DAYS/GH: RIP Denise Alexander

[janea4old]

https://x.com/GenieFrancis/status/1921259296840364222

[John]

I hope GH gives Lesley an on screen memorial

I'd love to have Scott, Robert, Holly, Rose Kelly, Mike Webber, Blackie Parish  & Claudia Phillips return for the episodes

Edited May 12 by John

[Bright Eyes]

One of the soap greats. I wish I had a stronger connection to her, but her major soap stints passed me by. However, the way veteran watchers have described watching her back in the day makes me yearn for the glory days of soap.

As a DAYS fan first, her time on the show is basically an enigma. As years have passed as a member of this board, previous and current members have talked in fondness about her obviously major story with Dickie and David's death, but even more interestingly, her romance/friendship with Bill, and the fascinating tangled tale of her encounter in the park with Eric Peters. It's such a shame DAYS never swayed her back home where she belonged. Though I am more than thankful RC and JG didn't get their grubby paws on her, especially with the horrible example of how they saw fit to write Marie and Liz's relationship with all the nuance and sophistication of a pigpen. 

SSH's remembrance of her was wonderful to read, so thank you to whoever posted.

Could be cool too if any of her Clear Horizon material popped up. Does anything of that show exist?

[Paul Raven]

Denise's daytime/soap resume courtesy of Slick Jones' Soap Hoppers thread

THE CLEAR HORIZON         Lois Adams       1960

BEN JERROD                        Emily Sanders     1963

GENERAL HOSPITAL          Lorna Hill            May 1965

DAYS OF OUR LIVES           Susan Hunter Martin Peters    1966-73

GENERAL HOSPITAL      Dr.  Lesley Sullivan Williams Faulkner Webber Webber   1973-84; 1996-09;(occasional); 2013; 2017; 2019; 2021

ABC AFTERNOON  PLAYBREAK    "The Gift of Terror"    Laura    4/5/1973

HOTEL                                 Gail McClain         1984

ANOTHER WORLD             Mary Callahan McKinnon (LaSalle) McKinnon   1986-89

SUNSET BEACH                 Sister Beatrice         1997-98

PORT CHARLES Dr. Lesley Williams Faulkner Webber 1999

[DRW50]

A very very brief excerpt from a CBS special is up. That's it.

@jam6242 Thank you for the lovely Susan article. I adore that photo of her with Denise - such strong yet different personalities on display. 

I remember seeing that photo of Denise, Bill and Susan on soap magazines like Afternoon TV. I wonder if they took it or if DAYS did.

[yrfan1983]

Did Denise give any interviews where she talked about her first few years on GH... '73-75?

I wonder if she had any regrets leaving Days for GH, as from what I've read, the show was in the dumps writing-wise, so am thinking she didn't have great story?

Any Leslie story highlights I've seen always start with '76, after Gloria Monty took charge.

[titan1978]

She has a very comprehensive We Love Soaps interview where she does go in depth a little about it. One of the things I remember is that she said the GH studio and equipment was very dated compared to what they were using at DAYS. They didn’t really have a fully fleshed out character for her, and she didn’t feel settled until they added the Laura element- first as a dead baby then realizing she was switched at birth.

Apparently Tom Donovan was the EP that got things moving in the right direction as far as both her character and the bts needs of the show. He also lured Leslie Charleston to play Monica, then was fired and Monty was brought on board to save the show or let it go out with some dignity.

Her character clearly was loved by Bill Bell. I am not a surprised at her never returning to DAYS, because the ties were so slim for her there compared to GH. What I wonder is if Bill Bell ever tried to hire her again for Y&R or B&B after she left GH.

Denise has said she left DAYS when he was focusing on other things besides Susan, and her contract had lapsed, that Bell needed time to figure out what to do with Susan moving forward and needed to concentrate on other characters and creating Y&R. ABC offered her a lot of money, and Betty Corday encouraged her to go. The people at DAYS then were apparently lovely people.

[yrfan1983]

Thanks. Well, if things were shaky in the beginning for her, at least she had that nice paycheck.

[DRW50]

I assume not as we would have probably heard, but she could have been a good fit. I could see her being a good Leslie Brooks recast, although by that point the show had fully moved on from Leslie. 

I'm not sure who she could have been on B&B, although I could see her playing yet another Beth Logan recast.

[Contessa Donatella]

I just start to laugh thinking about the interview where Leslie related its being Tom Donovan who talked her into doing GH & then, once she was settled in & looked around for him, he had JUST vanished!! 

[Liberty City]

I don't know if I could have seen that from her, honestly. But I feel like, outside of GH and her original DAYS stint, American daytime really didn't pay much attention to her, even though they should have.

[DRW50]

I think she would have been fine, although Beth was a thankless part.

She probably was seen as aging out of the genre after AW. 

I forgot she was on Sunset Beach. 

[Liberty City]

To me, Judith McConnell (Sophia, SB) was more poised for Beth than anyone else.

Yes, she was, as Sister Beatrice.

[victorlord75]

Judith McConnell (Augusta) and Denise Alexander (Lesley) were great screen partners on GH.  They got into some stellar arguments in character in the medicine room.

[Paul Raven]

Desert Sun, Volume 43, Number 248, 23 May 1970

Soap Opera Queen A Real Homebody

HOLLYWOOD (UP!)—Denise Alexander is unknown to nighttime-only television viewers but she is one of the queens of soap opera in her role of Susan Martin on the daily “Days of Our Lives’’ strip. The auburn haired beauty moved here from New York 12 years ago and into a Beverly Hills apartment she has furnished with antiques from a shop she opened and later closed. Her potpourri antique store was a modified success. Modified because Denise “tried to find good homes’’ for her merchandise. As a result many an ancient chair or table rests in her home, some with price tags still on them.

A regular with “Days of Our Lives” for four years, Denise leaves her four-room diggings—bedroom, kitchen, dining room and living room—at 6: .10 a.m. every day for morning rehearsals at NBC. At noon the show is taped and by 1 p.m. the cast runs through the next day’s episode of the soap opera. “We can’t ad lib because the camera shots depend on word cues,” Denise says. “So we’ve learned to memorize our lines quickly.” Denise’s boy friend is actor David Hartman who stars in “The Bold Ones” for television. They are together almost every evening. Most often David takes Denise to dinner, and then perhaps a movie. Other evenings Denise broils steaks in her apartment for her “fella,” as she calls him. At the moment they haven’t any marriage plans. The actress prefers gourmet dishes and few chefs prepare veal cordon bleu better than she. Her swiss steak with wine sauce is also a treat which Hartman relishes.

No Discotheques Their social life revolves around small dinner parties with friends and dancing at secluded, romantic places. They abhore discotheques. Weekends for the couple are devoted to tennis, sailing and restful days at the beach sunning and surfing. Then again, Hartman may stop by ,and the two will spend the day reading, with a little background music. Denise opened her door one day and an enormous white cat walked in, hopped onto a chair and staked a claim. She named the intruder “Cat." and he has been a member of her household ever since.

Unlike the Sue Martin she portrays on the show, Denise is very much with it. Sue wears a conservative wardrobe. Denis prefers sophisticated, chic outfits from boutiques. She dislikes shopping but loves clothes. The problem is solved by periodic shopping sprees during which she purchases enough outfits to see her through for six months or more. When she feels out of style, back she goes to the smart shops.