James Reynolds
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James Reynolds, the man in charge of the town of Salem on Days of Our Lives, was recently interviewed by Tulsa World.

The article focuses on Reynolds' real life ownership of a theater. He and his wife, actress Lissa Layng, are the owners and operators of the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena, California.

As many soap actors will tell you, their daytime gig is a full-time job. So, what made James decide to open the Fremont?

“I’ve actually run a number of theaters over time. This is the fifth or sixth theater I’ve run. When you do television and film, it’s great to have theater to go back to. It sort of grounds you,” he said.

Read the full interview with Reynolds now.

James Reynolds recently spoke to TV Guide Canada about a number of topics. Among them? Racism on soap operas.

TVGuide.ca: It’s been quite the roller-coaster ride behind the scenes in Salem! Are you nervous regarding the upcoming decision by NBC to either renew or cancel Days of Our Lives?
James Reynolds: No. We’ve all been through this before. The cast trusts all the parties involved — Sony, NBC, and Corday Productions — to make the right decision during the negotiations. Everyone wants to see the show continue — and on NBC. And, across the world. However, there are strategies in place if NBC doesn’t renew it, I believe. SOAPnet and ABC are possibilities.

TVG: The cast must be happy Drake Hogestyn [John] returned to the show; were you aware this was yet another publicity ruse spearheaded by executive producer Ken Corday?
JR: No — we thought John Black was dead. We’re so happy he’s back, and I personally think that John is a very interesting character now. I think Drake’s performance has been very entertaining.

TVG: I’d say. Last year, Victoria Rowell [ex-Dru, The Young and the Restless] labelled daytime "racist." The U.S. has a woman and a black man running for president, yet daytime appears to be moving backwards instead of forward with the world. Since you’re a black soap vet, I’m eager to hear your thoughts.
JR: Yes, I would have to agree with that assertion. It’s odd since daytime used to be groundbreaking in that respect. There is tremendous storyline potential for black characters on soaps, but it’s hard to convince the powers-that-be to acknowledge that the world is changing.

You know, I’ve been tremendously disappointed for people of colour on soaps. Other than Victoria’s former show, The Young and the Restless, and our show, Days, no one has had that kind of racial presence throughout the years. I have to say, though, that I’m very proud that Days has allowed me to grow older as a black man on TV — which rarely happens in any genre. I think often times, daytime TV operates from a cocoon.

They’re not looking around themselves. I can’t solely lay the blame on daytime TV, but it’s suspect when you consider the largest demographic watching daytime is blacks. They deserve to see their own stories reflected on their favourite shows.

Read the complete interview now.

James Reynolds will be honored by the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP Veteran Affairs and Armed Services Committee for his contributions to the U.S. Armed Forces at their third annual Veteran’s Day lunch.

The event takes place on Saturday, November 10. The Days of Our Lives star will be recognized for his charitable efforts at the Barnsdall Art Gallery & Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

James Reynods of Days of Our Lives will be directing a staged reading of Ravensridge by T.S. Cook, author of The China Syndrome.

Event details are:

Date: Saturday, August 25
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: The Fremont Centre Theatre at 1000 Fremont Av. in South Psadena, Ca., 91030.
Admission is free. To make reservation, please call 626-441-5377.

James Reynolds returned to work at the Days of Our Lives studio on July 17, nearly two months after undergoing heart valve replacement surgery at a Pasadena hospital on May 24.

The actor talked to Soap Opera Digest abou the emergency operation and how it changed his life...

Soap Opera Weekly: So how are you feeling post-surgery?
James Reynolds: I'm feeling better than my old self. There was a nurse at the hospital the last few days I was there. She had gone through the same procedure. She actually gave me some great advice on what to expect in the coming weeks and how to deal with certain things. She said, "It's like your body is being rebooted. It's all new again." That's exactly what's happening.

Weekly: What exactly went down? It seemed like it all happened so quickly. No one even knew you were ill.
Reynolds: Well, there was no pre-news. It was that fast. I had known that I had a heart murmur. My doctors found it about two years ago; my asthma doctor discovered it and sent me to a cardiologist. It turned out that what my asthma doctor thought was a heart murmur was actually a deteriorating valve. I was born with a bicuspid valve. Most people have three valves in their heart that blood passes through. One in 50 men are born with two valves instead of three.

It's not a big major problem unless one develops arterial stenosis, which is what I had. At that point, the diagnosis was that it wasn't very serious. So I could pretty much go on and live my life. We were going to check it every year.

Weekly: So the condition deteriorated by the time of your next yearly checkup?
Reynolds: Yes. I went in for a checkup a year later, and the doctor asked for a whole battery of tests. The last one was an angiogram. Afterward, the doctor approached me with a surgeon. They both said, "Look, you really can't leave the hospital. Your valve has deteriorated to such a point that it's weakened your heart horribly."

Weekly: How quickly was surgery scheduled from that point?
Reynolds: Well, I saw the doctors on a Wednesday and had surgery that Friday. I had no time to think, which was a blessing. I really approached this with no apprehension and very little concern at all. It was so fast that my attention had to fly to my responsibilities. I had to take care of issues like working on the show, things I had to do for my family. That was where all of my attention was focused. It didn't allow me a lot of time to put any attention on the upcoming heart surgery.

Weekly: And since Abe was about to have a corneal transplant on Days of Our Lives, arranging time off for your surgery coincided perfectly.
Reynolds: It did. In a lot of ways it couldn't have worked out better. There certainly may have been times, as far as the show was concerned, when it would have been less of a possibility for me to go into the hospital. At this moment it turned out to work well for both the character and me.

Weekly: What was the recovery process like?
Reynolds: I was in the ICU for 10 days. Then, I was in the hospital for another week after I was out of the ICU. It was a long haul. I've got to say, though, that the nurses and the doctors were just fantastic. Everyone did everything they could to make my stay as comfortable as possible.

Weekly: What's been the prognosis since the surgery?
Reynolds: My checkups have all gone very well. I seem to have come through it pretty well. The surgeon said I got off the heart/lung machine faster than anybody he's ever had. I was fortunate — the doctors mentioned this a couple times — that I kept myself in good shape. I worked out a lot throughout my life. I'm not a smoker. I don't drink to excess. I wasn't overweight. All those things that give [people] problems. I felt good about that.

Weekly: You must have created quite a stir at the hospital with all your visiting Days of Our Lives castmates.
Reynolds: Oh, yeah. There were some folks that came in to visit, although I'm not going to go into naming them. The minute they left, my room was packed from people from the hospital. "Oh! That was so-and-so. How are they doing? Are you going to have a storyline with them?" It was great.