Stephen Schnetzer Was ‘Really Excited’ To Make A DAYS Comeback As Julie’s Brother
As Days of Our Lives‘s emotional farewell to Doug Williams (the late Bill Hayes) continues next week, his widow, Julie Williams, will be surrounded by many faces from her past — including her brother, Steve Olson, whose portrayer, Stephen Schnetzer, is making a short-term return to the soap where he began his daytime career.
The Long Way Home
Schnetzer, whose DAYS comeback will kick off on Monday, December 2, originally appeared on the show from 1978-80. When shady Steve fled Salem nearly 45 years ago, Schnetzer relocated from Los Angeles, where DAYS is produced, to New York, where he starred on One Life To Live (Marcello Salta, 1980-82) and Another World (Cass Winthrop, 1982-99). After AW went off the air, he made appearances as Cass, his signature role, on both As The World Turns (1999-2002; 2005; 2006) and Guiding Light (2002).
In a new interview with TV Insider, Schnetzer described himself as “very enthusiastic” to get the call from DAYS inviting him to take part in the send-off for Doug, his character’s brother-in-law. He enthused, “I was really excited to go back and it was just great to see how many people were still there from when I was there.”
Schnetzer in a scene with Salem sister Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie) airing next week.
Chief among those former co-stars was, of course, Susan Seaforth Hayes, his Salem sibling. The actor shared that while he and Seaforth Hayes had fallen out of touch in the decades since they last worked together, he reached out to her once he and DAYS struck a deal for his return. “I just reminded her how important she and Bill were to me,” Schnetzer explained, noting that when he worked with the reel- and real-life couple back in the day, he had never acted in front of TV cameras before, “and they were very gentle, kind, and supportive.”
Schnetzer as DAYS’s Steve opposite the late Bil Hayes as Doug.
Their Salem reunion was a special one, Schnetzer said. “It was so sweet to work with Susan again, and I really love that they gave me a couple of interesting episodes to play.”
Seaforth Hayes wasn’t the only actor he was happy to see again; not only did he have the opportunity to reconnect with people who had been on DAYS during his original stint, including Deidre Hall (Marlena), Suzanne Rogers (Maggie) and Josh Taylor (Roman, who was then playing Chris Kositchek), but he got to see friends from his days on OLTL and AW: Matthew Ashford (Jack), was his Llanview co-star as Drew Ralston, while he worked opposite Judi Evans (Bonnie) for nearly a decade when she was on AW as Paulina. “Judi, she hasn’t changed a bit,” Schnetzer marveled.
Schnetzer and former AW co-star Judi Evans (Bonnie) backstage at DAYS.
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