. 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. It's been great fun.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Let's talk about how your role on PRETTY came about.
Denise Alexander: I met Steve [Silverman, creator of PRETTY] because he worked on GENERAL HOSPITAL. Do you want to know how Steve and I got together?
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Of course!
Denise Alexander: This kid called me and he was like 24 years old or something and said, "I have a play I've written and I want you to come and do it." And I said, "Who the hell are you? I don't think so." I used to get a lot of inquiries like that. Here's some kid who has really never done anything except be an intern at GENERAL HOSPITAL and wants me to come and do a play with him, and he was going to also direct and produce it. He was nice to talk to on the phone so I said I would read the script. And I read the script and fell madly in love with it. I was then kind of in my producing mode and said that I wanted to option it. This little punk kid said to me, "If you act in it, you can option it." The nerve of him [laughs]! So I said yes. But I made him suffer, waiting until the last minute. Now we've become great friends, and that's how I wound up in PRETTY.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: You play Louise Fitzpatrick. You mentioned the comedy work you were able to do on GH, but this show is pretty wacky comedy. Have you done anything like this before?
Denise Alexander: I've done some. I think when I get a chance to do that it's not my comfort zone. I'm really good at comedy and comedy timing but I'm not sure this is my forte so it scares me a bit. When Steve got this on the air, I was thrilled for him but kept saying, "I love this show, but I'm not your audience." He's had a huge audience for this and I'm so happy for him. When I tell my most straight-laced, got-to-be-a-romantic-comedy friends about it, they say, "He's so wonderful, and isn't that so clever?" It's a wonderful company, wonderfully well run, made for a dime and a half, looks terrific, and, of course, what Stacy [McQueen, who plays Annette] does is amazing. Steve put this to me as he's written a couple of things. It's like a cameo, which would be called a bit part if you were a nobody. He said he wrote this with me in mind, and I prefer to believe that is true [laughs]. I couldn't imagine saying no to an experience like this. When people drop something so unusual, and weird and wonderful in your lap, you have to say yes. The hair and make-up people made me look terrific. I'm very grateful to them. I think if the audience loved last season, they will find this one such a treat.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Are you a web savvy person?
Denise Alexander: I'm not. I run a business online and I'm good with Word, but no. In this world, I'm like a 10 year old compared to what other people know about being online.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: There are dozens of soap operas online now. Some of them are more comedy than drama, and some are more traditional than others, but there are a lot of creative talents out there like Steve that can put their vision on the web without interference from a network or focus groups.
Denise Alexander: That's great. Steve is genius. You could put PRETTY in the farce category or the outrageous category. But when you look at the world of children's beauty pageants, it's not that far out there! It may not even be as outrageous as real life, but having Stacy play the character [of Annette] is pure genius. It's really that world - how they talk and how they think. It has his wonderful oddball humor spin on it.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: One question we ask a lot in interviews is, "If you could go back to the beginning of your acting career and give yourself one piece of advice, what would you tell yourself, knowing that you know now?" But you've never not been acting, starting as a young child.
Denise Alexander: Yes, 150 years! But what I would say is what I got from my parents. I have worked with so many kids who are new and they are just so pretty. Some of them are just pretty, and some really want to be good actors. Some just think they are beautiful and are meant to be stars, and have a lot of girls or boys screaming for them so they are really important in life. I would say the same thing my parents did for me. I grew up as a person. School was important. Education was important. Yes, I was an actress as a kid, but I was in school and girl scouts and lived in a wonderful town and had friends.
While show business was part of my blood in a way and the air I breathed, I lived a real life thanks to my parents. My dad was in the business. He started as a young musician, then became an agent, then a producer for some things, and then became a stock broker [laughs]. So he understood and dealt with the other side of it. He was very down to earth. My mother loved theater but I didn't get away with stuff. I grew up as a person and had the great gift of them in my life. Everybody who is a child actor won't have the benefit of having my parents, so I would say you have to keep that kind of a head on your shoulders. Sometimes the parents will get too full of it, like Lindsay Lohan's, for example.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: She started on ANOTHER WORLD!
Denise Alexander: Yes! So the way to be an actor and have it be a way of life and have it last more than 15 minutes is to be a person first.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: You appeared in our 50 Greatest Soap Actresses of All-Time list that was released earlier this year. I want you to know how much your work over the years has been respected and appreciated by not only the fans but people who cover the industry as well.
Denise Alexander: That is so nice. You couldn't have said anything nicer to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We Love Soaps recently caught up with Ms. Alexander to discuss her portrayal of coffee shop owner Lola in THE INN as well as her return to GENERAL HOSPITAL in 2013. Check out our exclusive INNterview below:
WE LOVE SOAPS: We spoke back in 2010 about how you met creator Steve Silverman and how your role in PRETTY came about. Now you're starring as Lola in his new horror web series, THE INN. How did Steve pitch this role to you?
DENISE ALEXANDER: Very cleverly, and I do not know to this day if it is true or not. He started with that thing that is irresistible to an actor: "I wrote this for you." Those may not have been his exact words but that certainly was the pitch. We're all such sluts at heart it's very, very hard to walk away from something like that. I'm not sure, in all honesty, if he told me that before or after he sent me something to read. But I thought, "I love her."
WE LOVE SOAPS: How would you describe the character of Lola for anyone who hasn't checked into THE INN yet?
DENISE ALEXANDER: It's not that easy for me because even I don't know exactly who she is. She's a gal who owns and runs a diner a very small town which could be described as being out in the middle of nowhere, but it's a kind of pleasant nowhere. The two big things in the town are the inn and the diner.
Lola is no-nonsense and she's very dry in her view of the world and how she deals with people. She's not into glamour. Make-up and hair and wardrobe are not the most important things in her thinking, but she has her own sense of style. She knows a lot but she doesn't talk about it.
The thing that's tricky about her is we don't know if she's a good guy or a bad guy. I hesitate to say motherly because she's a little brusk for motherly. I know what you need better than you is kind of her modus operandi. As we go along you say, "Wait, what just went on there?" But that's the whole show~~ . It's a series of, "What? What's going on?" Lola says things I would not necessarily say like, "For Christ's sake, get over yourself."
WE LOVE SOAPS: People listen to her. At least the sheriff seems to.
DENISE ALEXANDER: I'm not sure what her relationship is with Riggs, the cop. I have my own perspective on it.
WE LOVE SOAPS: The diner scenes have a TWIN PEAKS vibe but at the inn there's a creepy mysterious mood, and some horror elements.
DENISE ALEXANDER: I really do like that. It allows you to go in different directions that don't necessarily follow each other, and that's very enjoyable for an actor. There's a great discipline to it and a great freedom to it at the same time.
WE LOVE SOAPS: Have you worked on any other shows like this with the spooky/horror/mystery elements?
DENISE ALEXANDER: I did iconic episodes of two separate series that were well-known in that genre. In one I played a young girl who had an imaginary friend she called Mink. The storyline is about her connection with him but in the end you find out Mink is really an alien who has been communicating this child as a way to take over the planet. I also did "Third From The Sun" on TWILIGHT ZONE about two families that realize they are on the brink of a world war that is going to blow up the planet. They plan to steal a rocket ship so they can go to another planet to live and save their families. They are more in the science fiction genre than horror.
WE LOVE SOAPS: You returned to GENERAL HOSPITAL this year for some episodes playing Lesley Webber. Were you expecting to come back?
DENISE ALEXANDER: I've been in and out of that show for so long I would never say never but it certainly wasn't anything that was actively going on. For a while it had been very obvious to everybody that watches that the regime running the show wanted it to be the SOPRANOS of daytime so they went in that direction. There were times when I was on as the woman who was the mother or the grandmother but that's not very interesting. When Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati....I keep using their whole names...
WE LOVE SOAPS: Everybody does. [Laughs]
DENISE ALEXANDER: They came up against the 50th anniversary and realized the importance of addressing that. Once that started happening I think anybody who ever did the show was hoping to be called back to be part of it. It not only was quite an extravaganza but it was a milestone you don't often see on television. I thought maybe it would happen.
As the time went on I saw that they were bringing people back for a specific genre of storytelling and weaving them into the story in a way that connects them to people who are the show right now. Most of my people weren't there so I thought it probably wouldn't happen. But then I received this out of the blue email saying they were about to tell a story with Lesley. At that point I was so happy I was not one of the people called back for the Nurses Ball, the actual 50th anniversary celebration. What I was given was this amazing story that was thought out, cared about, worked on, and cherished. It was so rich and so full and so layered, and so much attention was paid to who the characters were, and their relationships, even honoring qualities that the character had which had been ignored or not part of the storytelling forever and ever. I felt honored and so grateful.
When I got the scripts, I tore the package open. I kept going into the other room where my husband was and saying, "Listen to what I get to say!" Then I'd go back and read some more and then go back in and tell him, "I get to say dung beetle!" I got more delight out of that and more fun...it is so layered for me that experience and I've never really said it to Frank or Ron. I have to write those guys a letter!
It was scary, delightful, enchanting, and I had the best time because they brought back a quality of that character that had been there 12 years ago but that nobody remembered or needed or thought about for so long. I didn't even realize what a big deal it was until I got there and was doing it. Then I got to work with the people I loved working with. That I not only had a story but had this character back in the mostly deep richly satisfying way for me was such a gift.
First published in September 2013
WE LOVE SOAPS: What was that like, working with Frank Valentini and the new team there?
DENISE ALEXANDER: I'd heard Frank was terrific with actors. The actors that I worked with back in our golden era of the show were privileged to work with two extraordinary filmmakers who knew drama and storytelling: Tom Donovan and they justifiably famous Gloria Monty.
People would say to me when trying to describe Frank, "Think Gloria." That was just the shorthand. Gloria was tough and powerful and knew what drama was. Gloria could be charming and funny and oddball in a very delightful way. She was in love with actors who knew what they were doing and worked well and were intelligent. It was the kind of the gift that very few actors get to work with someone like that in a part major enough that there's this amazing richness in what you're given to do. I saw that with Frank.
He could not be more different from Gloria. He's good-looking, tall and charming and you think he has to be the leading man when you first see him. He was beyond lovely to me. He came over to me when I'd finished the first day and said things that were so lovely, I think I fainted with my eyes open. But I could not tell you what he said for the life of me. I had been trying to tell my husband when he gave me a drop-off at the studio the next day. Genie and Kin were outside as I was walking in and they were there when Frank talked to me so I asked them what he said. It's like training puppies to work with actors so to have that ability to make them feel loved and appreciated but knowing there is a good strong hand at the other end of the leash is wonderful. I don't know if he is like this with every single actor but I thought he was terrific.
WE LOVE SOAPS: It's great to hear your return to GENERAL HOSPITAL was such a positive experience.
DENISE ALEXANDER: I think I had a terrible problem with a pinched nerve when I was working. But when I look back on it, I don't remember being in pain. I don't remember anything except what a wonderful experience that was. I so much enjoyed what we did. We all did.
WE LOVE SOAPS: If Lesley Webber walked into Lola's diner, what would they think of each other?
DENISE ALEXANDER: What a good question! They would look very different to each other. Lesley would think of herself as a professional woman, a physician, sophisticated, big city, big hospital, raised children, had a marriage, and see herself as very different from Lola, who seems be on her own and is basically doing what used to be called "slinging hash."
Lola could look at Lesley and think, "Hmm, high heels, hose, you're all dressed up, aren't you, sweetie pie? I guess you're big stuff."
It would start that way if they just looked at other. If they had a chance to talk they might not understand each other's life as a choice because neither one of them would choose the other way of life. But in their senses of humor, one might say something and the other would look over and think, "I get that. She might be an interesting person."
The one thing that factors into this is we know a lot about Lesley--who she is, what her life has been and what her relationships are. What do we know about Lola? Did she grow up in this small town in the middle of nowhere? Did she have another profession at one time? What was her education? Who is her family? What are those familial relationships? We don't know any of that about her whereas we know every single one of those things about Lesley.
So it's a little hard to say. I may know a tiny bit more about Lola than you do but, believe me, I would hear from Steve if I ever told you any of it. [Laughs]
WE LOVE SOAPS: I'm so excited to watch Season 3 because all these characters could go in multiple directions. I have my perceptions of Lola based on what we've seen so far but she could be an ax murderer for all I know.
DENISE ALEXANDER: Who do you think Lola is? What do you think you know about her?
WE LOVE SOAPS: She comes across as the warmest person out of all the characters, maybe even mothering. She seems to know everything that's going on. And how does she know Teddy (Ray Proscia)? Is she his mother or aunt? Another Norma Bates? She instantly tried to take care of Jane (Crystal Chappell) but she's also very authoritative.
Maybe the warmth is Denise Alexander's warmth coming across. The episodes are very short, but Steve has made the most of the time, and set the mystery up really well.
DENISE ALEXANDER: Steve's a very weird person. [Laughs] He's amazing and odd and stunning.
The man never stops creating. I know so much about many other projects he has in his thinking, or has written and dropped along the way. I would even say to him, "That was so good. Why don't you go back to that?" But he has just moved on. I think he's got about seven things going right now.
With his dedication to this genre, and the Hitchcockian look and feel being so complete, there are times he's so in the moment, and sees something so clearly in his thinking. He will talk to me sometimes about an iconic moment that came to him from a Hitchcock film, or other noir film, and he'll build something around that.
One of my favorite scripts that Steve ever wrote, and I hope to get it produced one day, is this whole multi-dimensional, multi-layered, funny and touching story that all came out of a scene that came to him about two characters sitting in a bar and having a drink together. It's just the relationship of two people who have met after a long period of time. With PRETTY or any of his theater pieces I've been in, I could look at them and say, "Okay, I've got it." But with THE INN half the time I don't know what the hell we're doing.
WE LOVE SOAPS: Do you have a favorite Lola moment so far?
DENISE ALEXANDER: It was one where a guy shows up at the diner looking for his wife, and he has a picture of Jane. We are to assume he is Jane's husband. Lola is across the counter and told him she could tell what he needed: chili. Steve told me as I was leaning on the counter, "Right there, do that, don't move." And I thought, "Okay, fine. He wants this so I'll do it. He knows what he's doing." I say that to myself a lot. I'm not sure it's always true but it's comforting in the moment. [Laughs]
So we did that, our little piece of the script, and I remember thinking it was odd and wondering why he wrote it that way. Then you had Jane and Riggs (Chuck Sloan) up in her room at The Inn where Riggs was really questioning her. Steve cut those two scenes together. and I am so crazy in love with how that turned out. I didn't have a clue when we were doing it. I watched it when it aired and thought, "Oh! That's what's going on there."
WE LOVE SOAPS: We can't question Steve Silverman's genius. [Laughs]
DENISE ALEXANDER: He really does know what he's doing. When we first started he took out groups of people who would be working together. For me it was Lola, Teddy and Riggs. Steve started talking to us about our characters and what he knew about the relationships or the characters that we didn't know. And we were able to say to him what we had gotten out of reading the script. It was very collaborative. We had lunch and talked and sat and it was really interesting. We've had fun watching this show grow.
WE LOVE SOAPS: I'm excited for the new season but sad it's the last one. I want it continue and to find out more about the town, the characters, and the customers at the diner, including the ones that randomly pop up like the cast of DEVANITY.
DENISE ALEXANDER: I didn't know DEVANITY before we shot their scenes so I was looking at them thinking, "What are they doing? Who are those people?" There are more surprises like that coming up. And it is a town. Or is it? Or could this all be in someone's imagination?
WE LOVE SOAPS: True. Jane's taken all those drugs so she could be imagining the whole thing.
DENISE ALEXANDER: [Laughs] Recently a small group of us went back on location to shoot some pick-up shots. There's something so fun about doing THE INN. I'm having the best time.
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