41 Years After Her 1985 Debut, This Daytime Emmy Winner Is Still Playing a 'Legal Eagle' Today
On May 6, 1985, the NBC soap opera Santa Barbara introduced one of its most iconic characters with the debut of future Daytime Emmy-winner Nancy Lee Grahan as legal eagle Julia Wainwright.
Grahan made her first appearance during episode 198 of the soap opera. Julia came onto the scene to help her sister, Augusta Lockridge (Louise Sorel), who had recently become blind.
During her time on the show, it was her romance with Mason Capwell (Lane Davies) that fans truly fell in love with and cemented their romance as one of the key super couples of Santa Barbara.
Reflecting on his time on the show and the pairing, Grahn was interviewed by soap journalist Michael Fairman for his YouTube channel ahead of the series 40th anniversary. Grahn shared, "The setup for us was really fun." She added how the two characters contrasted each other, "It was classic in that he was a conservative, and Julia was a liberal."
The actress shared how it took a while for the two to find their way romantically to each other. "It took the characters a really long time for us to get together. They did journeys back then."
Davis, who was also participating in the reunion interview, added how the story was almost different, but the two actors enjoyed working together, "they were putting us together for these little banter scenes. We liked the chemistry." So they worked hard together to work on their chemistry, "and the writers picked up on that, and we just ran with it."
Throughout her time on the show, Julia had multiple love interests, including Craig McAllister, Jack Lee, David Laurent, Michael Donnelly, and Dash Nichols.
Grahan remained on the series until its finale in 1993. Her final storyline on the show saw her gain the happiness she so desperately wanted, and she revealed to her husband that she is pregnant.
Grahan continues to work in daytime television, and, as luck would have it, she is still portraying an attorney, 41 years later, on the ABC soap opera General Hospital as Alexis Davis.
New episodes of General Hospital air weekdays on ABC and stream weeknights on Hulu.
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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 2:18 PM.