William "Bill" Foster Hayes III (born June 5, 1925 in Harvey, Illinois) is an American dramatic actor and former Billboard Hot 100 #1 recording artist. Following a career as a musician, he achieved fame as an actor when he began playing Doug Williams on NBC's daytime serial Days of Our Lives in 1970. Hayes originated the character of Doug and is the only actor to ever play that role. He still appears in the same role on Days of Our Lives.

Biography

Hayes graduated from DePauw University with a double major in music and English and became a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

He has been married to Days of our Lives co-star Susan Seaforth since 1974. His character's partnership with Seaforth's character, Julie, is widely considered to be the first supercoupling on the American daytime serials.

Their relationship was so popular that they were featured on the front page of Time magazine in 1975, the first and only soap opera stars to hold that distinction to date.

In 2005, the couple published their joint autobiography, Like Sands Through the Hourglass.

Hayes was previously married to Mary Hobbs from 1947 to 1969; they share five children.

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