September 28 was a sad day for soap fans. Days of Our Lives ‘ Drake Hogestyn passed away just one day shy of his 71st birthday. I’m reeling from the news.
Hogestyn has been John Black to Deidre Hall’s Marlena Evans for as long as I can remember. He joined Days of Our Lives in 1986, the year I began my lifelong love affair with the soap, and stayed with it for the rest of his life, not counting a few times he was written out temporarily, which makes his death an even more heartbreaking loss. Days of Our Lives’ Drake Hogestyn Died of Pancreatic Cancer During his last few appearances, Hogestyn looked thin and somewhat frail, but I had no idea he was ill.
John Black had just been rescued from a bizarre abduction where he had been tied up in an apartment in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, after being knocked out in Greece. (That’s the kind of story that only happens in Salem !) I figured his character was supposed to be weak after his ordeal, and that’s why he looked like that. That made the news that he had died of pancreatic cancer doubly shocking.
Although he didn’t look great, Hogestyn’s performance was as strong as ever, making it difficult to guess that he was battling a terminal illness. Of course, actors have the right to medical privacy just like anyone else, so Days of Our Live’s Drake Hogestyn had no reason to share his diagnosis with his audience. Still, while it seemed like Hogestyn was ill, it didn’t occur to me that we might be losing him permanently soo.