Stephen Nichols Gives a Behind-the-Scenes Look at 40 Years on ‘Days of Our Lives’ and Playing Patchy Claus (Exclusive)
The soap icon dishes on his journey as Patch, playing Stefano and why he misses Santa duty
Stephen Nichols doesn’t get to don his suit and beard to play Patchy Claus on Days of Our Lives this year, but here, the soap opera icon gives Woman’s World the gift of Salem dish!
The actor who first signed on to play Steve “Patch” Johnson in 1985 gets candid about his leading lady, Mary Beth Evans—aka the other half of super couple Patch and Kayla—who was also paired with him on General Hospital and reflects on playing soapy twists like becoming Stefano.
Plus, the daytime vet who also did time on The Young & the Restless reveals which Days of Our Lives story upset him most…but then didn’t last long enough. (Hint, it involves costar Wally Kurth!)
Stephen Nichols admits, ‘I’ve been missing playing Patchy Claus’
Having celebrated his 40th anniversary on Days of Our Lives last June and the soap’s 60th anniversary last month, Stephen Nichols has stepped away from Salem over the decades. He’s gotten into the drama on General Hospital and The Young and the Restless, had fun playing himself in Soapdish, and boasts a string of primetime guest spots from early in his career—but he and his character Patch have always come home.
“I know you’ve heard this many times before, but for folks who’ve been there a long time, like myself, it really is a family,” Nichols says of Days of Our Lives. “Because when you go away for a couple of years and come back, it’s like you’ve never left. I love every member of the cast and crew, and we have a great, great group running the show right now. I’m just so happy to be here.”
That said, with someone unexpected set to read the Christmas story to the kids at the hospital this holiday, Nichols does have a bone to pick.
“All I know about the holidays on Days is there will be many Horton balls hung upon the tree,” he teases with a laugh. “Seriously, though, I’ve been missing playing Patchy Claus. I loved putting on the costume, giving presents to the kids in the nurses’ station, and having Kayla read the story, but I haven’t been able to do that for a while. I think the last time I did it, I was Stefano pretending to be Steve as Patchy Claus!”
Nichols reflects on becoming ‘Stevano’ and kissing ‘Marlena’
Nichols is referring to the shift after the show’s 2019 timejump, which saw Dr. Rolf use a microchip to put Stefano’s consciousness into his character to create Patch-as-Stefano, a.k.a. “Stevano” or “Stefan-o.”
“There have been many times I’ve seen something in a script and gone, ‘Oh no! How can we dig ourselves out of this?’” he admits. “Including when they told me that I was gonna be playing Stefano.
“But it turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun,” he continues. “I had a great time, and I got to work with so many people that I don’t normally work with.”
Not only was Nichols suddenly tied to the DiMera clan, but he got to plant a kiss on Deidre Hall’s Marlena… who ended up being Hattie.
“So it was great,” Nichols cheers—but the fun wasn’t just about shaking up his canvas.
Joe Mascolo’s Stefano ‘was such a great villain’
For this longtime Salem hero, slipping into Stevano let him play dark, while also honoring daytime legend Joe Mascolo—who created nefarious Stefano back in 1982.
“With the villains, I think the writers pay more attention,” Nichols considers. “They’re used to writing Patch and Kayla and sort of write the same thing for every super couple. But when it’s a villain, it seems much more specific. They knew Stefano, so they could bring in that rich history, and I had to learn as much as I could in the short time that I had to get ready. He was such a great villain. There was so much to draw from.
“I had an iPad in my room and every morning before I would go on set, I would watch Joe,” he adds. “I didn’t watch to imitate him, but to get the essence and that Eurotrash accent he had for Stefano. By the way. When Joe came to the studio, he never used his real voice. He kept that accent all day!”
Kayla’s pairing with Justin ‘was very disturbing’
Another turn that made Nichols cringe came with that same timejump.
“When I read that Mary Beth was being paired with Wally, that was very disturbing,” he sniffs of Evans and Kurth, who play Kayla and Justin. “To have a partner like Mary Beth has been my saving grace. It’s been incredible. I love her. So I don’t like my girl with any other man!”
While Nichols doesn’t like to share, he can’t argue the twist created some good drama.
“The triangle and the conflict were great, and Wally’s so wonderful,” he says. “I think they wrapped it up too quickly. It could have been more. It should have been!”
‘If you can’t get it up for an adventure, you better throw in the towel!’
When we spoke during the Days anniversary party, Nichols revealed he counts his earliest years in Salem as his most creative.
“It was so wonderful,” he says. “There was so much to do. They were writing a heavy story for us. Mary Beth was there. It was so much fun to go to work—and yes, it’s still fun, today!”
As Patch has matured and become Steve to many, Nichols is heartbroken to have shared his last escapade with Drake Hogestyn’s John Black. That said, he hopes there’s still more action ahead for his character.
“That’s daytime television, baby,” he cries. “If you can’t get it up for an adventure, you better throw in the towel!”
Even with no Patchy Claus, Nichols says, ‘I still play Santa every year’
As for missing out on playing Santa Claus on Days of Our Lives this year, the fact that he’s still getting in on the action in Salem is all the gift Nichols needs.
It also helps that the real-life grandfather will get to “Ho Ho Ho” in the real world—and if you’re reading this at sunset, he could be lighting menorah candles right now!
“I love the holidays, and it’s always about family,” Nichols tells Woman’s World. “My mother-in-law was the magnet for the entire family, who lived all over the country, to come together every Christmas. She was from a Swedish family, so we celebrate on Christmas Eve, and we also celebrate Hanukkah, because my wife’s father was an Ashkenazi Jew from Brooklyn. So we have all of those holidays.
“And with the kids around, I play Santa every year,” he adds. “I have my own suit, beard, and the whole get-up. My last name is St. Nicholas, baby. Come on!”
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Woman's World does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.
