Invoice Hayes, an actor and singer whose 2,141 episodes of “Days of Our Lives” over 5 and a half a long time constituted the daytime drama model of an ultramarathon, and whose top-selling 1955 single, “The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” stays seared into the reminiscences of the newborn growth technology, died on Jan. 12 at his residence in Studio Metropolis, Calif. He was 98.
His spouse and longtime co-star, Susan Seaforth Hayes, confirmed his dying.
To cleaning soap opera followers, Mr. Hayes was a staple of weekday afternoons from the times of rabbit-ear antennas into the streaming period.
He started his tenure on the long-running NBC present in 1970. His character, Doug Williams, was a suave and slippery con artist who, after leaving jail, discovered himself padding by means of the maze of the plot twists, double-crosses and massive reveals that day after day drew viewers again to the fictional Midwestern city of Salem.
Whereas his character would finally abandon his delinquent methods and turn into a pillar of the group, Mr. Hayes had enjoyable within the early days taking part in a person with a previous.
“You by no means knew if he was serving to a woman throughout the road and being good or unhooking her brassiere as they went throughout the road,” he was quoted as saying of his character within the ebook “Days of Our Lives: A Full Historical past of the Lengthy-Working Cleaning soap Opera,” by Maureen Russell.
The plot level that basically bought issues buzzing was Doug’s romance with Julie Olson, a gorgeous younger troublemaker performed by Susan Seaforth, his future spouse. They’d quickly grew to become a soap-world energy couple, each onscreen and off.
The couple married in actual life in 1974, and their characters adopted go well with two years later, in an episode that drew 16 million viewers. It additionally drew 1000’s of followers to the present’s studio in Burbank, Calif., to greet them.
Such was their attain that in 1976 the couple, of their onscreen guise, even appeared on the duvet of Time journal, with the tagline “Cleaning soap Operas: Intercourse and Struggling within the Afternoon.”
“It was the script that introduced the couple collectively,” the article mentioned. “Emotionally exhausted from a messy divorce that left him to look after 5 teenage youngsters, Invoice arrived on ‘Days’ in 1970 trying just for a good friend.” (Mr. Hayes and his first spouse, Mary, had divorced in 1969).
“However then,” Ms. Seaforth mentioned within the interview, “we began to do love scenes. That was simply in regards to the ballgame.”
The couple additionally fashioned a touring nightclub act, and Time famous that they have been “mobbed after they seem in public,” with Mr. Hayes specifically being showered with consideration from feminine followers.
“They deal with me as if I have been Robert Redford,” he mentioned.
William Foster Hayes III was born on June 5, 1925, in Harvey, Ailing., close to Chicago. He was the second of three sons of Betty (Mitchell) Hayes, a schoolteacher, and William Foster Hayes II, an govt at World Guide, the encyclopedia firm.
Rising up listening to his father sing baritone with a vocal quartet, Invoice aspired to be a singer himself.
After graduating from Thornton Township Excessive College in 1942, he enrolled at DePauw College, in Greencastle, Ind. With World Battle II raging, he enlisted within the Navy and educated as a fighter pilot, though the conflict ended earlier than he could possibly be referred to as for energetic obligation.
He returned to DePauw and graduated with a liberal arts diploma in 1947. He later earned a grasp’s diploma in music from Northwestern College.
Turning his sights to indicate enterprise, Mr. Hayes made his mark onstage in a nationwide tour of the musical “Carousel” and on Broadway within the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Me and Juliet,” amongst different productions. In 1949, he made his debut on tv, then in its infancy, as a singer on “Fireball Enjoyable for All,” an NBC selection present hosted by the longtime vaudeville act Ole Olsen and Stylish Johnson.
Within the early Fifties, Mr. Hayes was seen on “Your Show of Shows,” the variability present that includes Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca.
Nevertheless it was a tv program that he didn’t seem on that offered him the chance for a success document. In 1954, Disney sparked a youth craze with its “Davy Crockett” serial, with the TV frontiersman’s trademark coonskin cap changing into essential for kids.
After seeing the present, the document producer Archie Bleyer determined that its theme tune, sung by a vocal group, had potential as a stand-alone single for a solo performer.
“He referred to as me up and mentioned come by, I’ve a tune,” Mr. Hayes recounted in “World by the Tail: The Bill Hayes Story,” a 2017 documentary about his life that he produced together with his grandson Dave Samuel. “We met that night time at 10 o’clock in an RCA recording studio, we did one take — one observe, one take. It was a success document.”
The song grew to become the best-selling single within the nation for 5 weeks, beginning in March 1955. Davymania apparently knew no bounds: The present’s star, Fess Parker, and the singer Tennessee Ernie Ford would each rating hit singles with interpretations of their very own.
Along with his spouse, Mr. Hayes is survived by his daughters Carolyn Huff and Margaret Jackson; his sons, Thomas and William Foster Hayes IV; 13 grandchildren; and 30 great-grandchildren. His daughter Catherine died in 2010.
Over time, Mr. Hayes popped up on different tv exhibits, together with “Matlock” and “Frasier.” He and his spouse taped their ultimate scene collectively on “Days of our Lives” simply weeks earlier than he died.
“The final scene I bought to play with him is about how a lot we love one another,” Ms. Seaforth-Hayes mentioned in a telephone interview, “and I used to be blessed with a chance to hover over the phrases ‘Have I ever informed you the way a lot I like you?’ And Doug solutions, ‘No, you by no means did.’ That was one thing Billy and I’d say regularly in life.”