page_title: Julie Olson Williams
section_title: Casting
hierarchical_section_title: Julie Olson Williams / Creation and development / Casting
caption_attribution_description: English: Julie Olson Williams circa 1970
context_page_description: Julie Olson Williams is a fictional character and member of the Horton family on the NBC daytime drama, Days of Our Lives, a long running serial about working class life in the fictional town of Salem.
  The character of Julie was introduced as a 16-year-old when the show premiered in 1965, with 19-year-old Charla Doherty being the first actress to play Julie. The role is unsuccessfully recast twice with Catherine Dunn in 1967, followed by Catherine Ferrar from 1967 until 1968. The role is then taken over by actress Susan Seaforth Hayes in 1968, who still portrays the character to this day. Julie is the last remaining character from the pilot, and Hayes the earliest-appearing actor to currently appear on the serial. Hayes is most recognizable in the role, having portrayed the character in the show all seven decades it has been on the air.
  Doug Williams and Julie Olson were the first super couple in the history of the daytime industry. The January 12, 1976 cover of Time magazine featured Days of our Lives' Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes, the first and only daytime actors to ever appear on its cover.
context_section_description: At the time, soap operas featured mostly older casts. To add a contemporary feel to the show, Corday and Philips focused on younger characters, while also mixing in older ones so as not to lose traditional soap opera viewers. Charla Doherty originated the role of Julie on November 8, 1965 when the show first premiered. Doherty had been in previous short roles on Wagon Train and Dr. Kildare. Charla was quite a bit younger than her co-stars when the show first aired in 1965. Frances Reid was in her fifties, as was MacDonald Carey. Maree Cheatham was in her early twenties, John Clarke and Patricia Huston were both in their thirties, with Doherty being in her late teens and early twenties during her first few years on the program.
  On December 23, 1966, Doherty departed the serial to focus on other career options. The role went through a series of unsuccessful recasts in a short amount of time. The show replaced Doherty with actress Catherine Dunn from January 24 to June 20, 1967, who was in turn replaced by Catherine Ferrar that same year from July 13, 1967 until September 2, 1968. Both actresses proved to be unpopular in the role, and were both fired in the same year. William J. Bell - the show's main writer at the time - decided to give the character a short break from the serial. It was not until 1968 that the character resurfaced again.
  On December 11, 1968, the character was brought back onto the canvas. The role was now played by newcomer actress, Susan Seaforth Hayes (credited as "Susan Seaforth" because she had not yet met her husband Bill).  Susan's previous soap roles included General Hospital and The Young Marrieds, but made a few appearances on Hallmark Hall of Fame, Bonanza, and Dragnet. In portraying Julie, the actress drew on the "self-centered" and "haughty" traits she recognized in herself while in college. In 1970, Bill Hayes joined the cast as Doug Williams. The Hayeses themselves were a couple whose onscreen and real-life romance (they met on the series in 1970) was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press. Bill and Susan eventually fell in love and married, becoming the first soap couple to be together in real life (they married in 1974). With Frances Reid's passing in 2010, Susan Hayes is the only cast member to have aired on Days of our Lives in all six decades that it has been on the air. Macdonald Carey often helped her in her early years on the show.
  Mac had been helpful to me. earlier.  Once I had a job, I had a tendency to read a script and point out the flaws and imperfections of other people’s writing.  And often it was quite a list.  After a few weeks of this, he said to me, “You’ll catch more honey with flies than vinegar here.”
caption: Susan Seaforth as Julie Olson in 1970
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