Classic television fans are going to go wild over the latest Days of Lives casting news. The NBC soap opera has snagged The Jeffersons and 227 star Marla Gibbs!
According to Soap Opera Digest, Gibbs has boarded DAYS as Olivia Price, the mother of new Salem troublemaker Paulina Price (Jackée Harry). There's no word yet on how long she'll be sticking around on the canvas, but fans can look forward to her first appearance on Tuesday, August 17.
Gibbs probably needs no introduction, as she became a household name while playing the role of maid Florence Johnston in the 1970s sitcom The Jeffersons. She starred in 207 episodes of the show and received five nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Gibbs went on to star as a sharp-tongued, housewife named Mary Jenkins in NBC's 227, which, as DAYS fans know, also famously starred the actress' new on-screen daughter, Jackée Harry. Gibbs also has previous soap opera experience, having played the role of Aunt Irma on Passions for a short time in 2004 and 2005.
Some of Gibbs's more recent credits include Black-ish, Station 19, and Young Sheldon. The 90-year-old also just received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 20. In celebration of the special event, she posted an Instagram video that cheekily made reference to another person very familiar to daytime fans: Betty White (ex-Ann Douglas, The Bold and the Beautiful).
"Hello, Marla Gibbs here. I understand you were asked why didn't you celebrate me the way you celebrate Betty White," Gibbs says in the video. "Well, guess what? You do celebrate me, and you love me, and you support me. And that's why I am getting a star on Hollywood Boulevard, child, on July 20 at 11:30 a.m. Yes, because of you."
Gibbs is also an eight-time NAACP Image Award winner and has received several other honors over the years, including Essence magazine's Woman of the Year. Fortunately for her fans, she shared in an interview with Huffington Post that she has no plans to retire because as long as she's still breathing, there will always be something new she'll want to explore.
"God works with us through ideas. He gives us the idea. Then we have to have the faith and belief," she shared. "We can only do how much we believe we can do. When things happen, all you really have to do is change your mind. When you change your mind, everything around you changes."
How do you feel about Marla Gibbs joining DAYS? How do you think Olivia Price will fit into Salem? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
