Peacock
Before beloved star Drake Hogestyn passed away on September 28, Days of our Lives had already filmed the death of his character, John Black. In fact, the actor gave his personal approval to the poignant plot turn.
Saying Good-Bye
“We were rolling the dice, because it’s difficult to tell a story of someone’s death or a character’s death while the actor is still alive; albeit [Drake] was fighting, like a tiger, a very difficult disease,” explains Executive Producer Ken Corday, referring to Hogestyn’s battle with pancreatic cancer. “And I made the choice to, ‘Okay, let’s tell the story.’ He hadn’t been on [the show] in nine months. We needed a reason [for John’s absence].”
Corday wanted Hogestyn to know the plan ahead of time, so he reached out to him. “He and I were in contact,” says Corday, who notes, “I wanted to make sure Drake signed off on this, and he was totally in favor of it. He trusted me. Had Drake, God willing, beaten this, he would’ve come back, and it would’ve been something different. But [the story] had to be told. It was extremely difficult and painful for us to tell it — for the cast, for everybody. Drake was a big part of the show. The consummate actor. Always a team player and pretty good-looking, too.”
For Stephen Nichols (Steve), who worked with Hogestyn dating back to when the late actor joined the show in 1986, filming John’s demise was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And I didn’t, at first, agree with what was going on, because [Drake] was still living,” he shares. What made the difference for him was knowing that Hogestyn “gave his blessing to the storyline beforehand to Ken. So if it was okay with him, then I felt that I had to do my part.”
Nichols kept in close contact with Hogestyn as his illness progressed. “I was in touch with him every week, at least two or three days a week. We kept close, and I knew what was happening [with his health].” Getting through the fictional funeral, he reports, “was difficult, but everybody pulled together. We held each other together to get through it. We did what we could do, and I’m sure Drake would be happy [with how it turned out].”
Deidre Hall (Marlena), Hogestyn’s leading lady for decades, concurs that filming John’s death and subsequent funeral was hard. Yet, she chose not to let her awareness of the actor’s real-life illness fuel her performance. “I wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole,” declares Hall. “Drake was still with us. I know Ken had promised him a place to come back. He was looking forward to coming back, and he was fighting the good fight. So we had not said good-bye to him yet. And we weren’t thinking good-bye to him at that point.”
Hall promises that the material will be extremely moving. “It’s just beautifully done. You’re going to see a whole career of flashbacks that will take you back to [John and Marlena’s] first handshake at Shenanigans, when he first rescued her, the pier scene…” recounts Hall. “It will go through all the years. There’s a lot of history and a lot of heart.”
What made filming John Black’s death somewhat easier for Hall was knowing “how the audience will receive it,” the actress muses. “So I wasn’t alone out there. They were sitting right beside me going, ‘Oh, say this and say that and feel this.’ And, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m with you. I’m with you.’ There was such a wealth of experience and emotion that everybody brought to it along with me. So I didn’t have to carry it alone.”
And while the DAYS cast knows that the show must go on, Hogestyn’s absence has left “a huge void” at the DAYS studio, according to Nichols. “Everybody thinks about him and talks about him every day,” the actor says. “Whenever he is mentioned, everybody’s in on the conversation because we all loved him so much. He was a lovable guy. There are some people who pass away and you don’t think about them much, because they didn’t make such an impact in the world. Drake did. So it’s been rough, but I’m keeping his spirit alive.”
