Out actor and Daytime Emmy Award winner Kevin Spirtas recently returned to Days of Our Lives for a ground-breaking storyline as his long-running character came out as gay.
As fans of the daytime drama know, Spirtas joined the cast of the show as Dr. Craig Wesley in August 1997. Wesley has been married for many years to his loving wife Nancy, and has a grown daughter. But his new revelations surprise many and ALL kinds of drama ensues.
The storyline itself is important as this may be the first time a longtime character on a daytime drama has ever come out in mid-life.
Not only does Craig come out, but along the journey so far we meet the man he’s fallen in love with, and … well, so much more.
Spirtas reprised the role in January when Craig followed Nancy (Patrika Darbo) back to Salem after she suspected he had been cheating on her with another woman. It turned out he was cheating but instead of a woman, it was with another man, later revealed as schemer Leo Stark (Greg Rikaart).
Lani learns shocking information about her family; Tripp shares his secret plans; and Chloe urges her father to come clean.
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Like many actors on daytime dramas, Spirtas has left and returned to Days many times over the years. During one period away from Salem, he headed back to his Broadway roots as Hugh Jackman’s standby for the role of “Peter Allen” in The Boy from Oz.
In the interview below, Spirtas says he believes the impetus for bringing him back to Days of Our Lives and his character’s coming out was sparked by the success of his Amazon Video series After Forever, which won 5 Daytime Emmy Awards in 2019. Among those honors was Outstanding Lead Actor in a Digital Daytime Drama Series for Spirtas.
Spirtas had been on leave from Days at the time, but he recalls the congratulations he received from the powers that be at Days. When he got the call from casting at the long-running daytime drama earlier this year, he guessed the nature of Dr. Craig Wesley’s return before he even got the script.
Make sure you tune in this week to see the how, whys and wheres Dr. Craig Wesley lands on his journey. FYI – you can catch up on this entire season of Days of Our Lives for free on PeacockTV.com here.
You can view Spirtas’s multi-Emmy Award winning series After Forever on Amazon Video here.
Hit the play button to hear Spirtas chat about all the drama in Salem on Days of Our Lives.
Congrats to him & his character coming out gay <33