BY CATEY SULLIVAN
CONTRIBUTOR

From the Edison-Norwood Times Review
July 3, 2005

"Hospital" call: Known to TV viewers
as the "General Hospital" character
Alexis Davis, Nancy Lee Grahn visited
her hometown of Skokie recently.

Some TV stars return to their hometowns with an entourage the size of a soccer team and an attitude you can smell as sure as rancid limburger. (Were we the sort to name names, we'd mention former La Grange resident David Hasselhoff here.)

Skokie native and "General Hospital" star Nancy Lee Grahn's entourage consists of her 70-something mother and her daughter, Katherine Grace, 7.

Her attitude?

A frank mix of self-deprecation ("I can't rely on my looks. I'm reasonably attractive, but I'm no Kim Basinger"); political passion ("With Bush, we're back to the old-boys patriarchy, and I'm angry") and practical spirituality ("When they have my character do something totally unbelievable, I'll just kind of leave my body and be like, 'OK, wake me when we're done'").

As "General Hospital" attorney Alexis Davis, Grahn has had her share of eyebrow-raising adventures in the fictional town of Port Charles since joining the soap opera's cast in 1996.

Alexis has survived more shootings than rapper 50 Cent. She has spent weeks in disguise as her dead, psychotic sister. She's hooked up elevators stuck in burning buildings, and dealt with the shattering discovery that she's not really Alexis Davis at all, but somebody named Natasha, who was cruelly tossed out of the family fold as an infant because -- oh, never mind.

"Things happen in Port Charles that could never happen on Planet Earth," the Niles North High School graduate said. "You laugh at us? You have no idea how we laugh at ourselves."

Grahn's having the last laugh. She's worked since high school in a field where a 90 percent unemployment rate is the norm.

Although based on the West Coast, Grahn maintains close ties with her family, including sisters Suzi and Wendy, both residents of Northbrook. She also pours her energy into charities including the Robert Grahn Foundation. Named for her late father, the Foundation awards an annual scholarship to a Niles North senior.

Her work as Alexis won her a Daytime Emmy, among other kudos.

"Nancy is unafraid to explore of all of the aspects of Alexis," "GH" director Owen Renfroe said. "She can be courageous or tremendously vulnerable. She has a bravery about her craft."

One no-no question

Grahn does fear divulging her age.

"I can't," she said. "Our generation has only just started to see women over 30 and 40 as viable. I don't want to worry that when I turn 50 I won't be considered sexy or interesting anymore."

Susan Lucci aside, Grahn has a point. Consider Luke and Laura. They were on the cover of Newsweek almost a quarter century ago as panting, nubile lovers. They're little more than pop-culture footnotes today.

"Men get an extra decade," Grahn said, which perhaps explains why Luke is still on "GH" but Laura's long gone. More troubling than ageism, Grahn said, is the obliviousness she encounters in young people about the history of the women's movement.

"I had the thrill of having dinner with Gloria Steinham at an event, and then I spoke about it to a group of college students," Grahn. "They were like, 'Gloria who?' It horrified me."

Even so, Grahn's not discouraged.

"I believe you just have to keep trying until someone hears you," she said.

'General Hospital'

ABC (Channel 7)

2 p.m. weekdays