Denise Alexander, the actress who played Lesley Webber on the popular soap opera “General Hospital” in seven different decades, died March 5, 2025, at the age of 85.

Alexander began acting at a young age, appearing on TV before she reached her teens, and making her big screen debut in 1956’s “Crime in the Streets” at age 14. Many small roles followed, including on “Father Knows Best,” “The Twilight Zone,” and “Combat!,” but it was her work on soap operas that made her a star. Starting in 1965, she became a regular on three major soaps. From 1966 to 1973, she played Susan Hunter Martin on “Days of Our Lives,” appearing in over 800 episodes of the show, and from 1986 to 1991 she was in 73 episodes of “Another World.” In perhaps her most famous role, for over 1,000 episodes between 1966 and her final guest appearance in 2021, she played Lesley Webber on the iconic soap “General Hospital,” a role that earned her a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1976.

“Denise Alexander was a friend to treasure and an actress to applaud,” Days of Our Lives co-star Susan Hayes said on Instagram. “Such happy memories of her years in Salem and her great success on General Hospital. We both began as child actors, both had strong mothers and both were raised as Christian Scientists in our early years. I was grateful for her wisdom, taste, humor, and goodness every time I saw her. It was never enough. And my love for her will never be over.”