One Year After John’s Passing, Days of Our Lives’ Eric Martsolf Recalls One of His Last Scenes With Drake Hogestyn ‘That Just Broke My Heart’
It’s tough to believe that John passed away almost exactly one year ago on Days of Our Lives. And it’s even tougher to believe that we lost Drake Hogestyn nearly two years ago. Both men still loom large on the show and in Salem, and now, it looks like we’re getting a whole new story out of John’s Pawn past.
This past week, Eric Martsolf joined Days of Our Lives’ Greg Rikaart (Leo) and The Bold and the Beautiful’s Rebecca Budig (Taylor) for the Soapy podcast. And, of course, one of the things they spoke about was losing Hogestyn.
When Budig asked Martsolf what one of his favorite memories of his TV dad was, he admitted that it was probably one of their last scenes together.
“Not to get too sentimental,” he began, “but I think it was one of the last scenes we did together. We were in the interrogation room and he’s talking to me about something and he had to stop tape because he was on chemo. He would have to excuse himself from the set, come back, gather himself and just go right back into the scene.”
Hogestyn was a professional right up until the end and he refused to let this get him down.
“You could tell he was really struggling,” Martsolf continued. “He didn’t talk to me much about what was going on. I heard through the grapevine what was wrong with him. I just looked at him and I went, ‘How you doing?’ We had a five-minute break, and he said ‘You know, just on a journey. On a journey. I’m on a journey. It’s going to be good. It’s going to be fun.’”
“That just broke my heart,” Martsolf admitted. “He still wanted to keep telling this story even though his body wasn’t letting him. But he never complained, never bitched. My memory of him is just a man of fortitude and a man that was a storyteller till the end. That just wanted to keep doing his job.”
And in the end, Hogestyn knew the story would go on, even if he couldn’t be there to continue it. “He gave [executive producer] Ken Corday his blessing to film his funeral while he was still on this planet,” Martsolf marveled. “And he’s like, ‘Tell the story. Tell the story.’ That’s a guy who is dedicated to what he had been doing for the last 40, 50 years. So, that’s my memory of him.”
And now, Hogestyn and John may be gone, but their stories go on. Days of Our Lives is just getting Stefano’s chest set mystery started, and it’s clear they’ve got a lot left to tell. While we’ll always miss John, we can’t wait to see what’s next.