High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John Black is a fictional character on the NBC soap opera Days of our Lives, played by Drake Hogestyn since January 10, 1986, with brief interruptions from October 26, 2007 to January 8, 2008, and most recently January 23, 2009 to September 26, 2011. One of daytime`s most popular characters, John Black is the son of Santo DiMera and Colleen Brady, thus making him a member of two of Salem`s leading families: the Bradys and the DiMeras. This makes him related to several characters the most notable being the half-brother of Stefano DiMera.