Bill Hayes

Bill Hayes burst onto the early national television scene in Olsen & Johnson’s madcap series Fire-Ball Run-For-All. From there he was tapped by Producer Max Liebman to be a featured singer on Your Show of Shows starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Bill made hit Broadway debt in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s ‘Me and Juliet,’ followed with a gold record for ‘The Ballad of Davy Crockett’ (over 3,000,000 sold!)

Bill’s major films were the Warner Brothers farce/musical ‘Stop! You’re Killing Me’ and Otto Preminger’s ‘The Cardinal’. He hosted NBC-Radio Monitor for a year, was a national spokesman for Oldsmobile for four years, and took ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ on its one-year national tour. In addition to these highlights of the 50’s and 60’s, Bill’s career was interspersed with variety performances on RV with Kate Smith, Ed Sullivan, Perry Como, Milton Berle, Ernie Kovacs, Jo Stafford, Jack Paar, Bing Crosby, and the ‘Bell Telephone Hour;’ dramatic RV shows such as U.S. Steel Hour, Hallmark Hall of Fame and Carol Burnett’s ‘Once Upon a Mattress; vaudeville turns at the Chicago Theater and New York’s ‘Roxy;’ and café’s such as the ‘Blue Angel’ and the St. Regis hotel in New York, the Drake Hotel in Chicago, the Fontainbleau in Miami.

Theater tours included ‘Student Prince,’ ‘Anything Goes,’ ‘Camelot,’ ‘On a Clear Day,’ and ‘Pajama Game.’ And in addition to the New York City Center revival of 'Brigadoon', Bill’s considerable regional theater appearances included ‘On the Town,’ ‘Of Thee I Sing.’ ‘Merry Widow,’ ‘Mikado,’ ‘Miss Liberty,’ ‘Music in the Air,’ ‘Tree Grows in Brooklyn,’ ‘South Pacific,’ ‘Out of This World,’ ‘Fanny,’ ‘Dark of the Moon,’ ‘Good News,’ ‘Oklahoma,’ ‘Girl Crazy,’ ‘Who Was that Lady?,’ ‘Where’s Charley?,’ ‘Foxy, Sunday in New York,’ ‘Green Grow the Lilacs,’ ‘She Loves Me,’ ‘Moon is Blue’ Fantasticks,’ ‘Carousel,’ ‘Song of Norway,’ ‘Desert Song,’ ‘Guys & Dolls,’ ‘George M!,’ and ‘Same Time Next Year.’ Bill’s list totals over 87 musicals and 28 plays, at theaters in nearly all 50 states!

In the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, Bill Hayes has portrayed ‘Doug Williams’ on NBC’s Emmy-award-winning Days of Our Lives (1850 episodes, and still counting!) for which he garnered two Emmy nominations, and several Best Actor Awards from national publications. Also during that period, Bill appeared as a regular on Hollywood Squares and as a frequent guest with Johnny, Phil, Dinah, Mike and Merv, more recently with Marilu, Geraldo, and Oprah.

In the 90’s, Bill starred on TV’s ‘Matlock,’ ‘Hooperman,’ and ‘Cop Rock’, and in the award-winning film ‘Wrestling with God.’ His stints with Ann Blyth at the Dunes in Vegas and Rainbow and Stars in New York drew raves from the critics. (‘Not only does Hayes still belt ‘em out, he can tap!;) His work on stage in the 90’s included ‘Fagin’ in ‘Oliver!’, ‘DeBecue’ in ‘South Pacific’, ‘the devil’ in ‘Damn Yankees,’ ‘Scrooge’ and ‘Marley’ in ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ‘Michael’ in ‘I Do I Do’ and ‘George in Bernard Slade’s new play ‘Same Time Another Year.’