"Ready, Willis, and Able"

Birthday: March 1

States Of Mine: Willis grew up in Atlanta, but her family moved to California when she was around 8.

Sibling Revelry: She has two sisters and a brother.

Piece of the Pie: "I try not to eat it too much, but pizza is my favorite food. I could live on it."

Roll Call: In addition to her previous soap stint as Another World's Alli, Willis has been recurring on primetime's 7th Heaven since 1996.

Beach Boy: Willis has been dating her boyfriend, Mike, for a year-and-a-half. "He's a sales rep for Billabong and for DVS, a skate-shoe company. He's my surfer boy. I love him."

Good Sports: Heavily into athletics, Willis is adept at skiing, surfing, kickboxing, soccer, you name it. "Oddly enough, knock on wood, I haven't broken any bones. I just have stitches everywhere!"

In retrospect, General Hospital's Alicia Leigh Willis (Courtney) pretty much owes everything to one man: Tony the Tiger. Okay, so he's an animated character; let's not split hairs. But it was a national commercial in which she played beach volleyball, of all things, with the iconic Frosted Flakes spokes-cartoon that gave her acting career just the spike it needed. "I got it when I was 15," recalls the actress. "But it was like, a goof. I didn't think I was going to get it. They wanted real volleyball players, and I played volleyball, so I was like, 'I'll go sure'. There were hundreds of girls trying out for it. They made me go out onto the beach and play volleyball. I was a pretty good player at the time, so I just had fun with it." A little too much fun, she thought. "They wanted me to do that, 'They're grrrreat!' line," Willis grins, "but I thought it was so dorky that I kept cracking up. I was thinking, 'There is no way I am going to do this. I can't even say the line!' But for some reason, I got it." When it came to shooting the actual commercial, "It was supposed to be me and Tony the Tiger playing against these two guys." In reality, her "teammate" was a female pro volleyball player "in an orange jumpsuit," laughs Willis. "They put the cartoon over her [in post-production]. It was a crazy experience. So corny."

Word of Willis's work spread fast, which was not necessarily a good thing, considering it was her first year of high school--a time when attention from other students isn't always a positive thing. "Everyone had seen it," she groans. "Everywhere I went, it was like, 'Hey, Tony! You're grrrreat!' I was like, 'Oh man.' It wasn't the best way to start my freshman year of high school [laughs]. I'll go back to [my hometown] today, and old friends will still give me a hard time about it."

Truth be told, the acting game was nothing new to Willis by the time she played ball with Tony. In addition to her father, David E. Willis, being an actor, she's actually done a few commercials in her younger days. "I probably did my first commercial when I was about 4," she notes. "I did some bank commercial where I lost my teddy bear [laughs]. That was in Atlanta, when we lived there. When we came [to California] so my dad could pursue a career as an actor, I was around 8 years old and had gone out on a few auditions. But I decided that I really didn't want to do it anymore. So, I didn't get back into it until the Frosted Flakes commercial."

That experience whetted Willis's appetite enough that she opted to jump back into the biz. "I got an agent out of [the Frosted Flakes spot], and my mom started driving me up to L.A. for auditions. I booked 7th Heaven when I was 16 or 17, and that little one-liner role turned into...I think I've done about 20 episodes."

Once Willis graduated from high school, she began pursuing her dreams full time. "I know a lot of people who went to college for years and still don't know what they want to do," she muses of forgoing college. "I've known what I wanted to do since I was about 16. No matter how hard it got, I knew that I had to keep at it."

That bolstered her through the part-time jobs she held down while living in L.A. and riding the audition circuit. "I worked like, three jobs," grins the actress, who was then around 18 and attending acting school. "I was a flower girl, a hostess, and a waitress. Oh, I was the worst waitress. I feel so sorry for all the people I waited on! So, yeah, it was tough. But it was worth it because after a couple of years of doing guest spots, I booked Another World and moved to New York."

Though her arrival in 1999 preceded the show's cancellation by a mere six months, Willis still relishes her World turn. "It was great. It was my first steady acting job. It taught me so much. I'd never watched soaps before, so I didn't know what to expect. But it was amazing. As much as I would have liked the show to stay on because I loved working with everyone, it was kind of a good thing that it got canceled. It taught me how quickly things can be taken away from you."

After AW ended, Willis remained in New York for about six months, then headed back to the West Coast to resume her acting training and auditioning. "And then I got General Hospital," she smiles broadly. "It's funny, because I said that if there was one soap I really wanted to do, it was [GH]. I had seen a few episodes, and Maurice [Benard, Sonny] really caught my eye with his acting. I was like, 'Wow, that guy is good! He's got that Pacino thing going on!' So, when they brought me in and said, 'We want you to read for Sonny's sister,' I was like, 'Sure, I can see the family resemblance. Should I even bother [laughs]?"

The effort, of course, paid off, and Willis has been working steadily with Benard and on-screen love interest Billy Warlock (A.J.) ever since. "The first time I worked with Maurice, I was a little nervous. But I just took a deep breath and went with it. I love working with him. It's fun and it's fiery. He's so easy to work off of." As is Warlock. "I really, really like working with Billy. He's a good guy, and I have a lot of respect for him as an actor. I consider him a friend. We have so much fun working together and we have a good chemistry because we respect each other."

While she feels right at home now, Willis again acknowledges lessons learned. "When I first started on GH, which is always kind of the case with a newcomer, you're walking on eggshells," she explains. "Now, I feel more comfortable. But I still know that no matter how well things go, it can always be taken away. I always have that in the back of my head. But I feel so fortunate. So many people who have been in this business for a long time would kill to be in my position. I know that. I'm very happy. And I'd like good things to come Courtney's way. She deserves it. She's been through a lot and is a good person. I don't want to see her go evil," Willis smiles, adding, "at least, not yet."

7th Signs: Judging by how many people she already knew in her first days onset, you might've thought Willis was an old hat at GH. "I knew Robin [Christopher, Skye] from her husband, Matt [Crane, ex-Matt, AW], because he played my uncle," she relates. "And one of the hairdressers here, Kit, did '7th Heaven' with me when I was like, 16. So, I've known her for years. And of course Nancy [Lee Grahn, Alexis] was the principal [on '7th Heaven'], who got my character in trouble, so I'm a little upset with her about that [laughs]. No, it's great in this business to see familiar faces, because it sets you at ease a little bit. Robin and Nancy are so nice; two great ladies. They've been very cool to me."