“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.’”

The late actor approved of his character's death scene, which will air in an upcoming episode of the soap opera John Black will have a fitting send-off on Days of Our Lives.The character’s upcoming death scene received the stamp of approval from Drake Hogestyn,

The late Days of Lives soap star, who passed away on September 28, after a battle with pancreatic cancer, knew how his character John Black would be written out of the script.

Days of Our Lives' star Deidre Hall said that 'lovely tribute shows' have been planned to honor Drake Hogestyn, who died in late September at 70.

Days of our Lives star Drake Hogestyn knew his alter ego, John Black, would die, and he was “in favor” of it. When Drake died in September, it came as a shock to fans, but his cast and crew members knew of his pancreatic cancer battle the whole time.