Drake Hogestyn

Back in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Drake Hogestyn, who stars as John Black on NBC-TV's Days of our Lives, had every intention of becoming a dentist. He figures it's still an option if he ever needs one, though it doesn't look as if he will, given his popularity on the soap opera. Drake rose to the top of the polls for all of the more than seven years since joining the daytime drama. Most recently, he signed an unprecedented four-year contract to continue his role.

Drake's early years were spent in the Midwest, filled with baseball, his first love. A gifted athlete, he was tapped by the St. Louis Cardinals after high school, but chose instead to attend college on a baseball scholarship. After graduating from the University of Southern Florida, Tampa, in microbiology, he was drafted by the New York Yankees and played the glamorous position of third base for the farm team in Oneonta, New York until he was sidelined by an injury in 1978. At almost the same moment, destiny intervened and Drake was discovered by Joshua Shelley, then running the Columbia Pictures national talent search program.

Applying to the program was the result of a few bored baseball players sitting around the clubhouse during a rain delay with nothing better to do than respond to an ad Columbia had placed in the local paper. But of the 75,000 aspiring actors who were submitted to the studio, Drake was among 30 whom were finally chosen. He was flown to Los Angeles to participate in an intensive three month training workshop, and while he was new to the stage, he found himself once again perfectly at home in the spotlight. Just like third base.

After completing the talent training program and realizing that his ball playing days were probably numbered anyway, he decided to stay on the West Coast and pursue an acting career.

Drake's first starring role was the series Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, in which he played the taciturn sibling with few lines but a compelling presence and a lot of attitude. The series lasted one season, after which Drake starred in an unsold pilot and finally, in January 1986, landed the plum role of John Black on Days of our Lives.

At least he started out as John Black. Well, actually he started out as a kind of mummy. But when he was unwrapped he was John Black. And then, miracle of miracles, he wasn't John Black. Just as he was being dropped off a cliff to certain death, it was revealed he was really Roman Brady, the presumed-dead brother of Bo Brady, the man who was dropping our hero off that cliff. Fade out ...

Fade in as the current storyline unfolds, Drake's Roman Brady, who for five years has been Salem's chief crime fighter and all-around good guy, but who for those same five years has been the luckiest man alive in terms of a love life, is now revealed to be no! Not Roman Brady at all, but in truth, John Black.

Well, it's a very long story. Let's just say that the fans love him. In fact, they love him so much that they voted him Hottest Male Star at the Soap Opera Awards two years in a row, 1994 and 1995. He does miraculous things with the most outlandish storylines and he's considered one of the sexiest and most romantic of all daytime's leading men.