Legend: In its last episode, Days of Our Lives pays a touching tribute to the late Bill Hayes. Fans say, “It’s the end of an era.”
THURSDAY’S episode of the famous soap opera show was the last time a longtime cast member was seen.
Six months after he died, Bill Hayes, 98, made his last TV appearance in an emotional scene with his on-and-off-screen wife, Susan Seaforth Hayes.
Day of Our Lives fans have been watching Bill since 1970, when his character, Doug Williams, was first introduced as a prisoner who also sang in a lounge.
Two nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series came his way in 1975 and 1976.
Before 1984, Bill played a regular part on the show. After that, he had recurring roles in 1986 and 1987, 1993, 1994, and 1996.
In 1999, he came back to the show full-time, but Dr. Marlena Evans, played by Deidre Hall, “killed him off” in 2004.
Bill came back to the show after his fake death, and longtime fans were thrilled to see his character, Doug, living happily on a tropical island.
Bill married Susan Seaforth Hayes, who has played Julie Olson Williams on TV and in movies since 1968, in October 1974.
The couple was one of the first “super-couples” on TV, and they are the only soap opera characters to have been on the cover of Time Magazine.
Susan later made appearances on The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless, and Sunset Beach, a soap opera that didn’t last long.
Together, they wrote their autobiography in 2005, which was called Like Sands Through the Hourglass.
At the 45th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 2018, Susan and Bill were both given Lifetime Achievement Awards.
LAST BOW
Thursday, July 11, 2024, was Bill’s last day on Days of Our Lives.
He shared his last scene with Susan, who is both his TV and real-life wife.
In the touching scene, the couple talked about their life together and how much they love each other.
“Did I ever tell you how much I love you?” Wendy, who played Julie, asked Doug, who played Bill.
TVLine said Doug laughed and said, “Nope, you never did.”
“A new man had grown up inside me.” Doug continued, “I had to change to deserve you.”
“Oh, you definitely made me feel good. In addition, Julie said, “We’ve been a good team—good partners.”
“We did a good job together with raising Hope,” said Doug.
“Great job as a dad, buddy. Julie told him, “Consider how family-oriented you are for someone who grew up in an orphanage.”
No matter what, you never let anyone in this family down. It was like you showed me the whole world.
“And after we had our little adventures, saw all the beauty of the earth, our love outlasted time,” said she.
Doug said, “Now you better give me another kiss.”
“No problem,” Julie replied.
It’s worth noting that the episode aired on Susan’s 81st birthday.
“The last scene Billy and I filmed together was meant to be a love scene,” Susan told TV Insider.
She went on, “And I was allowed to add some lines to the scene, between ourselves.”
“The last thing I wrote for Billy was, ‘Give me another kiss.’” “That’s for the audience, and that’s from him,” she declared.
Her post had pictures of the stars when they were younger and she wrote, “To all of you who honored my Billy with a word of remembrance, a sense of personal loss, or even a tear—I thank you.”
“You touched my heart by seeing in him the goodness and joy I experienced every moment of our wonderful marriage.”
She ended the message with a red heart emoji and “xx Susan.” “May we all live our lives with the zest of Bill Hayes and fill them with grace and love,” she wrote.
IN HONOR OF
Even though Bill’s last scene and episode aired already, he’s not really leaving the long-running soap opera.
TVLine says that all of Salem, where Bill played Doug, will honor the actor in December 2024.
Bill, a longtime fan of the show, and Doug, his on-screen character, paid their respects to the star on social media.
Someone on X wrote, “Today is bittersweet for fans of the legendary Bill Hayes.”
“What’s going on in our country right now has made me really want to cry.” Looking at this? “I think everything will come out,” said another user on Twitter.
“I never met Bill Hayes, nor his loving wife Susan, but I grew up watching them, and it’s like watching some extended part of your family,” they told us.
