Deidre Hall - Career

Career

Along with her sister, Andrea, Hall appeared in press materials for the 1952 Hudson Twin-H-Power engine. In her late teens, Hall traveled to Los Angeles for the summer - while attending Palm Beach Junior College - and there she landed some modeling jobs and commercials through an agent. Quickly, she began appearing in television shows, thinking it was temporarily until landing a serious career as a psychologist. In a later interview, she recalled that one day, she realized that acting was her serious career.

In the 1970s, she portrayed the superheroine Electra Woman in "ElectraWoman and DynaGirl", a Sid and Marty Krofft children's show.

Hall appeared on a number of shows, including Emergency! (as Nurse Sally Lewis in the first two seasons), and The Young and the Restless (as Barbara Anderson), before joining Days of our Lives in 1976 as Dr. Marlena Evans. In an interview, Hall said that she thought that she would have no chance, considering that she was uncertain to pursue a career in soap operas, as well as having had to compete against established soap opera veterans for the role. Hall was cast, though, and the role skyrocketed her to fame, which was proved by fan protests when a 1979 NBC promo hinted that Hall's character would be killed off. Two separate daytime television magazines named Hall the best soap actress of 1983.

In 1986, Hall began playing Jesse Witherspoon on the family drama, Our House, which ran for two seasons. She initially reacted without concern on playing on two television series at a time, explaining that she filmed Our House on weekdays while taping Days of our Lives on Saturdays. However, Hall exited Days of our Lives in 1987 when it became too difficult to co-ordinate her prime time and daytime schedules. Our House was cancelled in 1988, though she did not immediately return to the soap opera.

Instead, Hall continued to make guest appearances on a variety of prime time shows until March 1991, when she made a dramatic return to Days of our Lives. This decision was a result of a request by producer Ken Corday, who hoped her return would have influence on the low ratings. According to the actress, she was approached to play a new character, but she refused and insisted on portraying Marlena, with a contract for six months only. Producers were reluctant to give into Hall's requests, fearing that the fans would leave after six months when Hall left. However, Hall remained on contract with the show for eighteen more years until January 24, 2009, when she was terminated due to budget cuts mandated by NBC. Her salary on Days was in the range of $60,000.00 per month, much higher than most other daytime serial actors. Hall has appeared in over 3800 episodes.

In 1995, Hall produced and starred in Never Say Never: The Deidre Hall Story, a made for TV movie about her personal struggles to become a mother. Longtime Days co-star Suzanne Rogers is featured in the program.

Since at least early 2009, Hall has occasionally guest-hosted Clout, a talk radio program syndicated through Air America Media.

In 2010 Deidre Hall and her writing partner Lynne Bowman wrote "Deidre Hall's Kitchen Closeup."

In 2011 Hall guest starred on the season finale of Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva.

She and Drake Hogestyn reprised their roles as Marlena Evans and John Black on September 26, 2011.

She and her writing partner Lynne Bowman are coming out with a beauty book titled "Deidre Hall's How does she do it" and it should be out on Amazon.com on or around November 1.