Alison Sweeney was just a teenager when she joined Days of Our Lives as Sami Brady in 1993. A fan of the show prior to getting cast, Sweeney suddenly found herself sharing scenes with the very actors she once watched. One of those was the late Drake Hogestyn, who played Sami’s stepfather, John Black, and passed away from pancreatic cancer on September 28, a day shy of his 71st birthday. Though John and Sami’s relationship was mostly fractious, Hogestyn and Sweeney’s couldn’t have been more opposite.
“Drake is a huge part of my experience on Days,” Sweeney shares. “I remember meeting him my first day on set. I had such a crush on him! I was watching when John and Izzy [Staci Greason] were a thing. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t tell him that for years. But when I did, he was very gentlemanly about it.”
Hogestyn led by example on set, which helped Sweeney find her way during her early years in Salem. “I learned a lot from him, both with his jokes and fun banter on set, but also his professionalism,” she explains. “He was always on time to set. His work ethic was second to none and he not only lived it but tried to will it into the next generation of actors. I also noticed that he was very generous. He was never looking out for himself. He was always trying to share his wisdom with the younger actors, trying to help them learn and understand daytime drama, help them succeed.”
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Sweeney has countless happy memories of working with Hogestyn and appreciates how much he looked out for her on set. “Sometimes we would do stunt scenes, and Drake was always really good about knowing how to do that stuff and he would help me figure out something I would feel comfortable doing,” she recalls. “I remember a scene way back, Lucas [Bryan R. Dattilo] and Sami were in trouble, and John saved us from Tony [Thaao Penghlis], who was really Andre, and we all had to get out of a club or something. And Drake was just always so considerate and caring that I was comfortable with the staging of the stunts. He would practice it with me again anytime and show me little tricks so it looked better on camera.”
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His connection to his fan base was also impressive, Sweeney points out. “I mean, back in the day, when we would do fan events across the country, women were screaming Drake’s name,” she relays. “I know one softball game where his jersey got torn off of him!”
While Sami and John had their own clashes, Sweeney shares that she and Hogestyn relished acting out their alter egos’ drama. “Drake and I had fun playing out the complicated dynamic between Sami and John,” she reports. “Drake loved the way Sami pushed back against him and never made it easy between them. I loved working with Drake, so it was always hard for me to be the one bringing tension in as Sami. But occasionally when John would do this heroic thing to save Sami, she would finally get it right, and apologize or begrudgingly offer thanks, and Drake and I would have fun building up those moments where John and Sami could enjoy a moment of what it could’ve been like, that he really was such a father to her. But of course, over the years, we would reminisce about that defining moment when Sami walked in on John and Marlena on the conference room table with the purple dress [in 1993].”
The actress adds that Hogestyn kept tabs on her after she left the soap in 2014. “He would tell me that he and [wife] Victoria love my Hallmark movies,” she smiles. “He said they watched them all the time and when I would come back to visit, he would tell me which ones were their favorites.”
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Sweeney knows Hogestyn’s legacy will loom large both on the Days set and with the audience. “Drake always brought a genuine, positive joy to every scene,” she concludes. “He knew his lines, cared deeply about doing the best work possible, and always strived to bring the Days fans something they could enjoy every single day. He will be deeply missed.”
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