DAYS’s Deidre Hall on John’s Death: ‘Hardest Day Ever’
The June 2 episode of Days of Our Lives was a heartbreaking one for viewers as they watched John Black die after nearly four decades on the soap, reflecting the real-life passing of portrayer Drake Hogestyn. It was also a difficult show for the cast and crew, such as longtime co-star and dear friend Deidre Hall (Marlena), who shared on Instagram a simple message with fans in white text on a black box: “I know. I know. Hardest day ever.”
Saying Goodbye
John was gravely injured after being caught in an explosion while retrieving the drug that could save Bo’s life, and family and friends gathered around his bedside to pray for him and reflect on how he’d impacted their lives. When John’s condition took a turn for the worse, Marlena remained by his side until the very end, tearfully assuring her husband that it was okay for him to go.
Hogestyn passed away on Sept. 28, 2024, but because DAYS shoots episodes so far in advance, the storyline of John’s death was done while the actor was still alive and battling pancreatic cancer. “He and I were in contact,” Executive Producer Ken Corday told Soap Opera Digest of working with Hogestyn on the storyline explaining John’s extended absence from the canvas. “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 have come back, and it would have 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.”
Hall, who had been playing Dr. Marlena Evans on DAYS since 1976, screen tested with Hogestyn back when he first joined the soap in 1986. “I tested with him because I would’ve been playing with him,” she recalled to Digest in 2015, “and when everybody was done — they look at all of the scenes, obviously — and I got called upstairs saying, ‘Okay, we know what we think, what do you think, because you’ve got to work with him?’ And everybody was in agreement, and it was Drake! Nobody came close to being the kind of figure, and having that sort of magic and chemistry and the male hero attraction. And that was the beginning of it.”
Over the course of the following decades, John Black’s life went through numerous ups and downs where he at times believed he was a priest, Roman Brady, a DiMera, and more. But through it all, John and Marlena’s love remained the one constant for fans. “I’ve often said that love stories are more profound when they’re ‘re-love’ stories,” Hall mused to Soaps In Depth in 2014. “John and Marlena have fallen in love many times — back when she thought he was Roman and then again when she realized he wasn’t. It’s always great to fall in love again. The audience gets to see it again.”
While filming the scenes of Marlena grieving John’s death was difficult for the actress, Hall told Digest that it helped knowing “how the audience will receive it. 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.”
What are your thoughts on how DAYS chose to handle John’s demise? Let us know in the comments below.
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