DAYS' John Aniston on murder, hookers and other soap staples

Emmy nominee John Aniston (Victor Kiriakis, Days of our Lives) reveals the secret weapon to rising above drugs, porn, and other classic soap shenanigans.

If you tell anyone that Days of our Lives' John Aniston (Victor Kiriakis) just received his very first Daytime Emmy nomination after 48 years in the business, you're likely to receive a bevvy of shocked facial expressions, gasps, expletives, and protests of disbelief. Even many of his very own costars were flabbergasted upon learning the unimaginable news (click here and here, for example).

But though the 83-year-old hadn't landed in the Emmy race until now, he certainly landed squarely in viewers' hearts ages ago -- despite an unsavory start as a drug-and-porn lord in 1985. So what's his secret to surviving such scandalous storyline material for three decades?

"Charm! Victor is just your everyday lovable killer," Aniston jokes to TV Insider. "When he started out he even had two hit men on the payroll -- and one of them was Patch Johnson [Stephen Nichols], who's still on the show today. Of course, it helps that the writers give me lines that are real gems. My favorite was when evil Eve [Kassie DePaiva] suddenly came back to town and showed up at Victor's door. He took one look at her, turned around and said, 'Anyone order a hooker?' It's like having Neil Simon write your dialogue. You can't go wrong with good lines -- or, if you do, it's your own fault. It's like this old photographer friend of mine used to say, 'Give me [supermodel] Suzy Parker and I'll give you great pictures'.... I tell that story to young kids now and I get blank stares. They don't know who she was. [Laughs] Their loss."

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For more information on Aniston's Emmy nomination, check out the powerful reel he and the soap's producers put together that landed him his first Emmy nod.

What do you think about Aniston finally snagging an Emmy nomination? What do you think about the character of Victor and about Aniston's portrayal of the soap opera baddie? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.

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