| Alexis Davis | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nancy Lee Grahn as Alexis Davis (2008) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| General Hospital | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Nancy Lee Grahn | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | April 1996 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Richard Culliton Karen Harris |
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| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aliases | Princess Natasha Alexandra Mikkosovna Cassadine (gave up title in 2000) Alexis Davidovitch Dobson |
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| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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| Title | Russian royalty Former Princess of Russian nobility |
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| Residence | 57 Lake Road Port Charles, New York |
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Alexis Davis is a fictional character on the popular ABC soap opera, General Hospital. Nancy Lee Grahn originated the role in April 1996. She is the daughter of Mikkos Cassadine and Kristin Bergman. She is also the mother of Sam McCall, Kristina Davis and Molly Lansing. She has been dating Police Commissioner Mac Scorpio.
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Alexis is the daughter of Mikkos Cassadine, a Greco-Russian prince, and his mistress Kristin Bergman, a Swedish opera singer. Mikkos' wife Helena Cassadine slit Kristin's throat in front of young Alexis, who develops partial amnesia and forgets her true identity. Alexis is taken into Mikkos' house to be raised as a poor relative with the last name Davidovitch, while her infant sister disappears. Helena and her half-brother Stavros Cassadine torment her, but her other half-brother Stefan Cassadine (who believes that she is indeed his cousin) protects her, gaining her loyalty. While attending a boarding school in New Hampshire[1], Alexis, 16, becomes pregnant, but her father Mikkos Cassadine takes the baby, who grows up to be Sam McCall, and gives her up for adoption. Davis graduated from Yale University as an undergraduate and earned a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Stefan, who has instructed Alexis to change her name to Davis, brings her to Port Charles to aid in the legal side of his vendetta against Luke Spencer, the husband of his former lover Laura Spencer. Alexis is protective of Stefan and her nephew Nikolas Cassadine, going as far to make Stefan believe that his lover Katherine Bell was actually his half-sister Natasha. Upon learning of her deception, Stefan banishes her from his life. Luke helps her discover her true identity as the real Natasha, and Helena uses this to force Alexis to aid her in an attempt to wrest control of the Cassadine empire from Stefan, in turn giving Alexis the princess birthright she deserved. However, Alexis didn't want to become like the rest of the cruel, murderous Cassadines, and gave up her position as princess. Alexis falls in love with Ned Ashton, but marries Jasper "Jax" Jacks as part of a convoluted plan to help her best friend Chloe Morgan save her company. Chloe eventually loses her company, and Alexis and Jax divorce. She reluctantly accepts Ned's proposal, and the two plan a massive wedding. However, her doubts get the better of her, and she leaves a devastated Ned at the altar.
She reluctantly becomes a lawyer for mob boss Sonny Corinthos, and aids Sonny and his enforcer Jason Morgan in their various legal struggles, including custody disputes. After Sonny is arrested, Alexis convinces him to marry her enemy Carly Roberts so that she would be unable to testify against him. She and Sonny bonded over their mutually complicated relationships and their affection for troubled teen Zander Smith. Sonny went on to save her life, when she, Zander, Sonny and Emily Quartermaine were attacked by a rival mafia family. Alexis is left devastated by the murder of Chloe, but was comforted by Jax, who found her presumed dead sister Kristina Carter. Through this, Sonny Corinthos has been her support. Kristina claims her birthright and becomes a Cassadine Princess, despite Helena's plots to attempt to murder her. Sonny also learned he had a sister, Courtney Matthews, and Courtney and Kristina both noticed the deepening bond between Alexis and Sonny. When Courtney elopes with Sonny's enemy, A.J. Quartermaine, he decides to have A.J. killed. Alexis is able to get Sonny to reverse the decision, and Sonny realizes how much Alexis means to him.
That night, Sonny and Alexis make love, which is witnessed by his ex-wife, Carly. A distraught Carly is in a car accident, and Alexis encourages Sonny to return to his former wife. Alexis learns she is pregnant, but decides against telling Sonny, who has turned against Zander and is threatening his life. Ned, who is dating her sister Kristina, claims to be the father. Kristina learns the truth, but is critically injured a warehouse explosion meant for Sonny and decides to keep her sister's secret before dying. At Kristina's memorial service, the devastated Alexis berates Sonny, Jason, and Roy DiLucca, and reminds Sonny that her "Cassadine ancestors were ruling countries when his were toiling in the fields with the other peasants."
She gives birth to a girl, that she names Kristina, and she and Ned furiously work to keep her new enemy Sonny from learning the truth. When Luis Alcazar threatens the life of her daughter, Alexis confronts him and he accidentally falls to his death. She fakes dissociative identity disorder to avoid jail time, while Ned is given custody of Kristina. As Ned and Skye Quartermaine try to gain full custody of the baby, Alexis disguises herself as a man named Dobson and begins working at the Quartermaine mansion to be closer to her daughter. Ned eventually drops the suit, and gives her full custody of her daughter. During a fire at the Port Charles Hotel, Alexis reveals to Carly that Sonny is actually Kristina's father. When Kristina is diagnosed with leukemia and needs bone marrow, Sonny learns the truth, and it is discovered that Kristina's only hope for survival is in stem cells from the unborn child of Sonny and his former lover Sam McCall. As Kristina will not survive long enough for the baby to be born, Alexis attempts to convince Sam to induce labor two weeks early, but eventually grows desperate and insults and pressures her into agreeing. However, Alexis immediately realizes she went too far when Sam collapses during the confrontation and is rushed to the hospital, and is left horrified and guilt-ridden when Sam's baby is stillborn; however, Kristina nonetheless gets the stem cells she needs to survive. Later, during an encephalitis epidemic, Alexis receives the last antidote. This results in the death of Sam's mentally retarded older brother Danny, which only increases Sam's animosity towards Alexis.
Sonny's half-brother, Ric Lansing, attempts to get closer to Alexis, as he believes being involved in Kristina's life will give him an advantage in his contentious relationship with Sonny. The two marry and have a baby, which is named Molly Lansing. Alexis is appointed as District Attorney. During this time, she becomes the defending lawyer for Manny Ruiz, a serial killer who has tormented and stalked Jason and Sam for months, after he apparently reforms. Jason and Sam insist that Manny is faking and that things will end badly, but Alexis refuses to heed their warnings and successfully gets Manny acquitted. Ironically, Jason and Sam's warnings prove true when Manny reverts to his old ways by kidnapping Elizabeth Webber.
After several brushes with death, Alexis decides to find the daughter she gave up for adoption when she was a teen. Alexis learns that Sam is actually her daughter, but Sam hates Alexis and blames her for all of her recent problems, and the two continue to butt heads over Sam's relationship with Jason. After Sam is shot by Manny Ruiz and rendered infertile (though it is believed at the time that Manny was trying to shoot Jason), Alexis manipulates Jason into breaking up with her, which causes more conflict between mother and daughter. Sam moves in with Alexis, who is having marital problems with Ric. However, Manny eventually kidnaps Sam once more, and Jason teams up with the police to stop him; Mac Scorpio is quick to throw it in Alexis' face that the entire ordeal is her fault for setting Manny free in the first place.
When Alexis discovers that Carly, Jason's best friend, is trying to get them back together, Alexis confronts Jason and attempts to convince him to stop Carly from doing so, eventually leading to an argument with Sam; Alexis furiously suggests that Sam live elsewhere to prevent Kristina and Molly from being exposed to her "pathetic, degraded attitude", while Sam insists that Alexis sees her as trash and hates that she is her daughter, though Alexis appears visibly hurt by her accusations. Infuriated and hurt, Sam gets drunk and ends up having sex with Ric in the living room. Alexis and Jason both witness this, and Jason takes Alexis to the hospital when she suffers uncontrollable coughing.
Alexis is diagnosed with second-stage lung cancer. She pretends to not have seen her husband and daughter having sex. After her cancer is revealed, Alexis makes peace with Sam and entrusts her to look after Kristina and Molly in the event that she dies from the cancer, and also admits to Ric that she did not mean the hurtful things she said to Sam. Ric takes over as D.A., and Alexis pushes him together with Sam while she begins chemotherapy. Eventually, she furiously confronts the two and attempts to take full custody of Molly. Due to the rigors of chemotherapy, the judge instead awards full custody to Ric. Ric initially goes out of his way to make it difficult for Alexis to see Molly, but eventually relents. When his father Trevor Lansing comes to town as part of the Zacchara mafia organization, he returns Molly to her mother's care, and the two eventually settle on joint custody. Alexis, now the DA again, begins dating Jerry Jacks, who goes missing in a boat explosion in November 2008. The following April, Alexis learns from her friend Jax that Jerry had faked his death and was involved with the mob hit that resulted in the accidental shooting of Michael Corinthos III.
When Sam shoots and apparently kills Diego Alcazar in front of Kristina, badly traumatizing her and rendering her mute, this, combined with Sam's tryst with Ric, leads Alexis to cut Sam out of her life completely. However, the two continue to be drawn together for Kristina's sake and because Sam wants to help Alexis fight her cancer, and they finally reconcile when Alexis volunteers to be Sam's defense attorney when she is tried for Diego's murder. Ultimately, Sam is cleared of all charges due to a lack of evidence, and Alexis beats her cancer. In 2007 Sam goes to Alexis and tells her how sorry she is for everything she put her through and Alexis forgives her. The two agree to work past their differences.
In the summer of 2009, it is revealed that Alexis slept with the mayor while she was being treated for cancer. In a public scandal that embarrasses her young daughters, this indiscretion, which Alexis insists was a one-night stand, is portrayed as an extended affair in which she stalked the mayor, causing her to become a suspect in the suspicious death of Brianna Hughes, the mayor's mistress. Distraught, Alexis goes to speak with the mayor's wife to try to clear up the misunderstanding. That same night, Sonny's wife, Claudia, is run off the road and loses her unborn child. With the mayor's wife declaring that Alexis drove off in a rage about the time of the accident, Alexis is soon a suspect in that case as well. But Alexis is later cleared of both crimes. Playing detective, Robin Scorpio and Patrick Drake prove that Brianna was murdered by the mayor's wife. The mayor subsequently offers Alexis her job back as the district attorney as an apology, but she turns him down on the grounds that she enjoys having more time to spend with her family.
The night of Claudia's accident, Kristina runs off to Mexico with her brother Michael. Alexis initially blames Michael for Kristina's suddenly rebellious behavior, but Sam reveals that Kristina has been rebellious and emotionally overwhelmed for a while because she believes that she has to be perfect to keep Alexis' love; though Alexis initially refuses to believe Sam, she is eventually convinced. When it is discovered that it was one of Alexis' cars was the one that ran Claudia off the road, Alexis suspects that it was Kristina who did so and immediately confesses to the crime to protect her. However, Nikolas arranges a plea bargain and Alexis gets off with six months of community service.
Eventually, Jason and Sam find Michael and Kristina and bring them home, and Kristina admits that she was indeed the one who ran Claudia off the road. Alexis reassures Kristina that she loves her and she doesn't have to be perfect for her, but ends up getting into an argument with Sam over whether or not Alexis is too lenient with Kristina when the latter tells Kristina that she needs to tell Sonny and Claudia the truth as soon as possible. Alexis believes that it could have waited a little longer, and eventually Sam loses patience and leaves after warning that Kristina will eventually spiral out of control, leaving Alexis shocked and upset. Though angry, Sonny and Claudia ultimately forgive Kristina and agree not to turn her in. Shortly afterwards, Jason and Sam rekindle their romance; though she still has her doubts, Alexis respectfully accepts Sam's decision and chooses not to interfere.
Alexis' close friend and colleague Diane Miller shows up for Thanksgiving dinner with the Davis girls, but Molly quickly persuades Diane to go elsewhere declaring, to Alexis' surprise, that they have a prior commitment. Molly privately confesses to a delighted Diane that she and Kristina are taking Alexis to Robin's house for the holiday as they are plotting to set up Alexis with Robin's uncle, Mac Scorpio. Robin also discusses the plot with a skeptical Sam McCall, saying that the two guests of honor had very obvious chemistry at the "nonwedding" of Maxie Jones and Damian Spinelli. Alexis and Mac realize something is afoot at the dinner and sternly tell the girls it is a waste of time. But Alexis and Mac are thrown together several times over the next few weeks, with Mac clearly enjoying her company despite her protests that they should remain just friends. He invites Alexis out for New Year's Eve, and unbeknownst to Alexis, Molly accepts on her behalf. When Mac shows up for the date, he takes Molly's subterfuge in stride and persuades a surprised and reluctant Alexis to go anyway, if only as friends. She insists on driving, and they engage in light-hearted verbal sparring when her hybrid car breaks down on the way to the Metro Court. They end up dancing under the stars on a snow-covered roadside.
That spring, Kristina enters into an abusive relationship with a boy named Kiefer Bauer, who savagely beats her twice. Kristina initially identifies Ethan Lovett as her assailant, but Alexis discovers that Kiefer is responsible after the second attack, during which she catches Kiefer leaving the house immediately before finding Kristina beaten and unconscious on the floor. While driving Kristina to the hospital, Alexis accidentally hits Kiefer with her car, killing him. The truth about Kiefer and Kristina's attacks quickly becomes public knowledge, and Ethan is given a clean slate.
Though she hides her guilt for a while, Alexis soon confesses. Mac charges her, but lets her go on her own recognizance, and she admits the truth to Kristina. Kristina is able to forgive her, but Kiefer's parents, particularly his father Warren, are not; convinced that Kristina is lying about Kiefer hurting her and that Alexis deliberately ran him down, Warren swears revenge on both Alexis and Kristina. Uncertain of what will happen next, Alexis takes Kristina to recuperate at Wyndemere with Nikolas, and is dismayed to learn that Helena will be living there as well. Kristina finally begins to heal mentally, and Alexis thanks Nikolas for his help.
During this time, Sonny is put on trial for Claudia's murder, and Alexis serves as co-counselor to Kristina in order to convince her that Sonny is not such a bad person.
When Sonny's trial nears its end, the prosecutor, Claire Walsh, issues a subpoena to bring Michael in to testify, believing that Michael's testimony will ensure Sonny's conviction. Upon learning of what happened to Kristina, Michael returns to town to visit her. Unfortunately, Alexis returns while Michael is talking to Kristina at the lake house; already having enough trouble on her hands with Kiefer's hit-and-rin, Alexis is unwilling to risk any more legal trouble and unhesitatingly alerts the police to Michael's return. Dante, having discovered that it was actually Michael who killed Claudia, albeit to protect Carly, rats him out right before the verdict on Sonny comes in, and Michael is brought to the stand and forced to confess. Alexis, like everyone else, is taken aback when Judge Carroll decides to make an example of Michael by giving him the particularly harsh sentence of two-to-five years in Pentonville Adult Correctional Facility. In order to protect Michael, Jason makes a deal with Claire and is sent there along with him. Nonetheless, Alexis begins to worry about her chances of escaping prison time for Kiefer's hit-and-run, because she basically did the same thing Michael did. However, thanks to Diane's maneuvering, Alexis gets off with a suspended sentence and community service; unfortunately, Warren pushes a civil suit in retaliation. Dante eventually gets Michael out of Pentonville, but Jason is forced to remain behind for several months.
In early June, Kristina begins to pretend-date Johnny in order to spite her father, and ignores everyone's warnings that doing so is dangerous. With tensions between Johnny and Sonny reaching a boiling point, Alexis follows Sam's advice and visits Jason in Pentonville, hoping that he might convince Johnny to back off. Jason tells her that he is not certain if he will be able to do anything, but the two agree that Kristina is the one who is pushing the issue. Before leaving, Alexis admits to Jason that she admires him for sacrificing so much for Michael but lets him see how it's affecting Sam. Kristina ultimately learns her lesson the hard way when she is caught in a car bomb meant for Johnny; fortunately, Kristina survives with minimal injuries. Furious, Alexis confronts Sonny and has no choice but to believe him for the time being when he denies any part in the bomb.
On July 23, 2010, Warren Bauer finally snaps and induces a shootout at General Hospital, critically wounding Mac and Ethan before being shot down by Mac himself. When Alexis and Sonny discover this, she tearfully remarks that she is to blame for every bad thing that has happened to Kristina, citing the fact that she was the one who encouraged Kristina to date Kiefer in the first place as proof, while Sonny comforts her and tries to convince her otherwise.
In September 2010, Alexis gently warns Brook Lynn Ashton that getting romantically involved with Nicholas would be a bad idea. On November 5, 2010, Sonny is discovered to be the one who planted the bomb in Johnny's car and is arrested. When Alexis discovers this, she is shocked and uncertain how Kristina will react, but when she comes to the police station, she is pleasantly surprised to see that Kristina has finally made peace with Sonny. Sonny is shortly after cleared of all charges when Claire discovers that Ronnie Dimestico had obtained the evidence against Sonny illegally.
In spring 2011, Alexis is hired to be Jax's lawyer when he becomes convinced that Carly is an unfit mother to Josslyn and decides to fight her for full custody. Though Alexis aids Jax in his attempts, she is fully aware that Jax is being unreasonable and continually urges him to try and compromise with Carly to no avail; recalling that her attempts to keep Kristina safe from Sonny's violent world did nothing but convince Kristina that her father didn't love her, Alexis fears that Jax may make the same mistake with Josslyn.
During this time, Alexis faces still further problems with Kristina when she begins to want to date Ethan. When she sneaks off to the Dominican Republic to help Ethan divorce Maya, Alexis mistakenly assumes that they have done so to get married and goes there with Sonny to stop it, only to discover the truth. Despite their lack of support, Ethan makes it clear to Alexis and Sonny that he will see Kristina whenever he wants.
At Kristina and Michael's graduation ceremony, Michael gets in a fight with Bryce, a fellow classmate, and nearly loses his chance to get his diploma, but Sonny intimidates the mayor into giving in. Everyone subsequently discovers from Kristina that Bryce instigated it by telling her that she deserved to get beat up by Kiefer. Though Alexis attempts to make an example of Michael's bad behavior and criticize Sonny for strongarming the mayor, everyone present readily defends both their actions and insist that Bryce deserved to get hit for what he said to Kristina, Carly even stating that she would gladly have done so herself. Sam ends the argument by insisting that Kristina and Michael are adults now and their choices are their own to deal with.
Jax immediately begins pulling out all the stops to ensure that he will win full custody of Josslyn, going so far as to issue subpoenas for Michael and Morgan to testify. Knowing that the Corinthos brothers' testimonies are unnecessary, Alexis accuses Jax of simply doing all of this to hurt Carly like she hurt him and warns him not to lose sight of what's best for Josslyn. Jax continues to be hard-headed and refuses to listen to Alexis' argument. On July 7, 2011, Alexis is confronted by Carly, who reveals that Jax attempted to convince the mediator that Michael is a dangerous social outcast who shouldn't be alone with Josslyn and desperately begs her not to let Jax take Josslyn away. With this, Alexis finally decides to resign from the case on the grounds that it is unfair to both mother and daughter, with Jax's complete understanding of her situation. Carly later visits and asks Alexis to talk to Jax again offering the hypothetical of whether she'd be able to cut ties with Sonny and Sam if Ric demanded custody of Molly. Alexis does go to see Jax and after explaining what Carly said, Jax tells her that if Molly was their child he would ask her to cut ties with Sam. Alexis appears visibly shocked and heartbroken by this.
On the day of the hearing, Sonny discovers that Jax bribed the mediator to lie and paint Carly as unfit, and subsequently goes behind Carly's back by framing Jax for attempted rape and drug possession, resulting in Carly getting full custody of Josslyn. Outraged and grief-stricken, Jax leaves town, and Brenda also leaves Sonny. Jax subsequently returns and attempts to kidnap Josslyn, but Sonny, furious and blaming Jax for Brenda's departure, tampers with Jax's plane and causes it to crash in the ocean. Grief-stricken, Alexis decides that she shouldn't have resigned from Jax's case, because the danger was real. Alexis subsequently confronts Sonny over Jax's apparent death and tells him to pull himself together, but tells him he can still see Kristina whenever he wants to, acknowledging that her first attempt at keeping them apart didn't do any good for anyone. It is later discovered that Jax parachuted out of the plane before the crash.
Carly, having vowed to distance herself and her family from Sonny, approaches Alexis and asks her for help in keeping their children away from Sonny, but Alexis, openly skeptical that Carly is ready to give up being Sonny's enabler, flatly refuses to help her, reminding her of Kristina's rebellion and car-bomb injuries the year before as a direct result of her trying to keep Kristina and Sonny apart, and subsequently gives Carly a verbal scalding, telling her that what happened to Jax is just as much her fault as Sonny's because she riled Sonny up and set him on Jax in the first place.