Two Faces of Steve
Mirror, Mirror on the wall who’s the finest Steve of all?
Soap Opera Update 6/13/88
by Brenda Marshall and Allison J. Waldman
Every morning when Stephen Nichols faces himself in the mirror, ready to brush his teeth or shave or wipe the sleep from his eyes, staring back at him are two people, Stephen Nichols, the intense, highly professional actor, loving husband, devoted father and quietly spiritual man; and Steven Earl Johnson, Nichols’ daytime alter-ego, the sometimes scruffy, always complex, undeniably compelling anti-hero he has created on NBC’s top rated soap, “Days of our Lives.” Stephen Nichols is an actor with a problem – the kind of problem most performers wait their entire careers to face. Through his skill, perseverance and spunk-plus the positive, supportive, and equally important contributions of the Days production and writing staff- Nichols has brought to life a character so dynamic, so engaging, and so persuasively real, that people often regard him as the part he plays.
It is the same kind of adulation and success that Henry Winkler faced when he was the ‘Fonz’, the same sense of identification that Lucille Ball encounters when fans tell her they love Lucy, that is, they love her, Lucille Ball, whom they don’t know at all, but in actuality they really are loving the black and white icon she gave life to in hundreds of episodes of “I Love Lucy”-Lucy Ricardo. So, Stephen Nichols has a nice problem. And he knows it. “What I’ve always wanted to do as an actor,” confesses the green eyed actor, thoughtfully, “is be able to play some type of role that would give people inspiration and hope.”
Stephen smiles, his eyes twinkling brightly, as he recalls building the character of Steve/Patch. “I sort of created a whole back story for the guy. Because he went around threatening people with knives and lurking around and watching, and the guy’s got to have a reason for doing all this. He’s a person. And that all came from my theater training-that discipline of really finding out who the character is and playing it.”
That theater background Stephen speaks of with pride was developed late in his life. Born in Cincinnati, Stephen Nichols early life parallels Steve Johnson’s in some ways. Nichols never knew his father. Until he was eight, he lived with his grandparents and in foster homes. When his mother remarried, he and his sister Penny went to live with their mother and step father in Dayton, Ohio. “Then they had a child who is my half brother, who is now living in Los Angeles. His name is Zack and we’ve always been very close.”
Stephen’s interest in acting lay dormant through his years at Meadowdale High School. “There was no theater department. I was sort of withdrawn and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. And I was depressed a lot of the time. In retrospect, I think it was basically disillusionment of life.”
The winding path that led Nichols to becoming an actor is as fascinating as the man himself. Before Stephen Nichols could become the successful artist and man he is today, he first had to define who Stephen Nichols was. He did that through a development of the spiritual side. It began when he learned transcendental meditation. Then a friend, living in Los Angeles, told him about the Self Realization Fellowship and sent him a copy of his inspirational tome, “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of SRF. In 1971, so moved by this spiritual self awakening, Nichols went to LA and visited the Fellowship temple. It changed his life. “When I walked through that archway, I felt like I was lifted off the ground, and for two weeks I was actually floating. I knew this was the end of my depression.”
It was also a settling factor in his life. A short time later, while attending Los Angeles City College, Stephen began taking acting courses at a friend’s suggestion. I said, ‘why not-I’m not doing anything else.'” During class one day, performing a scene from the Tennessee Williams classic, A Streetcar Named Desire, Nichols experienced another epiphany, nearly as intense-sounding as his spiritual awakening. “I felt such an exhilarating feeling of an exchange between myself and the audience, it just clicked. It was at that moment that I realized I was doing exactly what I should do.”
After acting in local theatre productions, doing bit parts on nighttime television, a few roles in low budget features, and day player work on Days of our Lives, Nichols was offered the role of Patch. At the time of the offer, Stephen was about to begin filming “Witchboard” and he nearly missed the chance to play Patch. “I really didn’t think I was coming back to Days of our Lives, but when the movie was over, they called and signed me for two years.”
Thus began the creation of Steven Earl Johnson. “I played him vulnerable…” Nichols reveals, drawing you into his memories of that time. “When he was alone you could see how he felt about his friend Bo and the jealousy of Bo having this nice wife, and here he is a one-eyed bum who doesn’t have anything. They picked up on it and started writing a story around it. And I’ve got a whole family now-I’ve got a mother, and sister, and brother and best friend from the orphanage. That’s how they do it,” he grins.
It would seem then that the Days staff is rather responsive to their actors. Stephen agrees.
“Yeah, they’re pretty much open. They trust the actors. They know they don’t have anything without their creativity. The ideas that they write have to be fleshed out and it takes a good actor to kind of create something on his own. That’s how a lot of characters on our show were started.” In fact, many bits of business in the development of Patch were not of the writer’s designs, but came from Nichols himself-like playing the harmonica. “I brought a couple of harps with me to Miami when we did the Miami locations two-and-a-half years ago. I had a scene on the beach with Savannah and I had the harp in my pocket and I said to Al Rabin,
‘Look I have this harmonica and I play it and I think it would be right for the character.’ So I snuck up behind her and played a couple of riffs and she jumped and they really liked it so they put that into Patch.”
Interestingly, Nichols is now facing an even greater challenge in the role of Steve/Patch than in those early days of the part. “They don’t know how to write this guy,” he says fervently. “It was a lot easier when he was always angry and confused and hurt. Now he is supposedly like every other man in love, and that’s not Patch! I mean
Patch has never had a lasting relationship with a woman. He doesn’t deal too well with relationships in a love situation…”
So how does Patch evolve-what is the process that brings this complicated character to life every afternoon on our TV screens? Through a lot of hard work and dedication it would seem.
“Al Rabin and Shelly Curtis, the producers, watch the dress rehearsal, then we sit down together and work out what we can cut from the script, what we can change, and what new colors we can bring into it to make it Patch,” explains Nichols proudly. “Also, the relationship of Patch and Kayla is very new. It’s not just all of a sudden we’re living in bliss, you know. So we try to play against what is written. They’re writing him as if he’s a guy who understands the psychology behind all that stuff, and he doesn’t. He’s a guy who doesn’t understand it, so we have to add all that ourselves. Even the writers admit that it’s very difficult. But I do want to say we’re all working together to achieve some reality to these characters. We’re in a transition period.”
Considering the blood, sweat and tears that obviously go into this creative process, perhaps the most crucial relationship for an actor like Nichols would be with his on screen love interest. The two actors would have to have a special understanding of one another as performers to make their on screen romance work so well. Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans, who plays Kayla on Days (sort of a Guinevere to Nichols’ Lancelot), share that kind of relationship. “She’s my best friend there, at work, and I’m her best friend. So we have to be careful of that, because what she and I have personally outside of the cameras is not what the characters have.”
Stephen admits that the out of body incident, experienced by Patch on the show, gave the character a new outlook on life and on his future with Kayla. In these segments, Patch lapsed into a coma during an operation and his life hung in the balance. His entity rose out of his body and he saw himself lying on the operating table,
near death. Then another figure appeared before him-a dead ringer for Steve Johnson, but without the eye patch, the self deprecating humor, and the negative feelings about himself. The alter-ego, called Steven, was the Steve Johnson of Patch’s fantasies–the whole, self assured, and confident man he longs to be. “He showed me what the future could bring. He totally believes that he has had this experience, so this is somewhat of a turning point for him. He does have hope for the future which he never had before, and this colors everything he does.”
Stephen Nichols also has high hopes for a brighter future, especially based on his very satisfying and loving present. He has been together with actress Lisa Nichols for seven years, and married for almost four.
To Nichols, home and family are vitally important. “My children and my family are number one in my life. Work is pretty much secondary, but when I do work, it is everything when I am doing it.” Stephen Nichols has his life in perspective-rather than being driven by ambition; he is the driver in his life. “Ibelieve whatever comes my way in life is what should be…I believe I’m protected and guided in this life and I don’t have to control situations and people. I don’t have any five year plan like a lot of actors.”
“My goal as an actor is just to keep working. I don’t care what medium it’s in really. I do want to do high quality films.”
But Stephen Nichols is also acutely aware of his unique position in daytime television. He is a man in possession of a character that has captured the imagination of millions of viewers, and Nichols does not take the responsibility of the characterization lightly. “Let’s face it, when you do daytime TV, a lot of it comes out very silly and unrealistic. But we do have our crystal clear moments of inspiration. I get a lot of letters from people who seek advice and help from me, and that’s why I’d like to give them this kind of message,” Nichols states frankly.
In Steve Johnson, audiences have found a character to embrace, and in Stephen Nichols, an actor to admire. The mirror reveals two Steves…the actor and the character. Both seemingly equal to the task of finding their way to the truth, the essential truth that we’re all in this world together. Stephen Nichols’ green eyes stare purposefully into some point beyond the horizon as he says softly, “The message I’d like to give is that I believe we’re not alone and that there’s help for everyone…” He turns and smiles and you know he means it.
For both Stephen Nichols and Steven Johnson.
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