Alex Gwendolyn Olanov is a fictional character from the long-running ABC soap opera One Life to Live. She was portrayed by Tonja Walker since the character's inception in 1990 to 1997, with appearances in 2001, 2002, 2007, 2009, and 2011 .
Storylines
Arrival
In 1990, federal agent Alex Olanov comes to Llanview, Pennsylvania to help Bo Buchanan find his missing wife Sarah Gordon, presumably kidnapped by mob boss Carlo Hesser. Sarah is later presumed dead in a plane crash, and Alex develops feelings for Bo. When he falls in love with Cassie Callison, Alex becomes obsessed with him. Losing touch with reality, Alex tries to kill Cassie but is ultimately arrested and institutionalized. She later escapes and reappears at Bo and Cassie's wedding with a very-much-alive Sarah in tow, before being taken back to the mental institution.
Asa and Exit
Alex soon returns in 1992 and becomes the wife of Carlo. When he is murdered, she tries to assume control of his crime syndicate but is ultimately unsuccessful. Alex then pursues billionaire Asa Buchanan, who at first resists but ultimately marries her in a November 1994 Egyptian-themed wedding in Central Park. Alex is elected mayor of Llanview and Carlo turns up alive in 1996, invalidating her marriage to Asa; Carlo and Alex engage in an affair even as she divorces him and remarries Asa on March 29, 1996. They soon divorce, however, once Asa discovers her infidelity with Carlo; as a "pregnant" Alex prepares to remarry Carlo, Asa reveals that she is faking her condition and Carlo breaks off their engagement.
Carlo is seemingly murdered again in 1996, and Alex is arrested for the crime; hoping to get away with murder, she makes a deal with The Sun publisher Todd Manning, trading her exclusive story for his paying her legal fees. Lawyer Téa Delgado has the charges dropped. After donating bone marrow to Todd's baby daughter Starr Manning, Alex leaves town in July 1997 with a huge chunk of Asa's fortune and a very-much alive Carlo, who reveals that it was actually his twin brother Mortimer whom she killed.
Returns
In 2001, Asa brings Alex, who had been working as a stripper after Carlo dumped her yet again, back to town under the pretense of wanting to remarry her, but he marries Gabrielle Medina instead. Humiliated just as a vengeful Asa had wanted, Alex leaves Llanview but returns later that year for the reading of Asa's will; fleeing to Asa's private island with his ashes, she discovers a very-much-alive Asa. Alex attempts to blackmail Asa into remarrying her, but he turns the tables on Alex and tricks her into instead marrying a janitor (using Asa'a longtime alias, "Jeb Stuart").
In April 2002, Alex, now in the process of divorcing Jeb, returns to Llanview yet again at the behest of Todd Manning, who bribes her into donating bone marrow to his and Blair's ailing infant son Jack, who had been diagnosed with aplastic anemia (the same disease Todd's daughter, Starr, suffered from in 1997 when Alex donated bone marrow to her). After the successful operation, Alex attempts to seduce Bo; realizing he has no interest in her, Alex leaves town once again.
Alex returns to Llanview in August 2007, this time for Asa's real funeral. She overhears Asa's butler Nigel Bartholomew-Smythe tell Max Holden that David Vickers is secretly Asa's biological son, and takes off to find David. Smelling money, Alex discovers David working at a rehabilitation clinic in November 2007; acting the part of a wealthy widow with a sex addiction, Alex preys upon old acquaintance David's greed to convince him to marry her on November 9, 2007, never mentioning his true parentage. Both David and Alex are playing each other, falsely believing that the other has come into money. Alex and David get married and briefly go back to Llanview; they run into David's ex-wife Dorian Lord at the airport and follow her to the Buchanan ranch in Texas, where Asa's will has been read. Once there, Alex blackmails Nigel with the truth about David; he has her tied up and gagged in the barn. Alex is crushed to discover that David has been left no money, but Nigel gives Alex his own inheritance from Asa — Asa's yacht, and the deed to his private resort, St. Blaze's Island — in exchange for her silence. Placated, Alex dumps David unceremoniously and skips town. On her way out, Alex accidentally backs over Dorian with her car.