Soap Opera
The Soap Opera Character Who Went Out to Mail a Letter and Never Returned
Don Craig vanished from ‘Days of our Lives’ in 1985 after 15 years in Salem. Discover his dramatic story and what actor Jed Allen did after leaving the soap.
For nearly 15 years, Don Craig was a Days of our Lives mainstay, the lawyer everyone wanted to represent them and the all-around good guy who was everyone’s best friend. For a few years, Don was even married to the soap’s forever heroine, Deidre Hall‘s Marlena Evans. Then, one day in 1985, Don disappeared as if he’d never existed.
Days of our Lives’ Don Vanishes Into Thin Air
When Don was married to Marlena, they were one of the most popular couples in Salem. However, the death of their infant son, DJ, to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) took its toll on their marriage, leading Don to stray with Liz Chandler (Gloria Loring). Marlena divorced Don after she learned of the affair, so Don married Liz. That marriage didn’t last either and the next few years felt like the beginning of the end for the character. He floundered for a few years with multiple unsuccessful love interests, including Maggie Horton (Suzanne Rogers).
In the spring of 1985, Don went out to mail his tax returns and was never seen again. The character has rarely been spoken about at all over the ensuing 40 years, even when Marlena occasionally mentions her baby boy, who died. She will talk about DJ, but doesn’t even mention who his father was.
As for Jed Allen, the actor who played Don from 1971 to 1985, he turned up on the NBC soap Santa Barbara in 1986 and remained with the show until its 1993 cancellation. As CC Capwell, the patriarch of the wealthy Capwell clan, Allen was paired with Judith McConnell‘s Sophia, and enjoyed a second chance at soap success.
In 2004, Allen briefly became General Hospital‘s Edward Quartermaine, but he also enjoyed primetime soap success on Beverly Hills 90210, where he recurred as Rush Sanders, per IMDb. Sadly, Allen passed away on March 9, 2019, at the age of 84.
Days of our Lives streams weekdays on Peacock.
