Richard Wharton didn’t stroll onto the set of Days of our Lives with any grand plan or insider roadmap — he just showed up for a job he thought looked interesting and figured he’d see where it led. The wild part is, he had no clue he’d stepped straight into the legacy of one of Salem’s most unhinged geniuses until he was already in the chair getting makeup. What he remembers from that first week has the same energy as the character he inherited: a little chaotic, a little funny, and somehow exactly right for how Dr. Rolf always seems to reappear when no one’s looking.

Key Takeaways

• Wharton booked the job without knowing he’d inherited Dr. Rolf’s decades-deep legacy.
• He learned only in the makeup chair that he was replacing William Utay.
• The audition was a COVID-era scramble — taped at home with his wife reading opposite him.
• Cast and crew quickly filled him in on Rolf’s wild history, including the John brainwashing arc.
• Wharton let the veterans guide him, admitting he was learning as he went.
• Four years later, he’s made the role his own without copying what came before.

Landing A Role He Didn’t Know He Was Inheriting

Wharton told The Jim Masters Show that the entire thing started the way pandemic work usually did — at home, taped, rushed, improvised. He recorded the audition with his wife reading the other lines and sent it off without thinking twice. “It was kind of a surprise for me,” he said. “It was during COVID.”

He didn’t know anything about Rolf’s legacy. No clue he was joining a lineage. No idea there was a recast involved. He just knew the part looked fun, the dialogue had a spark, and the show needed someone who could handle eccentricity without slipping into parody.

Then he walked into the makeup room, sat down, and heard the name William Utay for the first time. “I did not know that I was replacing another actor,” he said. And when a crew member remarked that he looked like Utay, Wharton shot back, “Who?” Moments later, he learned he was following a man who’d played Rolf for two decades and over 800 episodes.

Inherited History, Borrowed Mythology, and Learning as He Goes

Once he was on set, the education came fast. Veterans filled him in on what Rolf had done over the years — brainwashing, resurrection schemes, science experiments that defied ethics and physics. The late Drake Hogestyn even told him about the time Rolf brainwashed John, in one of the character’s most legendary arcs.

Wharton didn’t pretend to know what he didn’t know. He absorbed it. Used it. Let castmates guide him into the madness. And like he put it, “I’ve been learning as I go.”

Four years in, he’s not just playing Rolf — he’s carrying the torch without ever pretending to mimic what came before. It’s the most Rolf-like thing of all: improvising brilliance out of the unexpected.