Thaao Penghlis

Talk about making an entrance. On Days of our Lives, the good citizens of Salem recently received the shock of their lives when Tony DiMera, presumed dead for the last seven years, arrived unexpectedly while his arch nemesis, John Black, the man Tony framed for his "murder," was celebrating his wedding anniversary. Proving that you can't keep a bad man down, Thaao Penghlis triumphantly returns to NBC's number one daytime drama in the role of Tony DiMera, the new patriarch of the evil DiMera empire.

Penghlis has portrayed multi-faceted villain Tony DiMera, as well as his twin brother Andre, on and off for the past 20 years. Penghlis left the show in 1986 and returned for a second stint of evildoing from 1993 until 1996, when the character of Tony was killed off. Quick thinking on Penghlis' part enabled the current Days of our Lives writing team to bring Tony back from the dead. In 1996, during his final days taping on the show, Penghlis decided to wear clothes out of character for Tony and to display strange quirks that didn't quite fit with his character. In doing so, Penghlis provided future scribes the possibility that an imposter had died, enabling the son of the Phoenix to rise again.

Penghlis was born and raised in Sydney, Australia to Greek-born parents. In a bold move, and to the deep concern of his parents, Penghlis decided to move to NewYork City to study art history and fashion after high school. While in New York City, he met legendary acting coach, theatre director and fellow Greek Milton Katselas, who helped the young student discover his true calling, acting. Penghlis worked as Katselas's assistant for nearly a decade, while often appearing in his productions. He made his New York stage debut in the critically acclaimed off-Broadway play Jockeys.

Penghlis has appeared in the films Slow Dancing in the Big City, directed by John Avildsen, and Altered States, directed by Ken Russell. Daytime audiences were introduced to Penghlis on General Hospital, where he portrayed devious Victor Cassadine. After Victor met his untimely fate, as many soap opera villains do, Penghliswon the role of charismatic Tony DiMera on Days of our Lives.

Upon leaving Days of our Lives for the first time in 1986, Penghlis starred as drama professor Nicholas Black on the prime time series revival of Mission: Impossible. On television, he has starred in the miniseries Sadat, appeared opposite Omar Sharif and Jane Seymour in the miniseries adaptation of Sydney Sheldon's Memories of Midnight, and played a terrorist in the critically acclaimed made for television film Under Seige, with Peter Strauss and Hal Holbrook. Recently, Penghlis starred opposite Antonio Sabato and Joanna Cassidy in the miniseries Tribe. But perhaps his most unusual role was playing the lover of Dame Edna (Barry Humphries) in the cult classic Les Patterson Saves the World.

Even with his demanding schedule on Days of our Lives, Penghlis is busy working on his one-man show, in which he plans to star, about the infamous Greek revolutionary Alexander Panagoulis.

A world class traveler, Penghlis recently visited Greece and Egypt just prior to returning to Days of our Lives. While in Greece, Thaao was able to indulge his lifelong fascination with archaeology by viewing and researching over 60,000 documents, letters and diaries of a famous archeologist who is the subject of his latest screenplay. The ultimate adventurer, Penghlis has trekked across the Sinai desert, climbed Mt. Sinai and soared in a hot air balloon over the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

Thaao Penghlis stands 5'11" and has dark brown hair and brown eyes. He celebrates his birthday on December 15th.