The late actor approved of his character's death scene, which will air in an upcoming episode of the soap opera

Salem will soon be grieving the loss of its super-spy. Late Days of Our Lives legend Drake Hogestyn (John) gave the show the go-ahead to script the death of his on-screen character, EP Ken Corday told Soap Opera Digest in a new interview.

“We were rolling the dice, because it’s difficult to tell a story of someone’s death or a character’s death while the actor is still alive; albeit [Drake] was fighting, like a tiger, a very difficult disease,” Corday told Soap Opera Digest. “And I made the choice to, ‘Okay, let’s tell the story.’”

Before actor Drake Hogestyn died following a pancreatic cancer battle, he reportedly approved of his Days of Our Lives character also dying. “We were rolling the dice because it’s difficult to tell a story of someone’s death or a character’s death while the actor is still alive;