Days of our Lives fans went wild when longtime Salemite Doug Williams was recently possessed by the devil, declaring it an ingenious and entertaining way to keep beloved actor Bill Hayes front and center in storylines. But the devil isn't the only one who's casting spells where Doug is concerned -- Hayes is also doing so, having kept DAYS audiences absolutely enraptured with his fictional alter ego for a whopping 52 years.
Hayes made his debut on the NBC soap opera on February 9, 1970, when Doug was introduced as a white-collar criminal serving jail time alongside Bill Horton (Edward Mallory), who was in the slammer for killing Kitty Horton. Bill told Doug all about Salem, which seemed like an enticing place, especially after Susan Martin (Denise Alexander) offered Doug money to move there and have an affair with Julie (Susan Seaforth-Hayes), whom she wanted away from Scott Banning (Mike Ferrell/Robert Hogan)!
Susan eventually came to her senses and called off the deal, but it was too late -- Doug had moved to Salem, gotten a job as a singer at Sergio's, and fallen in love with Julie. And, as DAYS fans know, that fun introduction storyline eventually ignited real-life sparks between Hayes and Seaforth, who also fell in love off-screen and married in 1974. The couple has been together ever since, unlike their fictional alter egos, who have, of course, experienced quite a few relationship bumps, additional marriages, and other soapy problems over the decades!
Though Doug hasn't been front and center for the entirety of his 52-year DAYS run, the writers have given the 96-year-old lots of juicy material in recent years. When the actor celebrated his 50th anniversary in 2020, the writers penned a February Sweeps storyline in which Bill died, resulting in Doug going down memory lane and remembering when he first came to Salem a half century ago.
More recently, the writers tricked viewers into believing that Doug was developing early signs of dementia, but in reality, the character's unusual behavior was sparked by devil possession. At the time, Hayes's wife, Seaforth-Hayes, enthused that her husband was loving playing that storyline.
"It's given Bill some interesting stuff to play, and he has enjoyed that a lot. At 96, he's doing a lot and loving doing it," she revealed. "Speaking as a legacy character -- I'm the oldest legacy character still standing -- it's pleasant to have story that is not based on, 'Remember when?' or 'You were very useful and very interesting then and now we can look back.' Instead of being taken back, we're going forward with a story, which is delightful."
But acting isn't the only thing that's been keeping the Hayeses busy. The couple recently launched a website called Secrets of Soap Opera Lovers that features video interviews in which the lovebirds reveal all the secrets to their relationship success.
As Soap Central previously reported, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth-Hayes with the Lifetime Achievement Award during the Daytime Emmy Awards in 2018. To read more about that and for a detailed history of Bill Hayes's acting career, click here.
Would you like to congratulate Bill Hayes on his 52nd anniversary of playing Doug Williams? What are you hoping the writers have planned for Hayes's next chapter in 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.
