Fond Farewell: Kathryn Hays

On March 25th, 2022, the world stopped turning for the iconic matriarch of As the World Turns, Kathryn Hays, who portrayed Kim Hughes from 1972 until the program's demise in 2010.  We've written about ATWT before and how important a show it was for a certain stretch of time and Hays was a considerable part of its appeal. She did have at least one other career touchstone which ensures her place in the entertainment stratosphere, but we'll get to that in a moment. Now let's have a photo essay of the appealing Miss Hays.

Hays was born Kay Piper (which sounds more like a stage name than the one she later chose!) in Princeton, Illinois on July 26th, 1933. The family soon moved to Joliet. She attended Northwestern University and became involved in modeling, followed by acting and singing. Marrying at 24, she became a mother to daughter Shari. 

Hays continued to pursue a career modeling and appearing on stage. By 1962, she was winning parts on Broadway, as a replacement in the hit Mary, Mary and in the unfortunate flop The Moon Besieged. She appeared opposite no less than Miss Claudette Colbert in the play The Irregular Verb to Love, which ran for 115 performances in 1963.

Having also begun making appearances on TV by 1962, she guest starred on Hawaiian Eye, Surfside 6, Naked City and, as seen above, Dr. Kildare, playing a blind sculptress. (Take that Lionel Richie!) Other shows like Route 66 and The Lieutenant soon followed.

Her movie debut came in 1963 with the now-obscure paranoia drama Ladybug Ladybug, in which the students and staff of a rural school are alerted that nuclear attacks are imminent. Hays deftly portrayed a secretary who is pregnant at this cataclysmic moment. Among the other skilled players were Estelle Parsons, Nancy Marchand and Jane Connell.

Now an increasingly in-demand television actress, Hays appeared on show after show, from Mr. Novak and Bonanza to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and The Virginian. She also appeared on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. In those three-network days, a performer could make quite a comfortable living by guesting on various shows here and there through a season.

Hays attempted another trip to Broadway in 1965 with the musicalization of Picnic called "Hot September," (seen with Sean Garrison), but the production was troubled and she left the show, which closed after it's Boston tryout.

1966 brought a second film role, this time as the leading lady in Ride Beyond Vengeance, a flashback western with a cast of familiar faces.

Hays had more than likely been selected to play her pivotal part opposite Chuck Connors after having guest-starred on two of his prior TV series, Arrest and Trial and Branded. The year 1966 was to be a banner one in other ways, too, though not everything would go as hoped or planned.

Having aptly demonstrated her acting talent in a wide variety of ways, she was granted a leading role in a series of her own, alongside Barry Sullivan. The Road West was yet one more in a string of countless western programs that dominated the airwaves in the 1950s & '60s.

Not the most aerodynamic hairstyle for traveling across the American wilderness. The Wagon Train-ish series, with a bit more female presence, lasted 29 episodes before facing cancellation.

More momentous for 1966 was her marriage to actor Glenn Ford. (I couldn't ascertain when her first marriage was dissolved.) Having seen only the black & white photo of their wedding, I never would have guessed the actual color of her dress, so I had to include it in the inset!)

Marriage in Tinseltown is challenging enough without the bride being heavily enmeshed in an hour-long series. To me, the smiles are already a tad forced in these publicity pics of the "happy" couple. In any event, the marriage was dissolved in 1969.

Career-wise, things took an uptick when she was selected to be the leading lady caught between a taciturn Charlton Heston and the suavely villainous Maximilian Schell in Counterpoint (1967) - and married to Leslie Nielsen if you can believe it! The film was not a blockbuster, but it did finally become available on DVD a while back.

Returning to TV on The High Chaparral and Mannix, she then took part in what would become a lasting and famous endeavor among sci-fi fans. She worked on a 1968 episode of Star Trek as Gem, an empath who helps the primary officers of the Starship Enterprise survive captivity by an alien species. She spoke no lines, using only her expressive features to convey every feeling she was experiencing as she took on the pain and injuries of the men, particularly Dr. McCoy.

Many more TV appearances continued, from Here Come the Brides to Marcus Welby, M.D. She also did the TV-movie Breakout, with James Drury (of The Virginian) and Sean Garrison (her one-time leading man of the ill-fated Hot September.) In 1971, she costarred with Clint Walker in the western telefilm Yuma. Appearances like these would continue until 1973. By that time, she'd tried out the world of daytime with a stint on The Guiding Light. But in 1972, she opened up an entirely new world for herself...

As the World Turns was the first 30-minute daytime soap and had begun in 1956. By 1958, it had climbed to the top of the ratings and held firm there for two decades. In 1972, the creator and head writer Irna Phillips brought Hays on in the role of Kim to serve as a trouble-maker, seducing her sister Jennifer's husband Bob. Both sisters wound up pregnant and when the network wouldn't allow Bob to leave Jennifer for Kim, Phillips left! (She returned not too long after when the show began to falter without her firm guidance.) In despair, Kim married Dr. John Dixon in order to give her baby a father, though the infant died.

Eventually, Kim became a sympathetic character and ultimately moved on to Dan, and those two were a major couple for a while, though always under various strains. Her in-name-only husband John had raped her and generated another pregnancy while Dan's alcoholic ex-wife strove to break them up. (Note the mid-'70s matching hair and clothing!)

Once the couple FINALLY got together, Dan died of a brain tumor. (Even in her early years, mostly thanks to the styles of the times, but also due to Hays' own style and demeanor, Kim had a somewhat matronly look, foreshadowing the years in which she would become a comfort and voice of reason to most of - fictional - Oakdale.)

There was also the whirlwind romance with Nick Andropolous (played by Michael Forest himself a former Star Trek guest star), which included a then-staggering and expensive location shoot amid the Greek isles. Sadly, he died as well.

In the mid-'80s, Kim and Bob, who'd remained close friends through the years, let go of their guilt, rekindled their love and were married at last. They became, along with Bob's parents, the cornerstones of the show and the program's most happy and contented couple. It was evendiscovered, in true soap opera fashion, that their old stillborn baby had actually lived and been sold away! They were able to reunite with her.

Under the expert writing of Douglas Marland, the character of Kim still received gripping story lines, such as when her daughter's boyfriend was secretly obsessed with her! If the daughter looks familiar here (and in the group shot above) that's because she later gained fame in the movies - it's Julianne Moore!

Kim and Bob were the moral center of the series and doled out advice and support to all the troubled friends and family around them. But, again thanks to writer Marland, they became the center of a front-burner story when the saintly Dr. Bob had a one-night affair with one of Kim's most dreaded enemies, the ex-wife of her one-time husband Dan, who'd tried to split that marriage up way back when.

Marland had immense respect for his characters and for the history of the show. He kept all the veteran actors involved in the more youth-oriented story lines while also giving the old guard their due. His untimely passing in 1993 marked the beginning of the end of ATWT's glory years.

As the series continued, Hays became one of the mainstays of the show, along with the other folks shown here. Most of these New York-based actors and actresses had excellent stage backgrounds. The young'ns might come and go, but these core personalities remained. Some of those young actors included the likes of Meg Ryan and Marisa Tomei.

When the show was cancelled in 2010, Hays had not only lived her own life (including a brief third marriage from 1984-86), but had practically lived out the better part of Kim's life as well! She'd been aunt, mother, friend, lover, wife, confidante, even occasional victim, but always exuding grace, elegance and charm.

In the wake of ATWT, Hays continued to partake in fan events, webcasts, interviews, etc... sometimes with her pal Don Hastings, who'd portrayed Bob since 1960! She was 88 when she passed away of undisclosed causes.

No one involved in the world of soaps, particularly As the World Turns, could fail to remember Kathryn Hays, but thanks to her guest turn on Star Trek, there is another cult of fans who know her and reacted warmly to her as a performer.