It's Too Soon for Summer

For much of this week it has been in the upper eighties, near ninety, with high humidity. This is why I haven't made much in the way of posts this week. I am hot and miserable and I really don't feel like doing much of anything. To make matter worse, this is unusual for May, when our highs are usually in the seventies with relatively low humidity. Fortunately, next week we will have less tropical temperatures. For now I will leave you with The Who's cover of Eddie Cochran's 'Summertime Blues."

Denise Alexander Passes On

Denise Alexander, who appeared for years on the soap operas Days of Our Lives and General Hospital, and guest starred on many TV shows in the Sixties and Seventies, died on March 5 2025 at the age of 85.

Denise Alexander was born on November 11 1939 in New York City. Her father was a talent agent whose clients would include Frank Gorshin and Sal Mineo. Denise Alexander began acting on radio shows when she was only six years old. She was a regular on the show The Marriage. She also appeared on such radio shows as The Big Guy, Cavalcade of America, Dimension X. and It's Higgins Sir. She ultimately appeared on more than 2500 radio shows. She made her television debut in 1949 on Kraft Music Hall. That same year she appeared on Ford Television Theatre.

In the early Fifties she appeared on Broadway in The Children's Hour. On television in the Fifties she was a regular on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and late in the decade on the daytime soap opera The Clear Horizon. She guest starred on the shows Armstrong Circle Theatre, The Web, The Philco Television Playhouse, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Mama, Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Climax!, Father Knows Best, The Life of Riley, The Walter Winchell File, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, The Danny Thomas Show, The Ann Sothern Show, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, The Twilight Zone, The Loretta Young Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Blue Angels, and The Detectives. She appeared in the movies Crime in the Streets (1956) and Teenage Conflict (1960).

In the Sixties she continued as a regular on The Clear Horizon and the short-lived Ben Jerrod..  She became a regular on the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives in 1966. She guest starred on The Detectives, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Angel, Sea Hunt, Ben Casey, Stoney Burke, The Virginian, Combat!, General Hospital, and This is the Life. She appeared in the movie That Funny Feeling (1965).

In the Seventies Denise Alexander continued to appear on Days of Our Lives until 1973. It was in 1973 that she began her long run on General Hospital. In the Seventies she also guest starred on The ABC Afternoon Playbreak. In the Eighties she became a regular on the daytime soap opera Another World. She guest starred on the TV show Hotel. In the Nineties she became a regular on the daytime soap opera Sunset Beach. She returned to General Hospital in a recurring role. he guest starred on the soap opera Port Charles. In the Teens she was a regular on the short-lived shows The Inn and Pretty the Series.

While I am unfamiliar with Denise Alexander's work in soap operas, which admittedly made up most of her career, I know from her guest appearances on prime time shows she was a good actress. On The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, she played Ginny Metzger, a girlfriend determined to turn Dobie into a success by taking a baby sitting job. In the Combat! episode "No Time for Pity," she played the librarian of a town where German paratroopers have set up an observation post. In the Ben Casey episode "A Memory of Candy Stripes," she played a candy striper who is getting too attached to a patient. Denise Alexander was a wonderful actress who gave many good performances.