Before actor Drake Hogestyn died following a pancreatic cancer battle, he reportedly approved of his Days of Our Lives character also dying ... We needed a reason [for John’s absence].” Corday, 74, reached out to Hogestyn before writing the script.

Salem will soon be grieving the loss of its super-spy. Late Days of Our Lives legend Drake Hogestyn (John) gave the show the go-ahead to script the death of his on-screen character, EP Ken Corday told Soap Opera Digest in a new interview.

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,

“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 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 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,

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.