A beautiful tribute is happening on Days of Our Lives, blurring the line between art and real life.
In 1970, the characters of Julie Olson and Doug Williams met on the long-running soap series, played by Susan Seaforth and Bill Hayes. The two met in real-life and fell in love, resulting in a marriage lasting 50 years, until his death earlier this year.
Now, Susan is paying tribute to her late love, in real life and on the series.
Keep reading to find out more…
“Being without Bill is quite a change,” she said in an interview with Variety.
“I really appreciate what the producers have done to honor him — to allow me to give pretty much the same eulogy [on the show for Doug] that I gave [Bill] at our church. I certainly didn’t expect that. He deserved to be lifted up, and I was so, so pleased that [his death] wasn’t just passed over as something that happened off stage. It happens very much on stage too. It was difficult to do, but not as difficult as living through it in life.”
The storyline kicks off next week, as Julie tends to her sick husband. The date of Doug’s death and Julie’s eulogy has not yet been revealed.
The scenes have already been taped, but Susan noted that they’re “apparently putting together a lot of historical tapes around [Doug and Julie’s early days together].”
“The Days cast was there for me and there for Billy too. Even Deidre [Hall] was there and visited the last few days of his life. She was in the room with us. So, you know, that kind of support is wonderful. He deserved to be loved by a wide audience, and he was. And now I want to just be as good as he was, as good a person and as good a performer, and in return, do the best I can with the years that are coming in front of the show, for the future. I don’t want to be separated and go away and have a private life. I prefer to work and do one of the few things I can do. I don’t know how to make change, but I do know how to be Julie the character.”
Susan took over the role of Julie in 1968, three years into the show. Bill joined the show after, and they became one of the first major TV on- and off-screen couples, marrying in real life in 1974 and on Days in 1976.
“We fell in love with each other in front of our viewers, and they knew it before we knew it. And our head writer Bill Bell, he knew it before we knew it. He scrapped all the story he had planned and wrote a story for us that was endless. So, I owe Days of Our Lives my career, my happy marriage, my mother’s writing career. All of that is entangled. And then the fact that I got a Lifetime Achievement Emmy because we were survivors, and we were still crazy about each other. I don’t know. I do have an Emmy on the piano for Billy and for me, and that’s a wonderful thing,” Susan said.
“In a world where so many things are falling apart, it’s nice to know that there’s some place where you can turn on the set and be in an imaginary town with people you love, and people that are interesting, and people that are villains,” she went on to say.
“They’re threatening the people you love and [give you] reasons to watch and reasons to fall in love with the characters. It is an escape, but we are responsible for making it a happy escape.”
There are also several stars returning, leaving and joining the cast as of this month.
