35. Adrienne Kiriakis
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.
Days of Our Lives’ 35 Most Memorable Characters Ever [PHOTOS]
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34. Brady Black
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI Eric Martsolf’s alter ego is, in short, the perfect soap character: a basically decent fellow who is drawn to anything — and anyone — that is bad for him.
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33. Ben Weston
Image Credit: Howard Wise/JPI If you had told us a few years ago that Days of Our Lives 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.”
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32. Ciara Brady
Image Credit: Howard Wise/JPI 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.
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31. Abe Carver
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI 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 we hear you, loud and clear.
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30. Kayla Brady
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI 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 wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
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29. Jack Deveraux
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI 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. Repeatedly.
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28. Tony/André DiMera
Image Credit: NBC 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 really watching.
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27. Jennifer Horton
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI 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.
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26. Eve Donovan
Image Credit: Aaron Spelling Productions/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John Paschal/JPI 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.
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25. Victor Kiriakis
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI Cut from the same expensive cloth as The Young and the Restless’ Victor Newman and General Hospital’s Edward Quartermaine, John Aniston’s formidable Kiriakis patriarch is a millionaire misanthrope for the ages.
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24. Sonny Kiriakis and Will Horton
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI 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.
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23. Steve Johnson
Image Credit: Bernard Boudreau/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection The classic Days of Our Lives 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.
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22. Roman Brady
Image Credit: Images: Gary Null/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John Paschal/JPI Sure, these days he’s mostly relegated to the back burner. (Biiig 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.
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21. Abigail DiMera
Image Credit: Howard Wise/JPI, Jill Johnson/JPI 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).
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20. Susan Hunter
Image Credit: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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.
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19. Gabi Hernandez
Image Credit: Chris Haston/NBC 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.
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18. Kate Roberts
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI 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.
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17. Maggie Kiriakis
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI 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!
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16. Eric Brady
Image Credit: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John Paschal/JPI 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.
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15. Doug Williams
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI The erstwhile Brent Douglas has come a long way from his humble beginnings. The smooth-talking con man became a good guy — so good, in fact, that viewers deemed him worthy of the heroine at No. 8.
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14. Nicole Walker
Image Credit: Jonathan Exley/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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.
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13. Laura Horton
Image Credit: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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.
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12. Vivian Alamain
Image Credit: Dick Zimmerman/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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.
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11. EJ DiMera
Image Credit: Paul Skipper/JPI When James Scott’s spawn of Stefano blackmailed No. 4 into shagging him, that should’ve been the end of our — all 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.
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10. Kristen DiMera
Image Credit: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI Really, the she-devil brought so vividly to life by Eileen Davidson (Ashley, The Young and the Restless) and Stacy Haiduk deserves more than one spot on this list when you consider her expansive family.
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9. John Black
Image Credit: Chris Haston/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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.
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8. Julie Williams
Image Credit: Gary Null/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection And Pauline thought that she 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 is — there’s a list.)
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7. Tom Horton
Image Credit: Columbia Tristar Television/Courtesy of the Everett Collection Only the hourglass itself could possibly be a bigger part of the DNA of Days of Our Lives than the much-missed MacDonald Carey’s family man, a steadying presence in a town that desperately needed it.
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6. Stefano DiMera
Image Credit: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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.
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5. Alice Horton
Image Credit: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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.
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4. Sami Brady
Image Credit: John Paschal/JPI 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.
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3. Bo Brady
Image Credit: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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 started on what happens when we hear “Tonight I Celebrate My Love for You.”
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2. Hope Williams
Image Credit: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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.
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1. Marlena Evans
Image Credit: Gary Null/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection 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?
