Dennis Alexander performed in thousands of radio episodes Twilight Zone As a young man before appearing in two long stints as Dr. Leslie Webber General Hospitaldead. She was 85 years old.
Alexander passed away on March 5th of natural causes at his ne home in Boulder, Colorado. Hollywood Reporter.
Alexander, the daughter of a talent agent, played NBC’s Susan Hunter Martin for over six years The day of our lives – She started while in college in 1966 – when gh ABC producers heard that her contract had expired and began “an offer to not reject the situation,” she recalled in a 2010 website interview I love soap.
She moved to Port Charles in March 1973 as Dr. Leslie Williams, and discovers that over the next 11 years, her tough yet caring character has been married twice to Dr. Rick Weber (Michael Gregory and Chris Robinson) and that she thought her daughter, Laura (Ginny Francis), had died as a child.
Amidst the disagreement of contracts, Leslie was killed in an off-screen car accident in March 1984, Alexander said. Good morning America Host David Hartman was sorry to see her go.
“When you’ve been working closely with the character for 12 years, she’s become my closest companion and I like her,” she said. “She has a lot of things I don’t. She’s neat, organized, always hilarious… not always.”
In August 1986, she returned to the world of soap and played NBC’s Bay City Matriarch Mary McKinnon Another world He returned until 1989. gh As a regular from 1996 to 2009. (It turns out that Leslie had not been killed. She was taken medicine by the same man who kidnapped her daughter and kept in a state of tension!)
Her second gh Stretch, Leslie had to deal with Laura’s own match with Catatonia and the fact that her daughter kills Rick by dealing a blow to the head of Weber’s attic. Of course, things weren’t what they saw.
“She broke the barrier on screen and portrayed Dr. Leslie Weber, one of the first female doctors on daytime television. General Hospital Executive producer Frank Valentini said in a statement. “Reprising her role to her in recent years is an honor to have had the opportunity to work with her.”
Dennis Royce Alexander was born in New York on November 11, 1939 and grew up on Long Island. Her father, Alec, was an agent whose clients include Frank Golsin and Sal Mineo.
From the age of six, Alexander has appeared on more than 2,500 radio shows in New York. It included playing the magician’s daughter Big man Daughter of sophisticated parents (Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy) in 1950, 1953-54 marriageeven with NBC.
“You’re going out of school and going from one show to the next,” she recalls. “They’re in a 15- or 30-minute show, they’re sitting around the table, reading the script, rehearsing a few times and doing it. Then you were out of there, and sometimes you were in the next studio.”
Alexander made her on-screen debut in an episode of Perry Como Craft Music Hall 1949. She then acted on such anthology dramas Armstrong Circle Theater, Philco Television Playhouse and Robert Montgomery present I had a regular gig on SF serial Tom Corbett, Space Candidate From 1951 to 55.
She appeared on Broadway from 1952-53 with the revival of Lillian Hermann. Children’s timestarring Kim Hunter and Patricia Neal, and later portrayed Mineo’s sister, directed by Don Siegel. Street crime (1956) and starring John Cassavetes.
Dennis Alexander and John Cassavettes in 1956’s “Crimes on the Streets.”
Provided by Everett Collection
She appeared and continued it climax!, My father knows best, Riley’s Life, Danny Thomas Shaw, Detective and Dobby Gillis’s many lovesand in 1960 she played the daughter of a military scientist (Fritz Weaver) in the 14th episode of CBS Twilight Zonepraised “Third from the Sun”
Also in 1960, she began running for two years as the daughter of an astronaut who lives in Cape Canaveral with CBS soap from 1960-62. A clear horizon And he was attending part of Maria in the film adaptation. West Side Story.
While studying to earn a bachelor’s degree in English at UCLA, Alexander accepted a part of Susan The day of our lives.
“She started out as a bad girl and was kicked out of boarding school for smoking and drinking, just like her mother. [played by Coleen Gray] I was beginning a romance with Mickey Horton. [John Clarke]She remembered. “All of a sudden she was suffering from this problem. The character attracted something with the audience and set the fire on it.”
Susan loses her young son in a fatal swing set accident and kills her husband David (Clube Clerk), but Alexander’s story has won a tamer, she said.
“At one point, I remember receiving the petition and going around the studio on this paper for all the actors and crew, “On the other hand, if Susan Martin’s character gets into a romantic relationship, the show would be even more interesting,” she recalled.
“I didn’t get the part you got around your neck and come out with the guys. I started as a bad girl, but was rolled up as a good girl. Her big activity was burning at some point” (when she bolted it down). ghBenny Gatti replaced her. )
“The Era of Our Life” with Dennis Alexander and MacDonald Carey.
NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection
and gh In 1976, Alexander was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, and the show reached number one in daytime ratings shortly after Robinson came in 1978.
Six years later, when she said she wanted to stick, but she wanted to work less. gh Killed Leslie, and fans protested and picketed ABC.
As McKinnon, she married Vince McKinnon (Duke Stroud and Robert Hogan) and fought amnesia before leaving to live with her Minnesota children. Despite her big pay, Alexander said her commute from Los Angeles to New York finally reached her.
She’ll stop by gh Working on several first hours and web shows in 2013 Pretty series and inn.
Alexander was married to actor director Richard A. Kora – he played Tony Merritt Our Life Day – From the 1980s to his death on Christmas Eve 2021. She had no children. Her stepdaughter, Elizabeth, passed away on March 31st.
In an interview in 2010, Alexander reflected on the intense days of being a melodrama star.
“Audiences will surround your car and scream as you try to move away from the exterior,” she said. “It was great financially, and I didn’t have to go out to auditions and be told that I was too young, too old, too short, too fat, too boring, nothing was needed.
