| Doug Williams | |||||||||||||||||
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| Days of our Lives | |||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Bill Hayes | ||||||||||||||||
| Current status | Former; Recurring | ||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1970–84, 1986–87, 1993–96, 1999–2024 | ||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | February 9, 1970 | ||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | July 11, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||
| Cause/reason | Died | ||||||||||||||||
| Created by | William J. Bell | ||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Betty Corday | ||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||
| Fullname | Brent Douglas (birth name) | ||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Male | ||||||||||||||||
| Born | January 1, 1926 | ||||||||||||||||
| Died | November 28, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||
| Age | 98 | ||||||||||||||||
| Cause of death | Died in his sleep | ||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Retired Former Owner of Doug's Place Former Singer at Sergio's Former Mayor of Salem Former Con-man | ||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Salem, Illinois (at time of death) | ||||||||||||||||
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Doug Williams was a character from the soap opera Days of Our Lives, portrayed by Bill Hayes since 1970. Since 1999, Hayes has continued to make recurring appearances as Doug, notably airing during the holiday seasons.
Background
Born January 1, 1926, as Brent Douglas, he later changed his name to Doug Williams is the half-brother of Byron Carmichael. He is the father of the Hope Williams Brady and the late Dougie LeClair .He is the husband of Julie Olson Williams, whom he has married three times. Doug is also the ex-husband of Kim Douglas and Lee DuMonde and the widower of Addie Horton.
Storylines
Doug Williams was Bill Horton's cell mate while he served his sentence for the manslaughter of Kitty Horton. Doug was in prison for a white collar crime, and during his conversations with Bill learned all about Salem, and Susan Hunter who had inherited a fortune from her late husband David Martin. After getting out of prison Doug went after Susan, but she didn't fall for his charm. However, Susan saw Doug as a way to come between Julie Olson Williams and Scott Banning, so she offered Doug money to have an affair with Julie. Susan would eventually come to her senses and call off the deal, but by that time it was too late. By the end of 1970 Doug was working as a singer at Sergio's and had fallen in love with Julie. Doug and Julie eventually made love, and he talked about marrying her if she left Scott.
In 1972, when Doug was found out by Addie Horton to be Brent Douglas, an orphan who had run away from an orphan edge at the age of 14 and had been conning his way through life. Doug and Addie formed a mutual friendship, but Addie wanted to be more than just friends.
In June of 1972, Doug planned a trip for himself and Julie, but the two quarreled the night they were to leave over whether Julie would bring her son David Banning with them. Julie walked out on Doug, and when he dropped by Addie's she proposed marriage, and Doug accepted.
In June of 1972 Doug and Addie married and honeymooned in Portofino. Upon returning to Salem Addie bought Sergio's and renamed it Doug's Place as a wedding gift for her husband. Addie loved Doug greatly, and in time he came to love her as well.
In 1973, Addie and Doug learned they were expecting a child. However their happiness would soon be shattered when Addie learned she had leukemia. Addie slipped into coma, but awakened to give birth to her daughter Hope Williams Brady on December 24, 1974.
Soon after Addie's leukemia went into remission. Addie's health improved, and Doug and Addie were happy with little Hope. Addie's happiness wouldn't last for one day while crossing the street Addie was struck by a car and killed. Addie gave her life to save her baby Hope, whose carriage would have been struck by the car if she had not pushed the carriage out of the way. Doug was grief stricken and nobody seemed to be able to reach him.
In 1975, Doug decided to take Hope from her grandparents and raise her himself, along with the help of a nanny he hired named Rebecca North. He also decided to give Hope a little brother, and went to Dr. Neil Curtis, who agreed to find an anonymous surrogate mother for him. Neil would eventually choose Hope's own nanny Rebecca for the job.
In 1976, after Julie had divorced Bob Anderson, Doug and Julie became engaged. Hoping to have children with Julie, Doug told Neil he no-longer needed the surrogate child, and Rebecca North was allowed to keep her baby, and the money. Before they were to marry Doug's ex-wife Kim Douglas returned claiming she and Doug had never legally divorced. After months of trying to win Doug back Kim told him that they had been divorced legally for many years. Doug and Julie then continued with wedding plans and married in 1976.
In 1977, Doug's Place suffered hard times when Doug lost his liquor license and eventually the club. Julie would buy back the club and turn it into Doug's coffee house, and later that year Doug left Salem to take care of business. While away Doug was arrested for a drug bust, which was a frame up orchestrated by Larry Atwood who wanted Julie for himself.
In 1978, Larry would succeed in his plan and raped Julie. Julie was traumatized by the event and pulled away from everyone, including Doug. Doug felt Julie had turned his back on him because of the drug bust, but when Doug received a letter form Jeri Clayton accusing Julie of having an affair with Larry he believed it. Julie eventually told Doug about the rape, and soon after Larry was found dead. Julie would stand trial for his death, and during the trial Julie's rape was made public. Eventually Larry's assistant Arlo Roberts admitted to killing Larry, and Julie was cleared.
In 1979, Julie was badly burned on Maggie Horton Kiriakis's farm, and when she felt Doug would no longer want her, she got a divorce from him in Mexico. Later that year Doug inherited a large sum of money when his half-brother Bryan Carmichael died. Lee DuMonde came to Salem to seek out the Carmichael fortune, and Lee and Doug took up together when Doug thought Julie no longer wanted him, and eventually married on November 5th, 1979.
In 1980, Doug was eventually forced to close Doug's Place. Later that year he realized his marriage to Lee was a mistake, and wanted to divorce her to remarry Julie. Lee was furious, and tried to have Julie killed. When her attempt failed Lee tried to fake a suicide by overdosing on medicine. However she mixed the wrong medications and suffered a stroke which left her partially paralyzed. Her plan worked, Doug told Julie he could not leave Lee while she was paralyzed.
After divorcing Lee in 1981, Julie and Doug were married again. However, Lee managed to turn little Hope against her father and Julie, and she refused to live with them, instead choosing to live with Tom Horton and Alice Horton.
In 1982, Julie and Doug became involved in an adventure involving titanium deposits. A set of geological maps showed titanium deposits underneath Doug's place, and both Stefano DiMera and Stuart Whyland wanted to get their hands on the. Stefano and Tony DiMera had constructed a tunnel from the DiMera Mansion to the wine cellar of Doug's place in order to get the deposits, but in the end the entire titanium deposits ended up being a hoax.
In 1984, Doug caught his daughter Hope and Bo Brady on the verge of making love. The site shocked him, and he had a coronary. At the hospital Doug asked Hope to stay away from Bo, and she did.
In 1986, Doug and Julie divorced. Doug rarely returned to Salem, and during a time that both Doug and Julie were out of Salem, they remarried. The two were blissfully happy together.
In 2003, Doug and Julie returned to Salem when the Salem Stalker serial killings began to be there for Jennifer Horton Deveraux, who had just lost Jack Deveraux. Sadly, Doug himself was a victim of the killer. Once Marlena Evans realized that Doug could identify her, she had to eliminate him.
Even though Doug was murdered by the Salem Stalker, nothing is forever in Salem. He wound up alive and well on the island Melaswen, and was both happy and sad to see his daughter, Hope, show up on the island. Luckily Doug was one of the island residents to survive and return to Salem, where he and Julie have begun putting their lives back together.
In the summer of 2007, Doug and Julie came to town to discover that Lexie Carver had been kept prisoner in the tunnels underneath the old "Doug's Place". They helped rescue Lexie and nurse her back to health.
In 2008, Doug and Julie returned to Salem for the holiday celebrations at Alice's and at Salem University Hospital.
They returned again on December 24, 2009 for the Horton family Christmas. Julie gave Bo and Hope advice on saving their marriage.
On December 31, 2009 Julie and Doug were planning to ring in the new year at Chez Rouge with Maggie.
On January 8, 2010 Doug discovers that Mickey Horton has died of a heart attack. He is in town to comfort Maggie along with Julie, Melissa Horton, Lucas Horton, and the rest of the Horton's.
On January 12, 2010 Doug met Hope at the Brady Pub and advised her not to give up on her marriage.
Doug and Julie returned again in June 2010 for the funeral services of Alice Horton.
Doug made an onscreen appearance during the annual Horton Tree Trimming on December 26, 2013 and again in 2014.
He returned again in the spring of 2015 with Julie to visit Hope. Both Doug and Julie were highly involved with the show's 50th anniversary and were around to help Hope deal with the sudden death of Bo Brady from cancer.
In September 2021, Doug began to act different. He locked Julie in the freezer and walked away. He couldn't remember Tom and Alice's name, thought Roman Brady was John Black, and confused Marlena for Vivian Alamain. Kayla Brady Johnson ran some tests on Doug, and couldn't find anything wrong, but Doug groped Paulina Price's butt, so something was still clearly wrong, Doug went to talk to Marlena where they discussed his memory lapses. When Marlena asked why Doug thinks he accidentally locked Julie in the freezer, Doug said it wasn't an accident. He further stated that he intended to lock that bitch in the freezer. Marlena thought she heard Doug wrong, but Doug clarified she heard right and chuckled that it was the most fun he's had all week.
Marlena was stunned and said Doug didn't mean that and that he was confused. Doug retorted that Marlena was the one who was confused, and said he wasn't Doug. Marlena said he was Doug, who denied he was again, and then spoke in a deep voice and told Marlena that it's been twenty-five years, but did she really think he wouldn't come for her again. Marlena insisted that the man was Doug, but Doug kept denying he was Doug, and brought up the things he and Marlena did when she was possessed, saying they had so much fun together.
When Marlena still struggled to believe it, Doug proclaimed he would demonstrate his power, and caused the lights at the hospital to flicker. Marlena saw the glow in Doug's eyes and finally believed the devil had returned to Salem. She asked him what he wanted, and the devil said he had come back for Marlena. He missed her and remembered all the fun they had causing chaos. He says he'll let Doug go if Marlena accept him back into her. Marlena refuses, so the devil starts torturing Doug as Marlena begs him not to hurt Doug.
Doug eventually loses consciousness and crumples to the floor as Marlena stares in stunned silence. Doug was hospitalized where he was really weak, but managed to mumble to Julie that he left Doug and went into Marlena.
Doug appears sporadically from 2022 until his death in 2024. In 2024, on Thanksgiving Day, Jack goes upstairs to wake Doug and finds that Doug has passed away in his sleep.
Many friends any family members gather to remember Doug at his funeral.
