Days of our Lives celebrates Suzanne Rogers and her milestone run as Maggie Simmons Horton Kiriakis with a special episode on Friday, August 18, the 50-year anniversary of the day she made her debut on the soap.
Suzanne Rogers Marks 50 Years
Filled with memorable flashbacks from her character’s past, it’s sure to be a must-see tribute to Rogers, a former Radio City Music Hall Rockette and performer in several Broadway musicals, including Follies, Hallelujah Baby and Coco, before nabbing the role of Maggie and taking the daytime world by storm. Here are five major moments from her five-decade run on DAYS.
1. A crippled Maggie met Mickey Horton (John Clarke), who was suffering from amnesia and going by the name Marty Hanson, when he stumbled onto her farmhouse doorstep and collapsed in 1973. After they fell in love and wed, Mickey’s true identity was discovered, and he arranged for his brother, Bill, to operate on his new bride. Certain that Maggie would be able to walk after the surgery, Mickey presented her with a pair of red shoes, assuring her that one day she would dance with him wearing them. She eventually did and, in 1975, wed Mickey officially after he divorced Laura.
2. Rogers won the very first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1979 for her brilliant work during Maggie’s battle with alcoholism. The character began drinking when her and Mickey’s adopted daughter, Janice, was returned to her birth mother, Joanna. Rogers beat out a quartet of daytime veterans for the honor. Namely, Rachel Ames (ex-Audrey, General Hospital), Susan Brown (ex-Gail, General Hospital), Lois Kibbee (ex-Geraldine, The Edge of Night), and Frances Reid (ex-Alice, Days of our Lives).
3. Rogers left DAYS upon being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disorder, in 1984. When her health improved the following year, she returned to the soap and suggested educating viewers about the disease by having Maggie diagnosed with it. The show agreed, and a subsequent poignant and powerful storyline was written for her character.
4. In 2003, fans were stunned when The Salem Stalker began offing the town’s citizens. A number of the soap’s most popular stars were written off the show as, one by one, their characters became victims, including Rogers and Maggie. Mickey and Maggie were attacked in their home by their longtime friend, Marlena (Deidre Hall). Although Mickey survived, Maggie was declared dead from a deep stab wound. Months later, however, Maggie and all the other “victims” were discovered alive in a fictional town called Melaswen, and Rogers happily resurfaced on the show.
5. Following the death of her beloved husband, Mickey in 2010, Maggie began an unexpected friendship with Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston). Unfortunately, his wife, Vivian (Louise Sorel), felt threatened and plotted to entomb Maggie in a crypt in the Kiriakis mausoleum. Fate intervened, and Vivian ended up in the crypt herself. Once she was freed, she pushed Maggie inside it, where she remained for days. After being saved by Victor and learning he’d knowingly held Vivian in the crypt, Maggie was outraged. However, she eventually came to terms with his actions and criminal past, and after he divorced Vivian, Maggie and Victor wed in 2011. The couple remained together until Victor’s death in 2023.
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