For Over 40 Years, ‘Days of Our Lives’ Star Deidre Hall Has Been Having the Time of Her Life (Exclusive)

The Road to Daytime

Born October 31, 1947 (along with twin sister Andrea) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Deidre actually began studying psychology before she found herself going down the path of acting. While attending Palm Beach Junior College, she ended up securing modeling jobs and commercials, followed by guest starring appearances on different TV shows, believing that acting was just something she would do on her road to a career in psychology. TV shows she appeared on include San Francisco International Airport, Night Gallery, Adventures of Nick Carter, Adam-12, The Streets of San Francisco, Emergency! (where she had a recurring role over the course of six episodes), Columbo and Kung Fu. She also scored the role of Barbara Anderson from 1973-75 on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. Next up was the previously mentioned Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and Days of Our Lives.

“Oddly,” Deidre muses, “I didn’t have a moment of, ‘Ooh, I want to be an actress.’ I grew up in a very small town in Florida. That was not on the list. For a period of my life, I wanted to be a hairdresser, because my mother’s best friend was her hairdresser and they would get together on Sunday afternoons and smoke their Paul Malls and play cards. And that looked like heaven to me! I’d go, ‘Wow, that’s what I want to do when I grow up.’ And she was single and drove a red Tr3, which was the sexiest car on the road. That spoke to me on a certain level when I was in my early teens. I wanted to be a therapist at one point. When I was in college, I ended up taking classes to become a therapist and then played a therapist on television. How did that come full circle? Oddly charming. My family was very very close and we believe in God, we believe in each other, we believe in community and my older brother had Down [Syndrome] and we spent a large amount of our time seeing to him, comforting him, making sure he had what he needed; protected him. I think everybody in my family had decency and fairness and rightness and were fairly obnoxious about it – I must say, seeing things that are not right or fair are just like fire under all of us.”

The Big Break

“I worked a lot out of Universal as all little cute blondes did in that day,” she points out. “So we’d get a casting call saying, ‘We need a nurse. It’s a day’s work.’ ‘I’ll be there at 10.’ ‘Fine.’ So it was a role while I was in college, that’s all it was. It wasn’t any sort of raw ambition, but I got to work on the sets and see people who were really dedicated to the craft of acting and how hard they worked at it and how involved they were at the ensemble part of it. Because it’s not just the actress saying lines, it’s the cameraman having to do a moving shot or following you through the door. It’s an astonishing world and I got kind of fascinated by it. I ended up doing a recurring part on Young and the Restless to see how that ensemble works. ‘Oh, it’s the same people week after week!’ Because I was a recurring character, I suddenly had my nose against the glass. ‘Ooh, I’d like some of that!’

“I got a call from Corday Productions about a character named Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives, who was recurring and possibly get a short-term contract and would I like to come and read for her? And I did! I read with some very recognizable women thinking, ‘That’s a long shot!’ My agent called me about a week later and said, ‘You got the job!’. I was so convinced that with all these recognizable faces that I had seen at the audition, they would have not chosen me. But in my logical mind I said, ‘They must’ve gone through 10 actors who turned it down, there must be something wrong with it.’ So I turned it down also and then she called me back two weeks later and said, ‘What’s wrong with this part?’ I said ‘I love this part. I just thought I wasn’t somebody they especially thought of first.’ She said, ‘You were their first choice.’ So I took it and it’s been over 40 years.”

Quitting Has Never Been an Option

Despite the decades playing Marlena Evans, Deidre says that leaving the show is not something she’s ever given serious thought to. “You know what?” she considers the idea. “It’s funny, but nobody’s ever asked me that and I don’t know. I just get a sense of flooding relief when the show is picked up every year. And because we only work on the days that we’re in the script, my week’s work changes from week to week. So we’re dark this week. Last week I worked Monday, Tuesday, Friday, so I’m back. It changes every week. My life has to stay pretty much on drum roll, but I have plenty of time off in the meantime.

“I mean, I love this show,” she elaborates. “I get to work every day and I see the same people. Deidre Decker — my makeup artists — I adore and I can’t wait to get into her chair and say, ‘Did your daughter finish the art project? Did you get a picture of it for me?’ And we are all so connected. I know nighttime shows talk about, ‘Oh, we’re family,’ well, step aside. There’s no family like the family of daytime. We get young people in all the time and it’s our job to, as a friend of mine said, move her skirt to the light; okay, just force her into it.’ And we take a break, show her how to find that light and show her where that downstage turn is. It’s just so delicious, because your cameraman, if you’re off your mark, you’ll see him make an adjustment. You’ll see your co-star making an adjustment. It’s a dance and a love story.”

‘Never Say Never: The Deidre Hall Story’

When the tale of her life was adapted in the 1995 TV movie Never Say Never: The Deidre Hall Story, the actress took the unusual step of playing herself in the film, which is about the fact that, as a result of infertility, she sought out the service of a surrogate mother. “The casting was too hard,” she explains matter of factly. “I mean, we had to cast my surrogate mom, because Robin obviously was not an actress and didn’t want to take that on, but there were a number of reasons I played it. First of all, it’s, like, ‘Are you mad?’ Secondly, because we had birth footage of when my son was born, we wanted to use it, but it wasn’t going to work having another actress play Deidre Hall and then have Deidre Hall in the birth room. So it was a great joy. I got to co-executive produce it with Stan Margulies, who is just a brilliant friend and an amazing talent, and it was a love story. It was, ‘Here’s how you got born,’ and it didn’t happen because mommy had a baby. It happened because a lot of people cared enough to bring you in to the world this way.”

As to her real-life struggles to have a baby, she says, “Oh my gosh, I spent two years in vitro trying to get pregnant, and if anybody doesn’t know that, it’s a shots and X-rays and all that. But, yeah, I tried very hard and finally my doctor said, ‘You are out of the baby business.’ So then we looked at surrogacy.”

Lessons Learned

Reflects Deidre of that whole experience, “What it did teach me was, in the moment when that baby is placed in your arms, it doesn’t matter how they got there. I can remember when David was born, because he came through the birth canal, he was in this little shape and the doctor wrapped him up, cut the cord and handed him to me. I remember looking at him saying, ‘If anybody ever tries to hurt you, I will kill them,’ at a rational moment (laughs) — maybe not the first thing you say to your baby! There was a moment that I can’t explain, it’s tough to say, but when David was born the air in the room changed. There was like an explosion of new air and new energy. I can’t think of the right words for it, but when a life comes into this world, there’s a thing that happens.”

As to how her life changed as a result, she comments, “Children become the absolute priority. The day David was born, I had a dressing room set up that I could bring him and the nanny to, so I was always with him. You see everything through what is good and right and best for your own child. That child becomes your everything and you become a fierce mama lion and whatever they need is what you will fight for, for them.”

Building Awareness for Low Vision

For Deidre, February is an important time as it represents Low Vision Awareness Month and an opportunity to shine a potlight on her mother’s journey to blindness as a result of Wet AMD (Age-Related Macular Edema). “My mother, who had five children and worked a good part of that time, was in my mind the most extraordinary, powerful and strong woman,” she reflects. “In 1997, she began to have eye problems and by 1998 they knew it was Macular. At that point in time they didn’t have a really effective treatment for Wet AMD, so she did what she could and she got help, but she eventually lost almost all of her eye sight. The last 10 years of her life was spent trying to manage that illness and survive. My dad ended up with dementia, so she lost him in 2002 and was really on her own.

“As I said,” she continues, “in those days there wasn’t a whole lot to do for it and now we have all kinds of amazing treatments. In fact, I don’t know how much you know about this disease, but in some cases they can roll back part of the eye damage, which is breathtaking. That is the news break of the day to me; that we don’t have a way to treat it, but we have a way to roll it back. There is a site for people to go to learn about this at looktoyourfuture.com. It’s an eye vision problem and the symptoms include blurriness in the center of your vision, maybe seeing lines, blind spots and some washed out colors. Those are not normal signs of aging, and if those are happening you need to get to your eye doctor immediately. They can help you now, my mom not so much. But now we’re in a better place.”

Retirement? The Thought Hadn’t Even Occurred to Her

Asked about retirement, the 71-year-old actress has an immediate response: “Only when the phone stops ringing! I love what I do. We work 50 weeks a year and I work with people that I just adore and respect. I get to see them on days when I get to go to work to catch up on their lives and their adventures and their heartbreaks. I wouldn’t change that for the world. This time in my life is the best time ever — until the next time! I’m so sublimely happy and my kids are in good shape, my family’s in good shape, I’m healthy, I do a job that I love, I have people that I adore. So it doesn’t get any better and I am beyond grateful.”