The Days of Our Lives family is mourning the death of their costar Wayne Northrop.
“Wayne was always funny,” Susan Seaforth Hayes, who has famously played Julie Olson Williams on the series for more than five decades, exclusively told Us Weekly at The Hollywood Christmas Parade supporting Marine Toys for Tots on Sunday, December 1. “Everybody loved him. He worked very, very hard.”
Seaforth Hayes, 81, went on to call Northrop a “darling guy” who will be “vividly remembered by all the fans and by all of us.”
Northrop’s former onscreen wife, Deidre Hall, told Us that the late actor “never met a joke he didn’t like,” adding, “He never met a practical joke that he didn’t want to pull on somebody. He was forever, forever playing practical jokes.”
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The soap star died at age 77 on Friday, November 29. “Wayne was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s 6 years ago. He took his last breath in the arms of his family,” his wife, Lynn Herring Northrop, announced in a statement to Deadline. “We wish to thank the most caring and amazing place, The Motion Picture and Television Home for taking such great care of him.”
She added: “Wayne touched so many people with his sense of humor and wit. A husband for 43 years, the best dad ever to his two boys, Hank and Grady, and a rancher who loved his cows and was a friend to many.”
Wayne portrayed Detective Roman Brady on Days from 1981 to 1984 before returning in 1991. He later took on the role of Dr. Alex North in 2005. Both of his characters were romantically involved with Hall’s Marlena Evans. He made his last appearance on the long-running soap opera in 2006, per IMDb.
Drake Hogestyn took over the role of Roman for Wayne in the late ‘80s, though his version of the character was revealed to be an imposter named John Black. Hogestyn died in September at age 70 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
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Amid the losses, both the Days cast and fans are finding comfort in the show. “I think they come to us in times of need, when they need comfort, they need reassurance, they need a sense of family that maybe is not in their house at the time and Days of Our Lives is very good about providing exactly that for everybody,” Hall, 77, told Us.
Seaforth Hayes noted that “the whole point of the show has always been family, and that continues particularly in times of stress for the world and stress in the community because of the losses we have endured this year.”
She continued: “My husband, Bill Hayes, Drake Hogestyn, and now Wayne Northrop. Bang, bang, bang, all coming down at once. I think the show gives comfort and it certainly gives me comfort to come in and work with Deidre and see that we are going forward and making the best of every hard situation.” (Hayes died at age 98 in January.)
As she prepares to enter their first holiday season without her husband, Susan said she’s “looking forward to carrying [Bill’s] energy on [for] the rest of my life.” She gushed: “I was very lucky, and I’m going to play that lucky card the rest of the days that I have.”
New episodes of Days of Our Lives stream weekday mornings on Peacock. The Hollywood Christmas Parade airs on The CW Sunday, December 14, at 8 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Mike Vulpo
