Days of Our Lives Actor Robert Kelker-Kelly Dies at 62

Robert Kelker-Kelly, best known for playing Bo Brady on Days of Our Lives, died on 3 October at his home in St. Peters, Missouri. He was 62. TMZ was first to report the death.

St. Peters police told TMZ that officers responded at about 8:16 p.m. to a report of an unconscious man who was not breathing. CPR was already in progress. Officers and paramedics continued life-saving measures and were unsuccessful. Police said nothing at the scene looked suspicious and the circumstances appeared consistent with a medical event. Deadline reported that he had complained of chest pain shortly before becoming unresponsive.

The role audiences knew

Kelker-Kelly was born on 18 April 1964 in Wichita, Kansas. He joined Another World in 1987 as Sam Fowler and stayed until 1990. In 1992 he took over Bo Brady on Days of Our Lives from Peter Reckell and played the part until 1995, opposite Kristian Alfonso's Hope Brady and Lisa Rinna's Billie Reed.

Bo Brady is one of the soap's longest-running leads. Reckell defined the role before and after Kelker-Kelly's years. The recast still put Kelker-Kelly at the center of the show's main romance for three seasons.

The Rinna memoir

TMZ noted that Kelker-Kelly was back in headlines this year after Lisa Rinna's memoir. She accused him of being verbally abusive and manipulative on set, and said his abrupt exit led NBC to provide security for her and Alfonso. He did not publicly respond to those allegations.

Those claims are hers, from the book. They are part of the recent public record around his name. They are not a finding about the cause of death, which police described as a medical event.

Sources

TMZ, 5 October 2026, and Deadline, which confirmed police details and credited TMZ with the first report.