Biography
Deidre Hall has emerged as America’s most beloved heroine and delighted her fans in August 1991 with her return to NBC-TV’s number one daytime program Days of our Lives. Hall created the role of ‘Dr. Marlena Evans’ in 1976, a character whose popularity has created a furor and a fan following seldom seen in television. The favorable regard in which Hall is held has spanned all demographics and regions. She was named Best Television Role Model; won the prestigious American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) Award in 1994; garnered five Best Actress Awards from Soap Opera Digest (1982-85, 1995) along with a Best Actress nomination (1999). She broke new ground for daytime stars when she guest-starred on shows such as The Tonight Show, Night of A Hundred Stars, a Bob Hope Special and 20/20 surrounding the event of the birth of her eldest son with a surrogate. Most recently, Hall was selected to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014. “I am breathless at receiving this honor,” she stated upon hearing the news.
In 1986, Deidre became the first performer ever to star in both daytime and primetime series when she was cast as “Jesse Witherspoon” in NBC’s family drama, Our House. She left daytime the following year to concentrate on this show and a growing career in television movies.
In 1991, Deidre starred along with Richard Crenna and Rachel Ward in the popular mini-series And the Sea Will Tell, based on the best-selling novel by Vincent Bugliosi. She followed that by starring in NBC television movies For the Very First Time, Take My Daughters, Please, a Perry Mason movie of the week, one of the popular Columbo movies of the week and in 1993, another ratings winner, Woman On The Ledge. The same year Deidre created Never Say Never – The Deidre Hall Story, in which she not only starred but executive produced. The ABC television movie was based on her real life struggle to create a family and her final choice of a surrogate as their solution.
Deidre’s episodic television credits include a multi-episode arc in Stephen Cannell’s hit series Wiseguy and The Case of the All-Star Assassin.
Deidre performed on stage for the first time in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, appearing in two separate runs.
Deidre was nominated for two People’s Choice Awards for the role of “Jesse” in Our House and was nominated two consecutive years as Best Actress by Viewers for Quality Television. Co-starring with Wilford Brimley, Deidre and her television family won the first Viewers for Quality Television “Seal of Approval” for a television show.
Hall has graced the covers of national and regional magazines such as People, Woman, Woman’s Own, TV Guide, Woman’s World, McCall’s, Family Circle, Shape, Los Angeles Magazine, Beverly Hills (213), Orange Coast and First For Women.
Deidre was born an identical twin; sister Andrea Hall-Gengler spent a short stint in Salem as “Marlena’s” twin, “Samantha” and returned later to play “Hattie Adams.” Deidre is the devoted mother of two children, both miracle babies via surrogate birth. Ms. Hall resides in Los Angeles.