Bill Hayes, who performed Doug Williams on Days of our Lives, has died. The actor was 98 years outdated, and appeared on the cleaning soap for 53 years.
Hayes’ loss of life was introduced by Days representatives in an emailed assertion. A reason for loss of life was not shared.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the passing of our beloved Bill Hayes,” the assertion reads. “One of the longest running characters on Days of our Lives, Bill originated the role of ‘Doug Williams’ in 1970 and portrayed him continuously throughout his life. He and his wife, Susan Seaforth-Hayes, remained the foundation of the Williams-Horton family spanning more than 50 years.”
“I have known Bill for most of my life and he embodied the heart and soul of Days of our Lives,” says government producer Ken Corday. “Although we are grieving and will miss him, Bill’s indelible legacy will live on in our hearts and the stories we tell, both on and off the screen.”
The Hayes are each legends of daytime tv. Seaforth-Hayes made her Days of Our Lives debut as Julie Olson in 1968, with Hayes becoming a member of in 1970. As their characters fell in love on-screen, so did they in actual life. The pair received married in 1974 and stayed collectively from that time on. Doug and Julie break up twice on the cleaning soap opera, however received again collectively for good in 1994.
Doug and Julie had been the “it” TV couple of the Seventies. The on and off-screen reputation of the couple led to them turning into the primary cleaning soap opera actors to look on the duvet of Time Magazine. In 2018, Hayes and Seaforth-Hayes had been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Daytime Emmys.
Susan Seaforth-Hayes and Bill Hayes for Days of Our Lives (© NBC / Courtesy: Everett Collection)
Hayes was born William Foster Hayes III in Harvey, Illinois, on June 5, 1925 and was raised within the Midwest. He was a freshman at DePauw University when he enlisted within the Navy Air Corps. On his 18th birthday, he obtained his orders to report for energetic responsibility. He educated to be a fighter pilot and was two weeks away from receiving his fee within the Marine Air Corps when World War II ended. He opted for civilian life when given the selection to reenlist.
Hayes was married to his first spouse, Mary Hobbs, from 1947 to 1969. They met at DePauw University and went on to have 5 kids. A gifted singer, Hayes was within the burlesque revue Funzapoppin in 1949 and joined the short-lived TV present, Your Show of Shows, starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in 1950.
His first movie function was in Stop, You’re Killing Me (1952) and he appeared in his first Broadway present, Me and Juliet, in 1953. He toured with the present after it was on Broadway for greater than a 12 months. Hayes recorded a efficiency of “The Ballad of Davey Crockett,” which turned a Billboard No. 1 hit and bought over three million copies. He was within the tour of Bye Bye Birdie and in addition was in reveals resembling Brigadoon, The Pajama Game, and George M!.
Hayes was solid in Days (then on NBC, now streaming on Peacock) in 1970 simply after his divorce from Hobbs. In 1984, after enjoying Doug for 14 consecutive years (throughout which the heyday of the Doug and Julie craze occurred), Hayes and Seaforth-Hayes left the collection attributable to a lower of their characters’ reputation. They returned intermittently till coming again as regulars in 1999. Hayes earned two Daytime Emmy nominations for his efficiency throughout these first 14 years.
Over the course of his 53 years on the cleaning soap opera, Hayes appeared in 2,141 episodes.