JUST THE FACTS:
Born On: August 6
Early Ambition: Professional football
Golf Handicap: "Anywhere from a 7 to a 15, depending on the day."
On Peter Simon (ex-Ed): "That they never gave him a storyline is an outrage. It was like taking a hundred-dollar bill and just sticking it in a box."
Favorite FRIEND: Chandler

Though he's a team player to the bitter end, Grant Aleksander just can't help rolling his eyes at the GL dynasty he has called family off and on since Phillip Spaulding grew up overnight (literally) back in 1982.

"EVERYTHING about the Spauldings is dysfunctional," the actor merrily concedes. "Nobody really trusts anybody. Nobody's ever really sincere. I have a feeling that being a Spaulding is a lot like being in the British royal family." Does Aleksander draw any parallels between his beleaguered character and England's equally harried Prince Charles? "Actually, I do," he smiles, blue eyes shining. "And it's frightening."

At least the hysteria surrounding Aleksander and his portrayal of the Spaulding crown prince has subsided somewhat. During his first bout with the character, obsessive fans would lurk outside GL's Manhattan studio, praying for a glimpse of their favorite hero and the other three Musketeers, Judi Evans Luciano (Beth, now ANOTHER WORLD's Paulina), Michael O'Leary (Rick) and Krista Tesreau (ex-Mindy). Despite that madness, Aleksander recalls those days the same way he remembers good times in high school and college. "They have that real warm, fuzzy feeling of distance," he shares. "But even at the time, we all knew we had something great going."

Even so, Aleksander was tempted by Hollywood, and left the Spaulding Empire in 1984. (John Bolger, now AW's Gabe, took over the part.) "I was young and full of myself," the actor sighs, "and I was fairly ambitious. I did my pilot, some guest spots, a little part in a movie and one day, I realized I had lost my ambition." A return to GL followed in 1986. This time, Aleksander stayed for five years. His 1991 departure was precipitated by severe burnout and tragically, the death of both parents.

"I still think about my folks several times a day," he says, not softly, but normally, matter-of-factly, a clear sign that the pain has lessened. "My love for them went to rock bottom, but...it just gets easier. It's a cliche, but you give it enough time, and it gets easier." He pauses. "It hits you worst when you get great news or really bad news; the first thing you want to do is call your parents. A lot of times, I still have that impulse. Those habits take a long time to go away."

Luckily, the actor had his wife, Sherry Ramsey, to help him. "She was a godsend," he nods. "Without her, I don't know what I would have done." The couple has been together for 16 years now, married for eight. They met in college, at Washington and Lee University, when she played Ophelia to his Hamlet. It was love at first sight, he says: "I still remember exactly what she had on when she first walked into the room."

Yeah, right.

"She was wearing those Levis jeans they used to make for women that had the white patch on the back, a square white patch with a little black emblem, donkeys dragging a cart or something. She had on this peasant blouse, blue-and-white pinstripes, really thin stripes. I can remember just how her hair was, and I remember the air. You know how someone walks by you, and half a second later, there's that rush of air? It was like that, there was a kind of rush and I just kept watching her and..."

Okay, so he DOES remember.

The couple plans on having kids, though everything's kind of on hold, since Sherry's in law school at the moment. "The biological clock may run out on us, but we would both be really happy to adopt. I can see us doing that." In the meantime, they've got their hands full with the veritable menagerie that shares their Upper West Side apartment.

"I'm not allowed to say how many animals we have," Aleksander grins. "Let's just say it's more than five and less than 40." Anticipating the next question, he laughs, "No, it doesn't smell, because I'm incredibly compulsive. I clean a LOT. But we don't buy many black clothes anymore, we've got lint rollers all over the place and vacuum at least once a day. You alter your life," he shrugs. "And ultimately, what the animals give us is worth so much more than the effort we have to put into them."

If Sherry and the as-yet-undetermined number of cats and dogs helped the healing process, so did Aleksander's 1993 return to daytime as ALL MY CHILDREN's Alec McIntyre, a throwback to his brief run as CAPITOL's villainous D.J. Phillips in 1986. "It's so funny," he says, "but when fans come up to me, I can tell what network they watch. If they seem a little leery of me, I figure they must watch ABC. And if they give me a big smile, then it's CBS."

Now four months into this, his second reprisal of Phillip, Aleksander swears that, despite new writers, new producers, a largely new cast and an entirely new set of Spauldings, GL hasn't changed much. "I'M different now," he points out. "I'm older, less intense, more experienced. But everything else is basically the same. For me, at least. And for Phillip." He takes a deep breath, lets it out slowly and smiles. "You know what they say, right?"

What?

"Once a Spaulding, always a Spaulding."

SIDEBAR: "Complications at Birth"

Phillip may be a Spaulding prince, but he's a Marler by birth. Here's the play-by-play on the bizarre family jump:

1. Justin Marler (Ross's brother) gets wife Jackie pregnant. After Jackie find Justin in bed with Brandy Shellooe, she races to Europe for a divorce. Overseas, Jackie gives baby Phillip up for adoption, but claims she had an abortion.

2. Back in Springfield, Alan and Elizabeth Spaulding eagerly await the birth of their child. When Elizabeth gives birth to a stillborn baby, Alan illegally adopts Phillip - and tells his wife that the baby is her biological child.

3. Alan divorces Elizabeth and weds Jackie, who secretly wanted to be near Phillip. The situation is further confused by Justin's marriage to Elizabeth - meaning that both of Phillip's mothers had been married to both of his fathers!