Days of Our Lives Star Robert Kelker-Kelly Dies at 62 in Missouri

Robert Kelker-Kelly, the actor best known for playing Bo Brady on Days of Our Lives, died Saturday, October 3, at age 62. A medical examiner in Missouri confirmed the death to TMZ, which first reported the news.

No official cause of death has been released. The Daily Beast reported additional detail: Kelker-Kelly complained of chest pain and became unresponsive at his Missouri home. The St. Peters Police Department told TMZ officers responded to the scene around 8:16 p.m., performed CPR, and were unable to revive him.

Kelker-Kelly started his soap career in 1987 on Another World, playing Sam Fowler before taking on other roles including Bobby Reno and Shane Roberts, according to The Independent. He appeared in over 400 episodes of the show between 1987 and 1998.

He joined Days of Our Lives in 1992, taking over the role of Bo Brady from Peter Reckell. He played opposite Kristian Alfonso's Hope Brady and Lisa Rinna's Billie Reed until Reckell returned to the role in 1995. The Independent reported Kelker-Kelly won two Soap Opera Digest Awards: Outstanding Lead Actor in 1994, and Hottest Soap Couple in 1995, shared with Rinna.

He later played Stavros Cassadine on General Hospital, appearing in 42 episodes between 2001 and 2014, per The Independent. Outside acting, he worked as a professional pilot, a career he moved into after stepping back from Hollywood around 2003, according to The Daily Beast.

Kelker-Kelly was born and raised in Kansas and briefly attended the University of Kansas before leaving to pursue acting full time, according to Hindustan Times, which cited E! News. He told We Love Soaps in a 2013 interview that he was homeless and sleeping in his Jeep when he got cast on Another World. "Another World was a godsend," he said.

He was married twice. His first marriage, to Linda Rattner, lasted from 1988 to 1992. He later married Days of Our Lives co-star Miriam Parrish in 1997; they divorced in 2013 and had one child together, according to The Daily Beast.

The Rinna Allegations

Lisa Rinna wrote about her working relationship with Kelker-Kelly in her memoir, "You Better Believe I'm Gonna Talk About It," which hit shelves in February, according to US Magazine.

Rinna alleged in the book that Kelker-Kelly was "verbally abusive," "passive-aggressive" and "manipulative" on set, and that he "played weird mind games" with her during their years filming love scenes together. "He was a ticking time bomb," Rinna wrote, per US Magazine. "I never knew when I arrived on set each morning if I'd get nice Robert Kelker-Kelly or dark Robert Kelker-Kelly."

Rinna also claimed in the memoir that Kelker-Kelly once "disappeared" from the set, prompting NBC to assign her and Kristian Alfonso a security detail for several weeks. "I wasn't worried about physical harm, but NBC had to cover their ass," she wrote, according to The Daily Beast.

These are allegations from Rinna's own account, made public in her memoir, and they have not been independently verified. Kelker-Kelly never publicly responded to the claims while he was alive, according to multiple outlets including TMZ and The Independent. Rinna herself has not commented on his death, according to The Independent.

Fans reacted to the news on social media, with many focused on his work rather than the memoir controversy. "He was such a handsome guy and a great actor; he really made the role of Bo Brady his own," one fan wrote on X, as cited by The Independent.

A specific cause of death remains undisclosed by the Missouri medical examiner's office.