Days of Our Lives Star Drake Hogestyn was able to approve and film the way his beloved character died on the Peacock soap before he passed away on Sept. 28. In a new interview, Executive Producer Ken Corday said he needed to explain to viewers why Hogestyn’s character,

“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,” executive producer Ken Corday told ...

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.

Co-star Stephen Nichols (Steve) told Soap Opera Digest that every single day since his passing, Hogestyn has been in the thoughts of everyone involved in creating DAYS. “Whenever he is mentioned, everybody’s in on the conversation because we all loved him so much,

Days of Our Lives will say a more permanent goodbye to the late Drake Hogestyn’s character, John Black, with upcoming death and funeral scenes that the actor approved before he passed away. In a new interview with Soap Opera Digest,

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

As a result, the site noted, the soap filmed John's passing before Hogestyn himself died on Sept. 28 after battling pancreatic cancer. Corday explained: 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;

Days of Our Lives has had to say a painful goodbye to too many beloved actors lately - and their legendary characters. But due, in part, to the show's advanced shooting schedule, the onscreen and offscreen farewells tend to be very far apart.