GH’s Kirsten Storms Says DAYS Dad Drake Hogestyn’s Passing Feels ‘Like It’s Not Real’
All The DAYS of Her Life: Kirsten Storms (ex-Belle, c.) with former on-screen parents Deidre Hall (Marlena) and the late Drake Hogestyn (ex-John).
Before she began playing Maxie Jones on General Hospital 20 years ago this week, Kirsten Storms spent five years on Days of Our Lives, where from1999 to 2004 she became a Salem fave in the role of Belle Black, daughter of supercouple John and Marlena. In a new interview with TV Insider, the actress opened up about the recent passing of Drake Hogestyn, the actor who played her DAYS dad.
Father Knows Best
Reflecting on her Salem experience, Storms noted that Hogestyn, who died after battling pancreatic cancer on September 28 of last year, “was my favorite person there” and recalled that he was “always in a good mood.”
As a guest on Soap Opera Digest’s podcast, Dishing With Digest, Storms shared that when she was tapped to play Belle and showed up to work on her first day at DAYS, Hogestyn and Deidre Hall (Marlena) were her first scene partners. While she described herself as intimidated by Hall (“I knew she was this powerhouse in daytime”), Hogestyn put her at ease immediately. “Drake was so goofy and fun that he kind of calmed my nerves,” she said.
She had an off-screen connection to the actor as well, since she used to be romantically linked to his son, Ben Hogestyn, who appeared on GH as Lucas Jones from 2005-06 and on Bold and Beautiful as Harry Jackson in 2006. As a result of that relationship, which ended amicably before they worked together as Port Charles cousins, Storms said, “I got to spend a lot of time with Drake and his family.”
Given her personal and professional ties to the elder Hogestyn, Storms was understandably rattled when she found out about his passing. “I was really upset when I heard,” she said. But she admitted that since so much time had passed since she’d last seen her on-screen dad, “I feel like it’s not real that he’s gone … I don’t feel that’s even set in for me, really.”
The Way We Were: Storms’s Belle and Jay Kenneth Johnson’s Philip were on hand when her parents renewed their vows in Las Vegas in 2002.
Conversation
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