JUST THE FACTS:
Born On: August 6
Hails From: Baltimore, MD
Best Quality: Sincerity
Worst Quality: Stubbornness
He Drives: A Lexus RX 300
Must-See TV: ALL IN THE FAMILY reruns
Last Book Read: From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman
Cooking Specialty: Pasta. “I learned a pretty good marinara sauce while I was in Italy being a horrible model.”

“You guys definitely have it tough,” says veteran interviewee Grant Aleksander (Phillip, GUIDING LIGHT), referring to reporters looking for a fresh spin on him. “It’s difficult to guess what somebody either hasn’t heard about me already or would be interested to hear. Not that I approach interviews that way, but I think people feel like I’ve been around for a long time and they know who I am. They know most of the basics about me, at least. And there isn’t that much more to know, in all honesty.”

That wasn’t always the case, of course. Back in December, 1982, Aleksander was the brand-new, thick-haired scion of GL’s Spaulding dynasty, and everything he had to say to the press—about Phillip’s love for Beth, about how Phillip and Rick’s relationship mirrored his own real-life friendship with Michael O’Leary (Rick), about the actor’s girlfriend, Sherry—had never before been said.

In the ensuring two decades, the actor’s life changed dramatically: He quit GL twice, tried out Hollywood, married Sherry, lost both of his parents, acted on both CAPITOL and ALL MY CHILDREN and became a leading advocate for animal rights. Strangely, though, he has ended up in what is, at least superficially, the same spot he was in back in 1982. He and his character still love the same women, still have the same pals, still have all that hair—and so, logically, he’s still talking about the same things.

“To the extent that people are interested in my life—and I still don’t feel like people are interested in my life—there’s not that much new to say.” Could he be harboring some deep, dark secret—drug addiction, perhaps, or mild psychosis? “Maybe,” he laughs, “but you know what? Not really. I met Sherry when I was 19, and we’ve had a great life, but it’s pretty boring when you get right down to it. Yes, we have had our hard times—we had a run of a few years when we had a lot of things in a row that were difficult to deal with, but they’re not things that I talk about publicly.

“But even if I did talk about that stuff, it’s not like anyone would be that interested,” he continues. “Once you get past that first, I-didn’t-know-that stage, everybody’s life is the same, just ups and downs. If you’re an actor or someone in the public eye, people assume that your life is greatly different from theirs. And I’m not anxious to disabuse people of that notion because I think it’s part of the fantasy, something they enjoy. But the lives of people who work in TV—at least, the people I’ve known—are not that different from those of people who don’t work on TV.”

The actor prizes his life’s stability. “Sherry and I have been together for 22 years, and I still love her as much as I ever have, if not more,” he notes. “We consider ourselves to be incredibly lucky to have had this much time together. And as for being in daytime for so long, I know many people who can sing and dance and do things that I can’t do who would crawl over glass to have had half the good fortune I’ve had in this business.”

In recognition of that and of the fans who made it that way, Aleksander feels duty-bound to maintain a sense of stability in Phillip’s life, as well. If his scripts call for him to do something out of character, he’ll often speak up or rework things on his own. “People want to recognize the characters,” he insists. “If you do something inconsistent, you’re gonna hear about it. I got mail about different storylines for years, saying, ‘Why are you doing that?’ And I didn’t have any good answers for anybody other than, ‘This is what I was told to do.’”

For the most part, he’d rather not grumble about that in the press. Asked about the just-wrapped Lorelai saga, for instance, he opts for diplomacy: “I was really happy for Beth Chamberlin [Beth/Lorelai].” But he wasn’t to illustrate his last point, so he mentions the Phillip/Harley romance. “I never understood it from the beginning, and the thing is, I’m not a good enough actor to just say the words without understanding what I’m doing. I tried to figure it out, but I couldn’t, so after awhile, I stopped trying to be Phillip. I was [playing] somebody else. And I was okay with that,” he insists. “First of all, people seemed to be enjoying the story, and if that’s the case, if people like Phillip and Harley together, then who am I to say it doesn’t make sense? Obviously, we were doing something right. And second, it’s not my decision, anyway. My only decision, every couple of years, is to say, ‘ don’t want to be here anymore.’ If you decide to stay, you have to accept the fact that it’s not always going to be perfect.”

Importantly, that actually is a decision for Aleksander. After two decades of AFTRA-buttressed salaries, he doesn’t really need the money anymore. “I’ve made a good living for a long time, and I don’t have a frivolous lifestyle,” he notes. “We do have some homes, but they’re not outlandish. We saved money, and I don’t need a whole lot of money to enjoy life anyway. So, yeah, I could afford to leave, and that’s been the case for a number of years now.

“But if you look through the excuses, you’ll find the truth,” the actor concludes. “I re-signed my contract in March because I like it here. It suits me. I’m a blue-collar guy in a lot of ways. I like going to work with the same people every day. I don’t want to be too famous. I don’t want to be recognized constantly and have people know too much about my business. All of those things point to daytime. I like being just famous enough to bring attention to causes that are important to me, like the animals.”

And on that note: “I know people get sick of me talking about the animals, but if you could find a way to work this in, animals that are grown for slaughter have no protection under the law. They’re stuck in cages so tight, they can’t even turn around. I want to make people aware of this and ask them to urge their legislators to adopt humane standards for the treatment of factory farm animals. It’s not a question of vegetarianism. It’s a question of decency. And I believe in the basic goodness of people.”

SIDEBAR: "20/20 Vision"

Looking back on 20 years in Springfield, Aleksander sees himself in some of GL’s current younger actors. “I only feel a few years older than them, but then I think, ‘No, they could be my sons,’” he laughs. “That’s a little odd. But there’s another side to it that I really like. I’m not an angry young man anymore, walking around, breaking down doors, throwing fits. I’ve mellowed a lot. But Jordi [Vilasuso, Tony] and Matthew [Bomer, Ben] remind me of how I used to be, mostly in how hard they work and how serious they are about what they do. I’ve always loved history, and there’s something fitting about seeing these young guys strutting and fretting on the stage, just like I used to do. It’s reassuring. It’s like the next generation coming along, and it’s great because it makes me realize that our medium is still viable.”