Mr. Hogestyn was best known for playing John Black on the daytime soap opera and appeared in more than 4,200 episodes over 38 years.

Drake Hogestyn, a fixture on the soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” has died at 70 from pancreatic cancer. For nearly 40 years, he starred as John Black.

Hogestyn, who played John Black in Daves Of Our Lives for nearly 40 years, died Saturday (September 28) following an “unbelievable fight” with pancreatic cancer. It was long thought that Hogestyn’s first name was the inspiration for Joey Tribbiani’s (LeBlanc) Doctor Drake Ramoray in Friends.