When Days of Our Lives’ Steve “Patch” Johnson was introduced to fans 40 years ago, Salem had to figure out what to do with the dangerous and unpredictable villain. For Stephen Nichols, he’s relished playing a role that has evolved from a street-smart bad guy on the wrong side of the law to a fiercely devoted husband and father who found his moral compass.
Still, Steve’s origins were far more sinister than viewers ever realized. Nichols sat down with Soaps.com ahead of his daytime milestone to reveal how he was told that his character lost his eye. “At one point, Peter [Reckell, Bo] and I had gone to the writers, producers, somebody, and asked to get some kind of backstory because they were playing this deal that Bo had put my eye out, and we had no idea how that happened. The duo was able to get “a one-page backstory” on how it all went down.
And that was… ? “I was supposed to die, and I had actually been dealing drugs in the Merchant Marine,” Nichols shares. “And one of his little friends got ahold of some drugs and died. That’s why Bo and I fought. And I lost my eye.” The backstory was “a lot darker than the way things [eventually] turned out” on screen.
Steve was not expected to stick around in Salem because it was originally a “recurring role” and written for a “two- or three-month” storyline — but that all changed with one classic Victor Kiriakis caper. “The umbrella story with Bo and Hope, Shane, Savannah and Kiriakis… everybody was involved in that,” Nichols recalls. “I felt like being a part of that, I might have a chance of staying around.”
That’s exactly what happened. Nichols remembers the pivotal moment where everything changed. The gang was shooting a scene in which Steve was chasing lovebirds Melissa and Pete, who was throwing fruit at him. “[Days of Our Lives producer/director] Shelley Curtis came running out onto the set,” he says. “And she said, ‘I just want you to know, you’re not going to die.’ So, she told me right then and there that I had a future on the show.”
That would have been great news, but Nichols had already nabbed a role in the 1986 horror film, Witchboard. Days of Our Lives co-executive producer Al Rabin wasn’t applauding. “[He] was not happy because I told him, ‘I have this job and I’m going to go do this movie. And when it’s over, maybe I can come back,’” Nichols continues. “And he goes, ‘We were ready to offer you a contract.'”
“I said, ‘OK, well, when I come back, offer me a contract,'” he adds with a twinkle in his eye. Forty years later, Steve is still in Salem.
