- By Noor Nanji
- Cultural correspondent
January 13, 2024, 12:20 GMT
Updated 17 minutes ago
Image source: Getty Images
US actor Bill Hayes, who starred on the soap opera Days of Our Lives for more than five decades, has died aged 98.
He first portrayed the character of Doug Williams in 1970 and also met his wife, actress Susan Seaforth Hayes, while filming the series.
Last June he celebrated his 98th birthday on the set of the American daytime soap with his co-stars.
His agent told the BBC he died on Friday surrounded by his family.
The cause of death was not disclosed.
Born William Foster Hayes III in Harvey, Illinois in 1925, Hayes began his career as a musician and had a hit with The Ballad of Davy Crockett.
Image source: Getty Images
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Bill Hayes married his Days of our Lives co-star Susan Seaforth Hayes
He then focused more on acting and landed his most notable role in February 1970 on the NBC series Days of Our Lives as a convict who was also a lounge singer.
Over the next 50 years until 2023, he repeatedly embodied the character of Doug Williams.
His co-star Seaforth Hayes joined the daytime soap two years before him and played the character of Julie Williams.
The couple played an on-screen couple and eventually became a real-life couple, tying the knot in 1974.
They said “I do” again, this time on television, when their characters married two years later.
The popularity of their romance led to them even appearing on the cover of Time that year.
In 2018, he and Seaforth Hayes received the Daytime Emmys Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Hayes had five children from a previous marriage to Mary Hobbs.