- Born
- Birth nameDonald Francis Michael Hastings
- Nicknames
- "R.K."
- Daddy Bob
- Doctor Death
- Dynamite
- Height5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
- Actor and writer, best known as "The Video Ranger", "Jack Lane", and "Dr. Bob Hughes" on television. The youngest son of Hazel and Charles Hastings, he lived in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant area until he was six, attending Our Lady of Victory parochial school for one year. The family then moved to St. Alban's, Queens and, about that time, his older brother, Bob Hastings, was singing on Chicago's "National Barn Dance" and New York's "Coast to Coast on a Bus" radio shows, where Don was given a few lines, on occasion, earning $2.00 per week. Soon, he won the role of young Harlan in a touring company of "Life With Father", traveling ten months a year with his father. MGM offered Don a contract, but he wanted to return home, where he did the radio programs "Hilltop House", "Cavalcade of America", "One Foot in Heaven" and "Theater Guild on the Air" and some modeling (which he hated) and "I Remember Mama" on Broadway. Returning to school for fifth grade, he enrolled in the Professional Children's School and, later, Lodge High School and soon took up sports, playing for the St. Alban's Knights, the Police Athletic League, the Queens Village Ramblers and the Cambridge Heights Mohawks. At this time, he appeared in "A Young Man's Fancy" and "Summer and Smoke" on Broadway. While auditioning for DuMont's "The Magic Cottage" in 1949, the casting director, instead, cast Don as the "Video Ranger" in the new Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949), a six-year role which kept him from attending college. His hobbies include traveling and spending time with his family. His children include Jennifer Hastings (born 29 October 1957), Julie Hastings (born 25 April 1960), Matthew Hastings (born 21 October 1967), and Katharine Hastings (born 23 September 1982).
- IMDb mini biography by: Louis Rugani
- SpousesLeslie Denniston(June 7, 1980 - present) (1 child)Noretta 'Nan' Kennedy(December 29, 1956 - 1980) (divorced, 3 children)
- Held the record for longest-serving actor on a television serial for many years.
William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow on the British soap Coronation Street (1960) was widely believed to be the record-holder, but Don Hastings had portrayed Bob Hughes in As the World Turns (1956) for two months longer than Roache has played Ken. However, since As the World Turns (1956) was canceled in September 2010, William Roache had taken over the record from November 2010 onwards. - By 1975 he had been playing Dr. Bob Hughes for so long that his neighbors would occasional ask for his medical advice.
- Younger brother of Bob Hastings.
- Daughter, Katharine Scott Hastings, born
- Hastings also has two daughters, Jennifer Hastings and Julie Hastings, and a son, Matthew Hastings, from a previous marriage.
- "In the summer of 1955, when Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949) went off the air, I was so identified with "The Video Ranger", I didn't do another TV show until September. It was the longest period of not working I ever had".
- About Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949): "There were other shows before ours and, by the time we went on the air, it would be a hundred degrees. Our first space suits were reducing suits made of yellow plastic, and we'd lose a hundred pounds every time we went on. On Saturdays, a hoe-down show called "Country Style" followed us (on "The Secret Files of Captain Video") and, one time during one of our scenes, a couple do-si-doed right through our set. Here we were in our space suits. That was rather interesting".
- "I never got drafted. I almost enlisted when Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949) went off, but my father and a friend talked me out of it. I got a notice once telling me to be ready to go, but I never got another one until I was married and had a baby, and then I had a 4-A rating. I did a lot of Army training films, though".
- I started dating when I got to high school. Most of the girls I dated were from Long Island and St. Albans. I went steady with a girl who later married my best friend. I also took out Hope Lange in high school.
- I like to write. I write scripts, mostly. I used to write some daytime stuff. I once wrote a screenplay with another guy which was pretty well received by the people who saw it. Then he and I stopped working together and it was never produced. I'm thinking of getting it out and rewriting it, maybe for a TV movie.
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