Unforgettable Moments From Suzanne Rogers' 50 Years As Maggie On Days Of Our Lives
Maggie Horton has been a "Days of Our Lives" fan favorite since Suzanne Rogers originated the character in 1973. In a Soap Opera Digest interview published in the September 4 issue, Rogers discussed her decades on the show, exclaiming, "I'm kind of shocked that I've been on the show for 50 years; I mean, how many people can say that? Not many. I'm touched that they wanted to do something. I'm honored and very moved, and I'm grateful." She was referring to the August 18 episode, which honored her legacy with flashbacks of Maggie throughout the years. Rogers felt that the tribute episode was due to the fact that the fans have adored Maggie since the beginning, and now, 50 years later, she remarked, "I still love what I'm doing, so it's all a win."
Over the years, Maggie has battled alcoholism but overcame it and has generally held her family together. She's also faced danger many times and shown great fearlessness, even shooting a drug dealer who attacked her! Currently, Maggie is the CEO of Titan Industries. She's stepped in and laid down the law, especially with her great-nephew, Alexander Kiriakis (Robert Scott Wilson), whom she fired. Now that Maggie's husband, Victor Kiriakis, portrayed by the late John Aniston, has died, the show has aired tributes to him that have coincided with Rogers' 50th anniversary episode.
Let's take a look at some of Maggie's best moments over the years.
Her marriage to Mickey Horton
One of the greatest soap opera romances was that of Maggie Simmons and Mickey Horton (then John Clarke). She ran a farm, but because she was disabled from a car accident, she hired men to help her. One of the hired hands was named Marty Hanson, and they quickly fell in love and married in 1974. However, Maggie didn't know that Marty suffered from amnesia and was really Mickey Horton! Maggie dreamed of being a dancer, so Mickey encouraged her to seek out surgery in Salem to fix her paralysis. He even bought her a pair of red high-heeled shoes as an incentive, and it worked. Suzanne Rogers told TV Insider, "I think that's when the audience fell in love with Maggie. Mickey was established from the beginning of the show — the fans adored him — and suddenly he has amnesia, and he's in love with this crippled girl who lived on a farm. Would Maggie be accepted by the viewers?"
She was, and after Mickey's family found him and he realized he was married to a woman named Laura Spencer (Susan Flannery), he divorced her, and he and Maggie got married for real in 1976. After years of difficult ups and downs, including both having been presumed dead at various points, they always found their way back to each other. However, Mickey tragically died from a heart attack in 2010.
Maggie went to prison
In 2020, after Maggie Horton learned that her daughter Summer Townsend's (Marie Wilson) alcoholism was killing her, she ironically began drinking again to drown her sorrows. Unfortunately, she chose to drive while intoxicated and ran a car off the road that contained her pregnant daughter Sarah Horton (Lindsey Godfrey) and Adrienne Kiriakis (Judi Evans), who was killed. Although she had blacked out, Maggie eventually remembered what happened and turned herself into the authorities, ending up in jail. Xander Cook (Paul Telfer) had been trying to help Maggie, and when he visited her in prison, he revealed that Kristen DiMera's (Stacy Haiduk) baby was swapped with Sarah's because it had died.
Maggie was horrified to learn that she'd killed her own grandchild and faced more jail time as a result. Distraught, she attempted to die by suicide until Xander came in and stopped her. He told her that she didn't cause the accident. It turned out that the supervillain Orpheus (George DelHoyo) was the one who ran the car off the road, and he'd drugged Maggie and placed her behind the wheel of the vehicle, framing her for the crime. Maggie was thankfully released from prison. When Rogers saw the script about the suicide attempt, she told Soap Opera Digest that she was worried for Maggie, "Because being a religious person, you are not supposed to do that. That whole day my hands were like ice" (via Daily Soap Dish).
Deimos poisoned Maggie
In 2016, Maggie Horton started having inexplicable dizzy spells. Things got so bad that she ended up falling down some stairs. She awoke in the hospital to find she was paralyzed and became distraught. But Maggie didn't know Victor Kiriakis' brother, Deimos Kiriakis (Vincent Irizarry), had been poisoning her. Teresa Donovan (Jen Lilley) visited with her in the hospital and asked Maggie and Victor to move in with her and Brady Black (Eric Martsolf). A confused Maggie demanded answers from Victor, and when she confronted him, he told her what Deimos had done.
Victor blamed himself for Maggie's predicament. Ever the shrewd one, Maggie deduced that Victor was being blackmailed by his brother, and she told him his only recourse was to get revenge. Deimos had used the antidote as blackmail to get Victor Kiriakis to sign over everything he owned to him. The antidote was administered, and the poison was gone from her system. However, Maggie was still paralyzed, but with Victor's support, she got through it. Ultimately, Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker) killed Deimos, ridding the world of a heinous villain.
This leads us to one of our top Maggie Horton moments: her relationship with Victor Kiriakis.
Maggie marries Victor Kiriakis
The love story of the incredibly nice Maggie Horton and the villainous Victor Kiriakis was certainly an unlikely one on "Days of Our Lives." After the death of Mickey Horton, Maggie tried to find her way through life without him. Along the way, she and Victor became friends. However, his wife, Vivian Alamain (Louise Sorel), became extremely jealous. So much so that she planned to entomb Maggie in a sarcophagus! Brady Black discovered her plan and turned the tables by tossing Vivian into her own death trap. When Victor found out, he helped cover it up. However, Vivian escaped, captured Maggie, and put her in the sarcophagus. Eventually, Victor figured out where she was and saved her.
Victor and Maggie began having feelings for each other, but when a war between the DiMera and Kiriakis families broke out, she got caught in the crossfire and was shot. She survived and recovered at Victor's mansion. He eventually proposed to her, and the two got married in 2011. In March 2023, Victor installed Maggie as the CEO of the family company Titan Industries. Maggie continues to rule with an iron fist, much like Victor. Sadly, in August 2023, Victor was traveling on a plane from Greece that went down in the Mediterranean Sea, and rescue parties confirmed that they found his remains, leaving Maggie devastated.
Maggie saved Julie Williams
On the August 18, 2023, episode of "Days of Our Lives," as Maggie Horton grieved the death of her husband, Victor Kiriakis, her friend Julie Williams (Susan Seaforth Hayes) came by to console her. The two reminisced about him as well as their lifelong friendship. Julie remarked that she wouldn't be there if it weren't for Maggie's actions. In 1979, Julie was visiting Maggie's farmhouse and was keeping herself busy in the kitchen while a steak was cooking in the oven. As smoke started billowing from it, Julie ran over and opened the oven. Flames jumped out, lighting her arm on fire, and she writhed around on the floor, fanning the flames and screaming.
Maggie rushed in and grabbed a rug, dousing the fire. Julie's face was burned horribly as a result. Fortunately, she later got plastic surgery to restore her visage. TV Insider shared an interview with Rogers on August 23, and when that infamous fire scene was brought up, Rogers explained, "I was scared to death that day. They did my clothes in this fire retardant [solution]. This is going to be a real fire! You have to hold your breath. When I was rolling [the stunt woman] up in the rug, I thought, 'Oh, my God!' The ordeal eventually brought Maggie and Julie closer together."
Appearing on a TV show for fifty years is impressive, and Suzanne Rogers continues to play the iconic Maggie Horton with grace.