City native and longtime soap opera actor Drake Hogestyn has died at 70, according to a message from his family posted Saturday night on the app.
The 1971 North Side High School graduate had been fighting pancreatic cancer, according to the post.
appItapps with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Drake Hogestyn,app the message reads. appHe was thrown the curve ball of his life when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but he faced the challenge with incredible strength and determination. After putting up an unbelievable fight, he passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones.app
The message calls him an amazing husband, father and grandfather, and adds that he loved performing for the appDaysapp audience.
appWe love him and we will miss him all the Days of our Lives,app it ends.
Born Donald Drake Hogestyn on Sept. 29, 1953, the actor would have turned 71 on Sunday. He was a newspaper delivery boy in his childhood and would bike along Parnell, Kenwood and Glenwood avenues in the North Anthony Boulevard trying to beat his time from the previous day or week, he told app for a story in 2014.
His dream was to play for the New York Yankees, he told the newspaper in 2003.
appI grew up on Wildcat League, Little League, Pony League and Colt League at McMillen Park. app And I was on North Sideapps first baseball team, my senior year,app he said. In addition to delivering app in his youth, he worked at the Dairy Queen on Parnell and in the meat department at the Rogers on Anthony.
In the 2003 story, he said that he and his siblings had an idyllic life growing up in the city. They even played along the St. Joseph River.
appWe had an island out there and a flat-bottom boat. app We had a Rockwellian upbringing, I swear to God.app
Hogestyn met his wife, Victoria, on a baseball field at McMillen Park. He was 15, she was 12. They would drift apart but later reconnect as adults after her first marriage ended.
He attended University of South Florida on a baseball scholarship and was drafted by the Yankees, playing two years for their minor league teams before a 1977 foot injury cut his baseball career short. He then turned to acting.
Hogestyn made his TV debut in 1982 in the one-season appSeven Brides for Seven Brothersapp and first portrayed John Black on NBCapps appDaysapp in 1986. He took a hiatus from his most-known role from 2009 to 2011, according to industry website Deadline.
His page on the Internet Movie Database shows he appeared in more than 4,200 episodes of appDays,app which has streamed on Peacock since 2022. The Associated Press reported that his final appearance on the show was in an episode that aired Sept. 9.
He also appeared in a spinoff project and had guest roles on other shows including appCriminal Minds.app
He was honored by the Mad Anthonys organization as the Hoosier Celebrity of the Year in 1995 and given the traditional Red Coat.
He is survived by his wife; their four children Rachael, Ben, Whitney and Alexandra and their partners; and seven grandchildren, .
