‘Days of Our Lives’ Star Announces Parkinson’s Diagnosis

Days of Our Lives star James Reynolds is opening up about his battle with Parkinson’s disease.

The actor, who has played Abe Carv on the long-running soap opera since 1981, discussed the diagnosis and how the show has incorporated Parkinson’s into his character’s storyline in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“Well, it kind of goes back to when I thought I was hiding it,” he explained. “The writers also wanted to incorporate because it was obvious. It was obvious. And we play life here.”

He further shared, “And there are many other characters who have gone through real-life issues that then are mirrored on the show. And this is an issue that it is going to be mirrored on the show, and there’s nothing any of us can really do about it.”

“But I feel like the value of Abe as a character who overcomes a lot,” Reynolds continued. “[He] has tremendous amount of strength, deals with a lot of things with humor as well as understanding.”

Before being open about his diagnosis, the actor said he would find himself shaking and apologizing for his movements, thinking he was hiding his struggles but actually wasn’t.

“You’re playing that game with yourself,” he noted.

Reynolds then said that he would experience tremors that “didn’t wanna go away,” leaving him feeling off balance and out of breath.

“I find something different every day,” he said about the symptoms. “And I realized just a couple weeks ago that I may have had this as long as 15 to 20 years ago.”

The actor also described his experience with “hallucinations,” recalling his ex-wife telling him that he was hitting her in his sleep.

“I was having these really horrible dreams, and I didn’t know there was a physical component, sometimes I’d fall out of bed … really bad,” he recalled. “I realized just a few weeks ago, that was an early symptom of Parkinson’s.”

Reynolds admitted that he has kept his diagnosis “quiet for quite a while, more than a few years.”

“But I still hadn’t talked really to anybody else,” he added. “I hadn’t spoken to friends about it.”