‘Days of Our Lives’ (DOOL) spoilers find that star Bill Hayes celebrated his 96th birthday this weekend with wife, Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie Williams) by his side.
“If you touch my bunk, I’ll kill you.”
This was the first line uttered by Hayes–to his cellmate–when he joined the long-running soap in 1970. A favorite in Salem for 51 years, his beginnings were different from the lovable father, grandfather and husband we know today. In fact, his name wasn’t even Doug Williams. It was Brent Douglas, and he was an incarcerated conman.
‘Days of Our Lives’: Bill Hayes (Doug Williams) Turns 96 Years Old.
Executive producer, Ken Corday is a huge fan of the incredibly youthful nonagenarian saying of his longtime friend and co-worker, “He is just warm and wonderful. He pops onto the set and is just affable and friendly and has that same great rhythm and tone we’ve all come to know and love. The man you see on screen is very much the man Bill is off screen.”
As for the secret to Hayes’ unbelievable vitality? Corday puts it down to three key elements: “His faith is very, very deep,” Corday explained. “His love for his wife is very, very great. And he is an eternal optimist.”
Hayes met his wife, Susan Seaforth (now Seaforth-Hayes) on the DOOL set. As Julie and Doug fell in love on screen, so did Bill and Susan. The model of a happy marriage, Bill was even quoted as saying why having a real life doppleganger (as many characters on the show he has starred in for over 5 decades do) could be a positive:
“I’d do the scenes with Julie; he could do all the other scenes.”
Everyone on set can agree, “He’s one of the good guys. And because he puts it out there like that, it comes back to him,” Corday continued to gush.
While fans have been watching Hayes put it all out there on the screen as Doug, there is one more talent he has managed to keep secret:
“He’s also a hell of a good tap dancer!” Corday revealed.
Join us in wishing Bill a happy 96th birthday in the comments below and be sure to catch Days of our Lives, weekdays on NBC.
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