50 Greatest Soap Actors: #11 Don Hastings

NAME: Don Hastings
RANK: 11
SOAP ROLES: Bob Hughes, AS THE WORLD TURNS (1960-present); Bob Hughes, OUR PRIVATE WORLD (1965); Jack Lane, THE EDGE OF NIGHT (1956-1960); THE ROAD OF LIFE; HILLTOP HOUSE; PORTIA FACES LIFE

AWARDS:
2004 Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award
1998 Soap Opera Digest Award Editor's Award win
1992 Soap Opera Digest Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor: Daytime

COMMENTS FROM THE PANEL:
Damon L. Jacobs:  It has become common in soap circles to heap tons of praise and awards on the bad-boy-turned-good.  But it is far too easy to ignore the integrity, strength, and skill required to play the good guy.  Don Hastings mastered this art portraying the upstanding, kind, and dignified Bob Hughes for most of the past 50 years.  The "melting ice cream" scene last summer, in which Bob appear disoriented, confused, and terrified, was only a sample of what this brilliant thespian is capable of.  His calming and reassuring presence will be sorely missed after September 2010.

Connie Passalacqua Hayman (Marlena De Lacroix): You think it’s easy to play such a good guy for almost five decades? As Dr. Bob on AS THE WORLD TURNS, he's been the golden heart of Oakdale --a long time to maintain the subtlety and great intelligence of a thinking, often conflicted family man.

Nelson Aspen: Don belongs to the elite fraternity of daytime greats who have managed to stay relevant throughout DECADES of serial storytelling. His calm, quiet approach to playing the lifelong arc of Bob Hughes has been beautiful to behold and he'll be sorely missed from the daytime community when the World stops Turning. Let's hope he turns up somewhere else soon!

Roger Newcomb: Through five wives, 13 Toms and countless writers and producers, Bob Hughes has survived and thrived thanks to Hastings. The high point for AS THE WORLD TURNS in 2010 was the episodes featuring Bob and Kim's anniversary. The show has missed a huge opportunity over the past decade by not fully taking advantage of this wonderful actor, who was the backbone of Oakdale for decades. The man's still got it.

Lynn Liccardo: What a great way AS THE WORLD TURNS to close out Don Hastings’ fifty years on the show: the collapse and rebuilding of Bob and Kim’s twenty-five year marriage.

Too bad they shoe-horned a story that could have, and should have, run for the show’s final months – how wonderful it would have been for the fans, not to mention the vets, it the show had ended with Bob and Kim’s reconciliation – into three days. But, it was, nevertheless, so good to see Don Hastings have the chance, however brief, to really display the full range of his talents one last time.

INTERVIEW ARCHIVE:
- WLS Interview Archive: Don Hastings (January 2010)