Days of Our Lives’ Deidre Hall Recalls the Disastrous Mistake She Made in Her Very First Scene — and Reveals the Castmate Who Set Her Straight
Monday, December 14th, 2020
“It was all uphill from there,” the actress joked.
By now, Deidre Hall has been doing Days of Our Lives for so long that if there’s an “Oops!” on the set, it’s not the end of the world. She has more than four decades of brilliance behind her to prove that it’s an exception, not the rule. But in 1976, she was the new kid on the block. Sure, she’d already appeared on The Young and the Restless as Barbara Anderson; she just wasn’t yet the daytime legend that she would become.
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So on her first day as Dr. Marlena Evans on the NBC soap, she recalled on the December 11 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, “I was so scared, and I had to do a scene with Macdonald Carey (Tom), the star of the show, and Frances Reid (Alice), his counterpart, and I was standing in the wings, watching everybody and just thinking, ‘Oh, they’re so talented!… And that Amanda character… boy, she’s gorgeous!’”
Amanda’s portrayer made the kind of first impression that tended to last.
Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
That, she was; Amanda Howard, at the time married to Dr. Greg Peters, was played by Mary Frann, better known as Bob Newhart’s wife on the CBS sitcom Newhart. We’d say that this was just us digressing again, but as the story continues, you’ll see why it was so important to understand that Amanda really made an impression. Now then, back to Hall…
“So I came onto the set, and Dr. Horton introduced me as Dr. Evans,” she picked up, “and I said, ‘Oh please, call me Amanda.’”
Everyone froze, “and I thought, ‘Why are they being so strange?’ [Eventually,] Macdonald Carey leaned over and said, ‘Darling, you’re Marlena, she’s Amanda.’ And it was all uphill from there.”
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Later in the interview (which you can watch in full below), Clarkson tasked Hall with picking her three favorite Marlena twists over the years. No. 1, of course, will surprise no one. “It’s gotta be possession,” said Hall. No. 2 was her chance to play sister Andrea’s former role of Hattie. Marlena’s “very understanding and compassionate and patient, so playing [out-there] Hattie was the most fun, oh my gosh!”
And No. 3? Proving that even the stars who play out the stories sometimes get them a little remixed in their heads over the years, Hall picked Marlena’s stint as the Salem Strangler… even though that was Jake Kositchek; her character was actually the Salem Stalker. Mind you, she knew what she was talking about, right down to the black cape, she just slightly confused Salem’s supervillains. (And who could blame her? By the time the ball drops on 2020, the show will probably have introduced a Salem Slice-’n’-Dicer.)
While you’re here, check out the below photo gallery of Days of Our Lives’ all-time greatest characters. We suspect you’ll be pleased with the spot in which Hall’s doc landed.
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
1/35
<p>The bigger the heart, the more painful the breaks — so Judi Evans’ down-to-earth angel taught us. Thankfully, when she was killed off, she left behind brassy lookalike Bonnie Lockhart to leaven our grief.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
2/35
<p>Eric Martsolf’s alter ego is, in short, the perfect soap character: a basically decent fellow who is drawn to anything — and <em>anyone</em> — that is bad for him.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
3/35
<p>If you had told us a few years ago that <em>Days of Our Lives</em> was going to transform Robert Scott Wilson’s Necktie Killer into its foremost romantic lead, we’d have laughed our butts off. And then we’d have had to say, “Sorry, our bad. You nailed it.”</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
4/35
<p>The perfect mixture of her parents (spoiler alert: No. 2 and No. 3 on our list), this feisty force of nature turned into a fan favorite by Victoria Konefal is all but guaranteed to continue rising in this countdown as sand slips through the hourglass.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
5/35
<p>For going on four decades, James Reynolds’ stand-up character has had the thankless job of being Salem’s voice of reason. None of your wackadoo neighbors may listen, Abe, but <em>we</em> hear you, loud and clear.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
6/35
<p>See that butter-would’t-melt-in-my-mouth expression Mary Beth Evans’ Salem sweetheart is wearing here? She’s the rare individual who can get away with it because — and this has been scientifically tested — butter really <em>wouldn’t</em> melt in her mouth.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
7/35
<p>To Matthew Ashford’s credit, he managed to turn the villain who raped No. 30 into not only a beloved comic-relief character but a well-intentioned hero who became so popular, he was allowed to cheat death. <em>Repeatedly</em>.</p>
Image: NBC
8/35
<p>Yes, Thaao Penghlis’ lookalike connivers have to share an entry, if only because during any given era, we could never be sure which of them we were <em>really</em> watching.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
9/35
<p>They broke the “good girl” mold after fashioning from it Melissa Reeves’ spunky, halo-clad heroine. But we can’t deny we’ve always been more drawn to the dark side… and scamps like the one who’d be delighted to know that she beat her nemesis to come in at No. 26.</p>
Image: Aaron Spelling Productions/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John Paschal/JPI
10/35
<p>Whether she was being played by Charlotte Ross or Kassie DePaiva, the hurricane in heels let us know at a glance that if she was in the room, there wasn’t gonna be anyone in it more entertaining to watch.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
11/35
<p>Cut from the same expensive cloth as <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Victor Newman and <em>General Hospital</em>’s Edward Quartermaine, John Aniston’s formidable Kiriakis patriarch is a millionaire misanthrope for the ages.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
12/35
<p>Judge us if you must for making Freddie Smith and Chandler Massey’s gay supercouple share an entry. After all that they’ve been through, we just couldn’t bear to separate the harried marrieds again.</p>
Image: Bernard Boudreau/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
13/35
<p>The classic <em>Days of Our Lives</em> anti-hero, Stephen Nichols’ erstwhile Patch was from the beginning of his long run a character so compelling that we were willing to squint to see his underlying, ahem, sweetness.</p>
Image: Images: Gary Null/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John Paschal/JPI
14/35
<p>Sure, these days he’s mostly relegated to the back burner. (<em>Biiig</em> mistake, BTW.) But when Wayne Northrop originated the role that Josh Taylor now plays, rough-around-the-edges Roman won not only Marlena’s heart but viewers’, too.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI, Jill Johnson/JPI
15/35
<p>Even if it hadn’t been for that whole murdering-André thing, Kate Mansi and Marci Miller’s character was always bound to develop a split personality: She is, after all, the offspring of a saint (No. 27) and, however repentant, a born sinner (No. 29).</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
16/35
<p>Wherever Denise Alexander’s troubled heroine went, heartache followed. Over the course of a decade in Salem, she suffered through the deaths of both a marriage and a child, and a totally twisted triangle with the Peters brothers.</p>
Image: Chris Haston/NBC
17/35
<p>Admit it: No matter how spiteful a plot the impetuous supervixen hatches, you not only root for her to get away with it, you root for her to get the kinda happy ending that might afford her a new beginning.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
18/35
<p>Whether rocking devil’s horns or, uncomfortably, angel’s wings, the opportunistic prostitute-turned-titan of industry has always applied the first rule of the street to the soap’s audience: Ya gotta hook ’em.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
19/35
<p>We’d raise a glass to Suzanne Rogers’ iconic character, who’s withstood the ravages of everything from paralysis to marriage to No. 25 to… well, that’s why we can’t enjoy our tippling — alcoholism!</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John Paschal/JPI
20/35
<p>It’s hard to be a good guy among Salem’s lot. So Jensen Ackles’ and then Greg Vaughan’s aspirational character was reminded over and over during his long run on NBC’s last soap standing.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
21/35
<p>The erstwhile Brent Douglas has come a long way from his humble beginnings. The smooth-talking con man became a good guy — <em>so</em> good, in fact, that viewers deemed him worthy of the heroine at No. 8.</p>
Image: Jonathan Exley/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
22/35
<p>Can you point to another character on this list who, like Arianne Zucker’s, has been everything from a porn star to a church secretary? No? Then sit the frack down. Nicole deserves her damn spot at No. 14.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
23/35
<p>Let’s sorta blow past the 1990s version of the character that was originated by Susan Flannery and focus instead on her harrowing heyday, during which she was torn between good brother Mickey and bad seed Bill… who, and this can’t be overstated, freakin’ raped her.</p>
Image: Dick Zimmerman/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
24/35
<p>The descriptor “legendary” was invented for the likes of Louise Sorel’s character, a malevolent minx who buried alive one foe (Carly Manning) and stole the embryo right out from under another (No. 18). Mad. Awful. Brilliant.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
25/35
<p>When James Scott’s spawn of Stefano blackmailed No. 4 into shagging him, that should’ve been the end of our — <em>all</em> of our — infatuation with him. Instead, it was just another chapter of a story that we couldn’t wait to finish — and don’t want to believe has been ended.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
26/35
<p>Really, the she-devil brought so vividly to life by Eileen Davidson (Ashley, <em>The Young and the Restless</em>) and Stacy Haiduk deserves more than one spot on this list when you consider her expansive family.</p>
Image: Chris Haston/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
27/35
<p>Whether we thought that Drake Hogestyn’s character — a perpetual identity crisis — was the character at No. 22, the Pawn, a priest, an Alamain… you name it, we were always the same thing: riveted.</p>
Image: Gary Null/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
28/35
<p>And Pauline thought that <em>she</em> had perils. “Ha,” scoffed the harried heroine brought to life by Susan Seaforth Hayes, the longest-serving soap actor currently working in daytime television. (No, really, she <em>is</em> — <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/gallery/longest-serving-soap-opera-actors-list-photos/" target="_blank">there’s a list.</a>)</p>
Image: Columbia Tristar Television/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
29/35
<p>Only the hourglass itself could possibly be a bigger part of the DNA of <em>Days of Our Lives</em> than the much-missed MacDonald Carey’s family man, a steadying presence in a town that desperately needed it.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
30/35
<p>Over and over again, the Phoenix rose. So it’s a bitter pill to swallow that, owing to the passing of his portrayer, Joseph Mascolo, he won’t cheat death yet again to wreak havoc on Salem.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
31/35
<p>The late, great Frances Reid’s Horton matriarch was the grandma that we all wished we had — and the only thing in existence that was as sweet as her legendary donuts.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
32/35
<p>So infamous a scheme queen is Alison Sweeney’s impetuous troublemaker — and, just ask stepsister Carrie, deservedly so — it’s hard to fathom that a plot was ever hatched in Salem without her.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
33/35
<p>To this day, we can’t hear “Holding Out for a Hero” without thinking of the iconic anti-hero that Peter Reckell created. And don’t even get us <em>started</em> on what happens when we hear “Tonight I Celebrate My Love for You.”</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
34/35
<p>Kristian Alfonso’s enduring heroine has suffered more heartbreaks than any three characters combined, been dropped in a vat of acid and turned into Princess freakin’ Gina. So yeah, we still can’t believe that she’ll soon be gone for good.</p>
Image: Gary Null/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
35/35
<p>Thanks to a combo platter of Deidre Hall’s unforgettable performances, unpredictable writing and an enviable array of love interests, viewers have been tuning in since 1976 to find out, ahem, what’s up, Doc?</p>
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