Soap star Kathryn Hays dies
Kathryn Hays, an actress who had a brief yet memorable turn in the “Star Trek” television series of the 1960s but who found enduring appeal as a stalwart soap opera star on “As the World Turns” for almost four decades, died on March 25 in Fairfield, Conn. She was 87.
Her daughter, Sherri Mancusi, confirmed her death, in an assisted living facility.
Hays was originally cast by daytime drama writer and creator Irna Phillips for a six-month contract, but wound up as an integral part of “As the World Turns,” which ran on CBS from 1956 to 2010.
By the end of Hays’ long run on the show, her character, Kim Hughes, had become the de facto matriarch of the drama’s fictional town, Oakdale. The character was known for her catchphrases, often calling people “kiddo” or “toots.”
Hays balanced the demands of taping an episode a day with humor and close relationships on set, her daughter said, recalling that her co-stars gave her the nickname “One Take Kathy.”
Hays was known to fans of the original “Star Trek” television series for the episode “The Empath” (1968), in which she played Gem, a mute alien with healing powers who rescues a grievously injured Captain Kirk (William Shatner). Her extensive screen credits included “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Road West” and “Law & Order.”
Hays often spoke about her love for the character Kim Hughes and the soap opera format in general.
“I think if you look beyond soap operas, you’ll see that people like to have an ongoing story,” she told Entertainment Weekly on the occasion of the show’s finale. “They love to read sequels of books. They like to see sequels of movies.”
Kim Hughes experienced standard soap opera fare on “As the World Turns,” from extramarital affairs to memory loss. But she also figured in more topical storylines. One episode, in the 1970s, touched on marital rape, an issue not often publicly discussed then.
In a 2010 interview with the website “We Love Soaps,” Hays said that at the time, “I didn’t even realize that was controversial. But it was.”