Days of our Lives’ Drake Hogestyn Had a Say In John’s Death

Days of our Lives fans and the entire soap world were devastated when veteran star Drake Hogestyn died in September after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Now, we know that John Black will also die in the coming months.

Drake Hogestyn Gave His Stamp Of Approval

While Hogestyn’s last scenes aired just weeks before his death in early December, the actor had not worked since last winter. Executive Producer Ken Corday needed to find a way to explain John’s absence, so he chose to kill the character off but not before talking to Hogestyn about it first.

“I wanted to make sure Drake signed off on this, and he was totally in favor of it,” Corday told Soap Opera Digest. “He trusted me. Had Drake, God willing, beaten this, he would’ve come back, and it would’ve been something different. But [the story] had to be told. It was extremely difficult and painful for us to tell it — for the cast, for everybody. Drake was a big part of the show. The consummate actor. Always a team player and pretty good-looking, too.”

We do know that John goes missing soon, but is this the story that ultimately leads to his death? Corday didn’t say, but Deidre Hall talked about how she got through the scenes. The one thing she did NOT do was think about the fact that Hogestyn was sick and would likely not survive.

“I wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole,” Hall said. “Drake was still with us. I know Ken had promised him a place to come back. He was looking forward to coming back, and he was fighting the good fight. So we had not said goodbye to him yet. And we weren’t thinking goodbye to him at that point.”

Don’t forget to watch new episodes of Days of our Lives on Peacock starting at 6 AM ET each weekday.