RIP Days Of Our Lives star Drake Hogestyn

Best known for playing the slippery John Black and his myriad personalities for nearly 40 years Days of our livesDrake Hogestyn has died. In a statement shared on Instagram, the show confirmed that Hogestyn died of pancreatic cancer. He was 70.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Drake Hogestyn. When he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he experienced the turning point of his life, but he met the challenge with incredible strength and determination. After putting up an incredible fight, he died peacefully surrounded by his loved ones,” the statement said. “He was the greatest husband, father, dad and actor. He loved performing for them days Sharing audiences and the stage with the best cast, crew and production team in the industry.”

“We love him and will miss him very much Days of our lives.”

Born Donald Drake Hogestyn, the Fort Wayne, Indiana native wasn’t initially into acting. After high school, he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to attend Broward Junior College and be closer to the New York Yankees scouts. After a brief stint with the Cardinals, Hogestyn returned to college and sought a future in dentistry. Before long, he was drafted by the Yankees and played for their farm team in Oneonta until 1977, when a series of injuries left him in poor condition.

“The ones who stay injury-free, keep their heads together and keep their weight down, those are the ones who will move up,” Hogestyn said in 2020. “But if you get picked in the last round and get involved with an injury… there is no investment. And I knew that. I knew that the very day I lay in the field in Oneonta and looked up at the sky.”

While applying for an independent team in Virginia, Hogestyn saw an ad in the newspaper for the Columbia Pictures National Talent Search. He sent an 8×10 headshot and a 150-word essay about why he wanted to be a movie star, leaving the decision to fate. Although it took him to Tinseltown, the competition was a bust, sending him to workshops with Dustin Hoffman, Sydney Pollack and Walter Matheau, which were helpful but didn’t result in a contract.

Shortly thereafter, Hogestyn began receiving commercial work and landed a role in a television adaptation of the musical Seven brides for seven brothers opposite Richard Dean Anderson. As Anderson continued MacGuyerHogestyn landed a position on the long-running soap for a week Days of our lives as the mysterious John Black. In classic soap opera form, Black was introduced as an amnesiac who underwent extensive reconstructive facial surgery and was presumably the missing husband of Dr. Marlena Evans (played by Diedre Hall) was.

As one of the soap world’s longest-running and most popular supercouples, Hogestyn and Hall would sustain this romance for the next three decades. The relationship even survived Evans’ death, resurrection and her husband’s recovery from an extended coma. For his part, John Black’s identity was never established, and he changed his name repeatedly over the course of 40 years and 4,000 episodes Days of our liveswith only a three-year break between 2009 and 2011.

“When I first read for the role in 1986, the character was described and I pulled Robert Ludlam’s book out of my briefcase The Bourne Identitywith Jason Bourne,” Hogestyn said in 2011. “That was the idea for the character. They took the initials JB and called him John Black. Over the course of 25 years, I have referred to myself as 13 different identities at some point in the search for my true identity.”

Hogestyn is survived by his wife and childhood sweetheart, Victoria; his four children, three daughters and a son, Ben, an actor who appeared on the series The bold and the beautiful And General Hospital; and seven grandchildren.