Denise Alexander: Movies & Filmography

Denise Alexander (November 11, 1939 – March 5, 2025) was an American actress whose career spanned an astonishing seven decades, beginning in television when she was just ten years old. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, she moved to Los Angeles with her family when her father, Alec Alexander, a prominent talent agent who represented notable clients such as Frank Gorshin and Sal Mineo, decided to relocate from the East Coast to the West Coast. By the time she was a junior at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Alexander had already accumulated a significant amount of on-screen experience across television and radio. Her feature film debut came at the age of fourteen in director Don Siegel's gritty 1956 crime drama Crime in the Streets, which starred the legendary John Cassavetes. That same year, she appeared on NBC's Perry Como's Chesterfield Supper Club, playing Perry Como's daughter in a special Thanksgiving-themed episode featuring Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln. In 1960, Alexander broke into the soap opera genre with a role on The Clear Horizon, and her profile continued to grow with her 1962 guest appearance on the Western series The Virginian as Mildred Kroeger. However, it was her iconic portrayal of Susan Hunter Martin on Days of Our Lives from 1966 to 1973 that solidified her status as a daytime television star, eventually leading to her most celebrated role as Lesley Webber on General Hospital, beginning in 1973. She remained with the show for eleven years before departing due to a contract dispute in 1984, later briefly joining Another World as matriarch Mary McKinnon before returning to General Hospital for multiple stints, including a memorable 2013 return celebrating the show's 50th anniversary. Her remarkable contributions to the genre earned her a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1976. Alexander passed away of natural causes on March 5, 2025, in Boulder, Colorado, at the age of 85.