Don Hastings
ON SOAP OPERA DIGEST AND WEEKLY ONLINE
SOAP STAR STATS
Don Hastings (Bob, ATWT)
Vital Statistics
- Birthdate:
- April 18
- Birthplace:
- Brooklyn, NY
- Star Sign:
- Aries
- Years On Show:
- 1960-present
- Marital Status:
- Married since 1980 to Leslie Denniston (ex-Carolyn, ex-Karen, ATWT; ex-Jessica, RYAN'S HOPE; ex-Maeve, GUIDING LIGHT)
- Children:
- Katharine (b. 9/23/82) with Denniston; Jennifer, Julie and Matthew from a previous marriage
THE 411
Since 1960, he's been Oakdale Memorial's steadfast, avuncular Dr. Bob, and while he shares his debonair doctor's kindness and charm, Don Hastings rarely gets to display the sharp wit for which he is beloved at the ATWT studio. "He's like Johnny Carson — he should have had his own talk show," praises Michael Park (Jack, also no slouch when it comes to keeping castmates in stitches).
Hastings, who grew up in New York City's outer boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, got his start in show business when he accompanied older brother Bob Hastings (who later played GENERAL HOSPITAL's Burt Ramsay) on an audition for a children's radio show. The younger Hastings won a gig on the national radio program COAST TO COAST ON A BUS, but soon gave up singing for acting. By 1941, the then-7-year-old was touring the country in the smash stage hit Life With Father with, appropriately enough, his dad, who got work with the crew. ("I had a stage father rather than a stage mother," Hastings said.) When he was 15 — with extensive credits in stage, film and the newest medium, television, under his belt already — Hastings achieved teen idol status as the Video Ranger on CAPTAIN VIDEO. He joined EDGE OF NIGHT as Jack Lane when it debuted in 1956, then moved to ATWT when newlywed Bob was aged in 1960. "[Fans] thought, 'What is Jack Lane doing in Oakdale?' " he laughs. "I did EDGE on Monday and Tuesday and I did WORLD TURNS Thursday and Friday of the same week." Hastings was honored with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle award, which recognizes people with a minimum of 25 years of achievement in the television industry, and shared the 1998 Soap Opera Digest Editors' Award with Kathryn Hays (Kim). He received a Daytime Emmy for Lifetime Achievement in 2004.
He lives with his wife in upstate New York.
ET CETERA
Six Random Facts
—Has been a member of the Screen Actor's Guild longer than his on-screen mom, Helen Wagner (Nancy).
—Was an ATWT script writer from 1971-72 under the legendary Irna Phillips, and he also wrote some scripts for GL.
—As a child actor, he turned down many jobs so as not to miss his baseball games. He once dreamed of joining the Brooklyn Dodgers.
—Was never drafted, but did many military training films. "I never got to be a colonel, though I achieved the rank of major without ever firing a shot," he joked to Soap Opera Weekly in 1995.
—CAPTAIN VIDEO went off the air in the summer of 1955; Hastings joined EDGE in April 1956. The months between were the only time he has been without an employment contract since age 6.
—Worked with Marlon Brando on stage in I Remember Mama. "That was when he spoke like everyone else, before Streetcar," Hastings told Weekly.
OTHER ROLES
Regular TV Roles
EDGE OF NIGHT (Jack Lane, 1956-60)
CAPTAIN VIDEO (The Video Ranger, 1949-55)
Early TV Appearances
OUR PRIVATE WORLD (Bob Hughes, 1965)
DECOY (Dave, 1958)
A DATE WITH LIFE (1955)
STUDIO ONE (1955)
CRUNCH AND DES (1955)
MODERN ROMANCES (1954)
THE MAGIC COTTAGE (1949)
THE CHEVROLET TELE-THEATRE (1949)
TV Movie Roles
ENGAGED TO KILL (Albert Lennox, 2006)
Film Roles
Decoys (Medical Examiner, 2004)
Theatre
Summer and Smoke (1948)
A Young Man's Fancy (1947)
On Whitman Avenue (1946)
I Remember Mama (1944)
THE GOOD DOCTOR
"I know — because I know so much about his life — that there's a fairness and balance which he brings to Bob. It's just a joy to work with him!" — Kathryn Hays (Kim), Soap Opera Digest, 11/5/85
"I have had people say, 'How can you do that show every day and still practice medicine?' Through the years, I've had two offers to practice. One was a joke and I think the other one was serious. Some little town had no doctor and they asked me if I would come." — Digest, 12/9/97
"Larry Bryggman [ex-John] and I — that was our goal in life, to look professional and not like a couple of actors bumping around with stethoscopes.... I'd say [Bob's] a great doctor. It's amazing, with a high school education!" — Digest, 3/7/06
"And my first note from Ted Corday was 'If he comes through that door smiling, our ratings will go down.' Because I inherited the part from somebody else, and Bob had all these problems." — Digest, 4/4/06
ACTING IS ACTING
"[Legendary TV Executive] Fred Silverman once asked me what I thought of making the prime-time and daytime Emmys separate and I said, 'I think that makes us second-class citizens.' I'm not a member of the Academy." — Digest, 7/26/88
"Anybody who says, 'I write soaps to make a living, but I'm really a better writer than that,' I'd like to take out and shoot! Because whatever job you do, you do the best you can." — Digest, 12/9/97
IT'S A LIVING
"It probably took me 30 years before I hung a picture on the dressing room wall. It's the curse: Once you start feeling comfortable, you're out of work." — Weekly, 1/3/95
