Bill Hayes, the multi-talented performer best known to daytime fans for his role as Doug Williams on Days of our Lives, died Friday, January 12, at the age of 98.
Born William Foster Hayes III on June 5, 1925, in Harvey, Illinois, Hayes served in the Navy Air Corps before completing his degree in music and English at DePauw University in 1947. His showbiz career launched when Hayes decided to audition for a musical in Chicago.
Hayes began his career at NBC on radio as host of NBC-Radio Monitor for a year. He was a national spokesman for Oldsmobile for four years and burst onto the early national television scene in Olsen & Johnson's madcap series Fireball Fun-For-All. From there, he was tapped by producer Max Liebman to be a featured singer on Your Show of Shows starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. In the 90s, Bill starred on TVs Matlock, Hooperman, and Cop Rock. His major films credits include the Warner Brothers farce/musical Stop! You're Killing Me and Otto Preminger's The Cardinal, and in the award-winning film Wrestling with God. In addition to these highlights, his career was interspersed with variety performances with Kate Smith, Ed Sullivan, Perry Como, Milton Berle, Ernie Kovacs, Jo Stafford, Jack Paar, Bing Crosby, and the Bell Telephone Hour.
For more on the life of Bill Hayes, continue reading here.
PLACE OF BIRTH: Harvey, Illinois
MARITAL STATUS: Married; Susan Seaforth-Hayes [Oct 12th, 1974 to Present]
MARITAL STATUS: Divorced; Mary Hobbs [Feb 1947 to 1969]
CHILDREN: Five children with Mary Hobbs