Denise Alexander has died at the age of 85. The actress was best known for her role as Lesley Webber on General Hospital. Lesley was the mother of Genie Francis Laura.

The actress died on Wednesday, March 5, per Variety and Soap Opera Digest. PEOPLE reached out to ABC for further comment.

General Hospital showrunner Frank Valentini announced her death on Friday, May 9, via X. “I am so very sorry to hear of Denise Alexander’s passing. She broke barriers on-screen and off, portraying Dr. Lesley Webber – one of the first female doctors on Daytime Television – for nearly five decades,” he wrote.

He continued, “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. On behalf of the entire General Hospital family, I extend my heartfelt sympathies to her family, friends, and longtime fans. May she rest in peace.”
Alexander was born in New York City in 1939. She began working as an actress on the radio at the age of 6. “There was television, there was radio, I did theater, I did everything there was to do, and it seemed natural,” she told We Love Soaps in 2010. “Now when I look back, I think, ‘How lucky was I?’ — because a lot of people didn’t have those experiences.”

Her father, who worked as an agent, moved the family to Los Angeles, and she continued to work on TV and radio; The Press Courier wrote in 1968 that she had already made 5,000 radio and 500 TV appearances. Her film debut came in 1956’s Crime in the Streets, starring John Cassavetes.

On the radio, she appeared on several soaps, but her first on-screen soap opera role came in 1960’s The Clear Horizon, playing one of the astronauts’ daughters. She told We Love Soaps, “There was an older teenager, and I played the younger teenager in the family, just discovering boys and getting into trouble.” The show was canceled in 1962.

Four years later in 1966, she joined Days of Our Lives. She knew the show’s writers, Ted Corday and Betty Corday. They offered her a part without an audition in 1965, before the show premiered. “When you’re an actor and you get a call and don’t have to audition, it’s like a high point in your life, and you’re going to remember that,” she told We Love Soaps. She turned them down, as she wanted to finish her studies at UCLA.

In 1966, they called again with an offer to play Susan Hunter Martin. She wasn’t sure she wanted to keep acting, but she trusted them. “I thought I’d give it a try,” she told the Schenectady Gazette in 1971 of the role on Days. “Now I’m thankful I did.”

She said working on a soap opera removed “the barriers of fear, frustration and insecurity you so often” experience on sets where actors don’t know where their next job will come from. “No one is worried about not having a place to work the next day,” she explained.