‘Days of Our Lives’ (DOOL) spoilers reveal that before the late Drake Hogestyn, who played John Black, passed away in September, the powers that be sought his approval for his character’s death.
‘Days Of Our Lives’ Spoilers: Days Had To Explain John’s Absence
Hogestyn was fighting his battle with pancreatic cancer, and the actor had to take time off the show because of his illness. And the soap was having difficulty with continuing to explain John’s absence from Salem.
The writers had to keep concocting creative ways to explain why John had been missing. Marlena recently said that John was visiting his childhood farm with his father.
John and Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall) had to celebrate their wedding anniversary without John present, and they had to come up with a reason why he wasn’t at the family gathering to honor the occasion. Eventually, the show started to run out of ways to account for John’s absence.
Executive Producer Ken Corday eventually decided that the best route the show could take was to kill off John while Hogestyn was still alive.
The actor personally approved the show’s writing about John’s death and holding his funeral while the actor was alive.
Corday explains his position in an interview with Soap Opera Digest,
“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. Drake was fighting, like a tiger, a very difficult disease,”
He said.
“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.”
‘Days Of Our Lives’ Spoilers: “The Story Had To Be Told”
Corday wanted to talk to Hogestyn about his plans first, to make sure it was okay. He reached out to the actor.
“I wanted to make sure Drake signed off on this, and he was totally in favor of it. He trusted me,”
He said.
“Had Drake, God willing, beaten this, he would have 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,”
He disclosed.
It must have been really emotional, especially for the cast members, to film his funeral, knowing Hogestyn probably wouldn’t have returned.
His disease had progressed, and it had been a long time since he had been on the soap. We can only imagine the strong emotions the other actors experienced having to dramatize the story of John’s passing.
Hogestyn’s co-star and on-screen leading lady promises that the material will be
“extremely moving.” “It’s just beautifully done,”
she stated.
Days will pull out all the stops to remember Hogestyn and John with plenty of flashbacks and old scenes to commemorate his time on the show.
Hogestyn had wanted to come back to the show, but his health was declining. It was a devastating decision for Corday to have to make.
Another of Hogestyn’s co-stars, Stephen Nichols, who plays Steve Johnson, said,
“Whenever he’s mentioned, everybody’s in on the conversation because we all loved him so much. So it’s been rough, but I’m keeping his spirit alive.”
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