Nancy Lee Grahn created one of the greatest characters in soap history when Santa Barbara cast her as whip-smart attorney Julia Wainwright opposite Lane Davies’ Machiavellian misanthrope Mason Capwell. So when, after the show’s cancellation, General Hospital picked the Emmy winner to play similarly shrewd Alexis Davis, it knew the brilliance that it would be getting. (Side note: Grahn more than lived up to the high expectations.)
Not long after the One Life to Live alum (as Marco Dane’s secretary, Beverly Wilkes) made her General Hospital debut, Port Charles’ newest legal eagle discovered that Stefan Cassadine wasn’t just her client, he was also her half brother. But the twist didn’t only make her a filthy-rich princess, it made her… well, mad, too. Having regained her memory of her mother’s murder at the hand of Stefan’s mother, Helena, Alexis tried to send the she-devil straight to hell. In vain, we’re sure don’t need to mention.
Following a byzantine scheme in which Alexis didn’t marry boyfriend Ned Ashton but pal Jasper Jacks — and Jax’s girlfriend Chloe Morgan tied the knot not with him but Ned — the Quartermaine heir at last put a ring on the finger of the woman he truly loved. It didn’t stay there, however. Right before the wedding, the bride noticed goosebumps on her cold, cold feet and called the whole thing off. (In the years that followed, of course, she’d call it back on from time to time… Right, Olivia?)
Before all of Port Charles knew that just looking in Sonny Corinthos’ direction could leave a woman with child, Alexis had a one-night stand with the underworld kingpin who had become her neediest client. Rather than admit that she was pregnant with the future star of Mafia Princess, the lady lawyer roped Ned into a scheme to pretend that he was the one who should be passing out cigars.
Well, no one can say that Alexis doesn’t have a “type.” Despite the mountains that she moved to keep Sonny from learning that he was Kristina’s pop, Alexis next got mixed up with the godfather’s shifty half sibling Ric Lansing. Now, on one hand, he was, like her, a lawyer. On the other, he had more Mob ties than Pinocchio had strings attached. So as great as their chemistry was — and as reluctant as he was to button his shirts — they were doomed from the start.
At times, you would have sworn that Alexis was trying to become the cover model for Smart Women, Foolish Choices. Unaware that Jax’s brother Jerry was really the nefarious James Craig who’d taken hostages at the Metro Court (and hastened Alan Quartermaine’s demise!), Alexis fell prey to his charms. Of note: Obviously, he is not demonstrating any of those charms in this particular photo.
As quickly as Alexis learned that the baby she’d been forced to give up as a teenager was none other than Sam McCall, she began meddling in the younger woman’s affairs. Well, just one, really — her love affair with Jason Morgan. Call Alexis crazy, but she thought that being in the hitman’s arm’s just might have the unintended side effect of putting her daughter in danger.
When Alexis’ grandson Danny needed bone marrow rather than the pony that every kid wants, she appealed to Sam’s resurrected father, Julian Jerome, to fork some over. Instead of simply do so, he refused to part with the goods until he got a promise from rival mobster Sonny that the “selfless” deed wouldn’t be his last. Natch, Alexis swore Julian right off. And caved in all of a hot second (emphasis on the “hot”) later.
Though Julian gave up the Mob for Alexis, the Mob wouldn’t give him up. (See illustration.) Eventually, his wife wound up in such hot water, she could’ve been boiled. By the time the dust settled, Alexis had worn a wire on her “better” half, he’d held a knife to her throat, and she’d been driven not just to divorce him but to do so while making an unhealthy number of toasts to improved decision-making.
Alexis finally got involved with a nice guy when she began seeing Neil Byrne. Mind you, their relationship wasn’t as easy as deciding whether to make out in an elevator: Since he was also her therapist, their involvement nearly cost him his career. And after a single night of lovemaking, she found him dead to the world in bed. No, literally — dead-dead, from (yeah, right) a drug overdose.
No matter what 8-ball Alexis is behind, she has in her corner BFF Diane Miller, whose love of shoes is rivaled only by her love of… well, Alexis. We should all be lucky enough to have a bosom buddy as feisty and formidable. (And not for nothin’, able to rock a dress that’s destined to bring out bar patrons’ “animal” instincts.)
Alexis’ Mini Me — though generally not in the massive [bleep]-ups department — is daughter Molly, who seems destined to follow the trail her mom blazed… except when it comes to making bad decisions about good-looking men. (We’re giving Molly a pass for Brando… for now.)
Wherever Alexis’ daughter Kristina’s gone, trouble has followed, whether she’s been crushing on Luke Spencer’s son, carrying on with her married college professor or joining a cult. Somehow, through it all, Alexis has refrained from cracking, “And people wonder why I drink!”
Eventually, Alexis and Sam mended their relationship to the point that together, they took up new hobbies, like getting so hands-on in the maternity ward that they had to be asked to leave. Just kidding. This is actually a photo of mother and daughter bonding with newborn Danny.
In the wake of Neil’s death, then Julian’s, Alexis poured herself into a bottle from which she didn’t care if she emerged. Only after her Olympic-caliber imbibing inspired her to attack Franco Baldwin — in the process giving Dante Falconeri an accidental injection — did she allow her daughters to set her once more down the path of sobriety. Of course, in Port Charles, staying on the wagon was going to be harder than convincing anyone that mobsters are the bad guys.
After serving time in prison, Alexis began a new chapter of her life, one that involved taking over The Invader and making all of Port Charles think that every day was New Year’s Eve, what with all the sparks that she sent flying with ex-lover Hamilton Finn’s silver-fox father, Gregory Chase.
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