told the daytime icon on Friday\u2019s broadcast<\/a>, while discussing her five decades of playing Dr. Marlena Evans. <\/p>\nHe added, \u201cYou\u2019re a great slapper,\u201d to which Hall replied, \u201cWell thanks!\u201d <\/p>\n
When asked how many times she may have slapped co-stars over the decades, Hall, 78 \u2014 who began appearing on the NBC mainstay in 1976 \u2014 admitted to Melvin that she \u201ccouldn\u2019t begin to imagine.\u201d <\/p>\n
Deirdre Hall playfully slapped Craig Melvin during Friday\u2019s episode of \u201cToday,\u201d as seen above. YouTube\/TODAY<\/p>\n
Melvin told the \u201cDays of Our Lives\u201d icon that he\u2019s always admired her \u201cability to slap.\u201d YouTube\/TODAY<\/p>\n
Melvin then quipped that it would be \u201cone of the greatest professional honors of my life if you could slap me.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI would be privileged to slap you!\u201d Hall exclaimed before pulling her hand back for the faux strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe gentle now,\u201d Melvin said as crew members could be heard laughing in the background.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to draw my hand back and I\u2019m going to come very close to your face,\u201d Hall told Melvin, noting that when he \u201cfeel[s] that happen,\u201d he should \u201csnap [his] head.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the apparent on-camera slap, Melvin jokingly reacted with horror, recoiling and whimpering, \u201cOh my God!\u201d while covering his left eye. <\/p>\n
Hall told Melvin to \u201csnap\u201d his head while performing the faux slap. YouTube\/TODAY<\/p>\n
Hall joked after the moment that she \u201cmeant to miss.\u201d YouTube\/TODAY<\/p>\n
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Hall, meanwhile, said she \u201cmeant to miss\u201d as both laughed. <\/p>\n
In the comments thread via YouTube, fans gushed over Hall\u2019s half-century milestone. <\/p>\n
\u201cLove you Marlena!! Congratulations on 50 years!!!!!!!!!!\u201d one person wrote, while another remarked, \u201cGreat interview. Love Deidre Hall \u2026 has watched her for those 50 years and Days since a 7 year old in 1965 \u2026\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cLong live Deidre Hall and Marlena!\u201d a third person enthused. <\/p>\n
Hall was marking 50 years on the soap opera during her appearance on \u201cToday.\u201d She\u2019s seen here in Los Angeles in November. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hall\u2019s run on the show \u2014 set in the fictional town of Salem, Illinois \u2014 has earned her three Daytime Emmy nominations. \u00a9NBC\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n
Hall\u2019s run on the show \u2014 set in the fictional town of Salem, Illinois \u2014 has earned her three Daytime Emmy nominations.<\/p>\n
For decades, she played the beloved psychiatrist opposite her character\u2019s love interest, Drake Hogestyn\u2019s John Black. Hogestyn died following a battle with pancreatic cancer<\/a> just a day before his 71st birthday on Sept. 28, 2024.<\/p>\nIn a statement to Access Hollywood at the time, Hall said her co-star was \u201cdearly loved by everyone who ever knew him and he will be missed beyond measure.\u201d <\/p>\n
While Hogestyn\u2019s character was written off the show, Hall has continued in her long-running role as Dr. Evans, which has been streaming on Peacock since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDays of Our Lives\u201d star Deirdre Hall slapped \u201cToday\u201d host Craig Melvin in a display of soap opera…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1508,3172,91,592,88,63374,1256,92],"class_list":["post-714298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-actors","tag-celebrity-interviews","tag-celebrity-news","tag-days-of-our-lives","tag-entertainment","tag-soap-operas","tag-today-show","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}