Denise Alexander has sadly passed away.
The actress, known for her role as Dr. Lesley Webber on General Hospital, died at 85 due to natural causes at the home of a nephew in Boulder, Col., her stepson Anthony Colla confirmed to THR.
Denise Alexander, who performed in thousands of radio episodes and on The Twilight Zone as a youngster before starring in two long stints as Dr. Lesley Webber on General Hospital, has died. She was 85.
She also spent more than six years playing Susan Hunter Martin on NBC’s Days of Our Lives, starting in 1966 while in college.
She moved to General Hospital as Dr. Lesley Williams in March 1973, and worked there for the next 11 years. Her character was killed in an offscreen automobile accident in March 1984 amid contract disputes.
In August 1986, she returned to the soap world to play Bay City matriarch Mary McKinnon on NBC’s Another World through 1989, then came back to General Hospital as a regular from 1996 through 2009.
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“She broke barriers onscreen and off- portraying Dr. Lesley Webber — one of the first female doctors on daytime television — for nearly five decades,” General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini said in a statement. “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.”
As a child actress, Denise starred in more than 2,500 radio shows in New York. Her onscreen debut was an episode of Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall in 1949. She starred in Tom Corbett, Space Cadet from 1951 to 1955.
She appeared on Broadway in a revival of Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour as well.
Denise played the daughter of a military scientist (Fritz Weaver) on the 14th episode of CBS’ The Twilight Zone, the acclaimed “Third From the Sun.”
She received a Daytime Emmy nomination for outstanding actress in a drama series in 1976 for her work in General Hospital. She stopped by the show for the first of several times in 2013 and work on the web shows Pretty the Series and The Inn.
She was married to actor-director Richard A. Colla,l who played Tony Merritt on Days of Our Lives, from the 1980s until his death on Christmas Eve 2021. Her stepdaughter, Elizabeth, died March 31.
Our thoughts are with Denise Alexander‘s loved ones at this difficult time. RIP.
Source: justjared.com
