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One of daytime’s most beloved and iconic stars, Days of our lives‘s Drake Hogestyn (John Black), died on September 28, 2024, one day before his 71st birthday.

In a statement shared via DAYS, the Hogestyn family wrote:

Executive producer Ken Corday added: “This is a very difficult issue for all of us. Hogey was the ultimate team player and there are not enough words to express how deeply he will be missed. His impact on our show, both personally and professionally, was profound and will forever remain unparalleled.”

A legendary life

Born Donald Drake Hogestyn in Fort Wayne, Indiana on September 27, 1953, the future soap opera superstar left his home state after graduating high school to attend the University of South Florida on a baseball scholarship. There he studied pre-dental medicine and graduated with a double major in microbiology and applied sciences, with the intention of becoming an oral surgeon. But after graduating college, he was drafted by two Major League Baseball teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees. He chose to sign with the Yankees and played third base on one of the organization’s farm teams in Oneonta, NY.

After an injury ended his promising baseball career in 1977, Hogestyn began his transition into showbiz, participating in a national talent show conducted by Columbia Pictures with 75,000 participants. He was one of thirty actors chosen to participate in a studio-sponsored acting training program headed to Los Angeles. He made his television debut in the 1982 series Seven brides for seven brotherswhich ran for one season on CBS. Hogestyn played the role of Ben McFadden, the second eldest of the seven McFadden sons; Richard Dean Anderson, fresh from his breakout role as Jeff Webber General Hospitalplayed Hogestyn’s older brother, Adam McFadden.

After that show wrapped, Hogestyn had a few more prime-time roles, such as Kort in CBS’ short-lived science fiction series Other world in 1985. In 1984, he auditioned for the role of Kyle Sampson in Guiding lightwho went to Larkin Malloy. The following year he was invited to audition for DAYS, but when he first showed up for the tryout, Hogestyn had hardly set his heart on the work – not least because his heart was back in Indiana, in the shape of his future wife, Victoria. He remembered Soap Digest in 2015: “I started courting Victoria and flew back to Fort Wayne and DAYS was my last audition as far as I was concerned. I pulled up my Jeep and thought, ‘This is perfect. This is exactly where I started, at Columbia Pictures in the talent program. This is the first gate I walked through and it will be the last I go through. Let’s put an end to it.’ ”

Luckily, he continued, “(I) stopped myself and said, ‘What kind of attitude is that? Let’s put an end to this?’ I got back in my Jeep, drove it around the block, pulled back into the parking lot and said, “Give them to me.” And I walked in and when (Casting Director) Doris Sabbagh started describing the character, I pulled (the book) The Bourne Identity out of my briefcase and said, “Doris, are you talking about Jason Bourne?” And she said, ‘Yes, but we’ll call him John Black! It only lasts a few months, through a sweeps period, and then you’re free to do whatever you want to do.” ”

Hogestyn made his Salem debut on January 24, 1986, and in a 2015 interview with Digesthe admitted that as a newcomer to the DAYS set, he felt “overwhelmed. When I started on the first day, I sat there all day. I stayed on set all week in everyone’s scenes, just to see how they did. I remember watching Mac (Carey, who played Tom Horton) and Frances (Reid, who played Alice Horton) and Quinn Redeker (who played Alex Marshall) and John Clarke (who played Mickey Horton). (And) Deidre (Hall, who plays Marlena Evans) of course took me by the hand and said, ‘This is how you do this, this is how you do that.’ ”

It was in no small part thanks to Hogestyn’s chemistry with Hall that the show abandoned its plans to make John Black a short-term role. Introduced as “The Pawn” (click here for a refresher on that historical storyline), John was revealed to be Marlena’s presumed-deceased husband, Roman Brady, who was played by Wayne Northrop from 1981 to 1984.

As a guest on Digestthe podcast, Dishes with DigestIn 2022, his DAYS leading lady Deidre Hall (Marlena) recalled the beginning of her long working relationship with Hogestyn. She said, “Drake came in for an audition/screen test, I think. I agreed to test with everyone. I ran with everyone the same amount of time, practiced with everyone the same amount of time, and did the scene with Drake. Later everyone said, “I don’t know, what do you think?” “I don’t know, what do you think?” And they said, ‘What do you think?’ And I said, ‘I don’t think there’s any competition.’ “Who do you think it is?” I said, ‘I think it’s Drake. I mean, it has everything you need. I think it’s a good sight. I think we look good together. I think he has an intensity. He has strength and masculinity, but also a sexy appearance. Out of everyone you brought in, I think he’s the best choice.” And they had been in the same place, but they were kind of waiting for me to say it, I guess. And so he was accepted. I don’t think any of us have stopped to think, “He’s not really a terribly skilled actor.” I mean, he was a sportsman, a baseball player.” From the start she smiled: ‘He was dreamy. He loved rehearsing, wanted to do it well, was very serious about his work…. I think it worked from the first moment.”

Julie Nathanson

Hall with lead actress Deidre Hall early in his TO DAWN career.

Hogestyn naturally agreed to a longer stay – and while his professional life was on the rise, that success paled in comparison to the happy tidings in his personal life: he and Victoria married and began raising their family – daughters Whitney, Alexandra and Rachael and son Ben (who appeared on television for a time General Hospital as Lucas Jones) – in California. In 2018, he shared his thoughts on how to have a lasting marriage digest, and commented, “Stay married! You just stay married. And then you just fall in love with that same person over and over again…. I fell in love with Victoria when I was 15, she was 12, on the baseball field. She’s sitting on the handlebars of her friend Lisa Miller’s bike, I’m playing in midfield, look. At that moment she just shocked me and I just screamed, ‘No! I’ve got too much going on in my life’, and from then on that was it! I look at her, I see her, I can see her when she was 12, when she was 13, when she was 14, 15, 16… all the moments.

When Hall left DAYS in 1987, Roman moved on to other romantic pairings, most notably opposite Genie Francis (Laura, General Hospital), who played Diana Colville, and Staci Greason, who played Isabella Toscano. In 2015, Francis said Digest“Drake was cute and funny,” Greason said in 2022 digest, “Drake really took me under his wing.” Then, in 1991, DAYS took the opportunity to bring back not only Hall, but also the original Roman, Wayne Northrop, to the show, and so Hogestyn went on to play John Black again. The actor remembered that Digest in 2015: “I felt in a sense of fair play: I had not created that character (of Roman). Wayne did it and had great success with it…. It was a good opportunity to re-explore John Black.” In 2018 he said Digest“I hold those years (of playing Roman) very close to my heart, and I am very proud and protective of my interpretation of Roman Brady.”

Hogestyn played John through 2009, when both he and Hall were dropped from the cast due to budget cuts. They were rehired in 2011. “I didn’t spend much time thinking that DAYS would ever call to come back,” Hogestyn said. Digest that year, adding, “Did I hope it would happen? Absolute…. I was welcomed back with open arms. It brought tears to my eyes.”

In May 2016, Hogestyn suffered a brain injury that kept him off the show for several months. Open up to Digest Upon returning to work in 2017, the actor said:

“I don’t know if I’m reflective or not, but you know, this whole thing with losing Joe Mascolo (ex-Stefano, who passed away in 2016)… I really loved that man. I thought he would live forever. Really and truly. I mean, his father and mother lived hundreds of years. So while we experience weddings and funerals on the show, we also do it in our own lives, and it’s kind of crazy.

He went on to say, “I feel like life is good…. Time passes. That’s exactly it. It’s amazing. It’s remarkable. We’re living a double life here, you know what I mean? Not only do we have our real life, but we come here and have another life, and it’s really very unusual. I wish everyone could experience this. It’s really rich and it’s really full and I’m very blessed. It’s a great way to go through life. I was texting with a (mentor) of mine (and) he said, ‘Hollywood is really a meat grinder,’ and I said, ‘Yeah. You have to know when you’re on top of the roller coaster and be prepared for what’s coming.” Because that roller coaster goes up and down, and you have to have a very, very strong support group and sense of self and be very realistic. He said: “It’s amazing that you’ve spent half your life in the entertainment industry working on a show and are passionate about what you love to do. How happy are you?’ And I said, ‘Yes. Precisely.’ ”

Hogestyn is survived by his wife Victoria, their four children Rachael, Ben, Whitney, Alexandra and their partners, and seven grandchildren.

Soap Opera Digest expresses our deepest condolences to Hogestyn’s loved ones. He will be greatly missed.