Days of Our Lives’ Brandon Barash Shares the Heartbreaking Loss of His Four-Legged Family Member: ‘Our Hearts Are Shattered Yet Full’
Friday, May 6th, 2022
“See you in another life,” he told his beloved dog.
“Today’s a tough one,” Brandon Barash admitted on Instagram on May 5. “Our hearts are shattered yet full. The house is quieter yet imbued with lingering long-lasting love. Our tears are abundant yet grateful. Schmuli moved on and has left legend status in his wake.”
More: Days of Our Lives’ star promises ‘self-gratifying shirtless pictures’
Schmuli is, of course, the Days of Our Lives star’s four-legged family member, a total sweetheart with, as you’ll see below, no poker face whatsoever.
Schmuli “loved and protected his family furrrriously and chomped his crunchy water — ice — tenaciously,” said Jake’s portrayer. “Go find Bapa, Mr. Schmules, but be sure to put your booties on before, so you don’t scratch his floors. He’ll be waiting for you with buckets of crunchy water and poker chips.”
In closing his post, which was accompanied by a series of beautiful, bittersweet photos of Schmuli with himself, daughter Harper (whom he shares with former wife Kirsten Storms of General Hospital) and fiancée Isabella Devoto, expressed his gratitude to Schmuli for being this leading man’s best friend. “Thank you for 12 of the best years of my life,” he wrote. “We’re all better because we knew you. See you in another life.”
Climb the branches of the DiMera family tree with the below photo gallery that reviews how all its schemers and dreamers are related.
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
1/20
<p>It made sense that the <em>Salem Spectator</em>’s birth announcements would be as big a point of interest to the megalomaniacal tycoon as the obituaries. New offspring of his were revealed nearly as often as he “died.”</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
2/20
<p>Bless his bonkers heart! In 2019, Stefano’s personal mad scientist, Dr. Wilhelm Rolf, filled Steve Johnson with the boss’ essence, thereby allowing him to resume his pursuit of his Queen of the Night, Marlena Evans (seen here causing flowers to levitate).</p>
Image: NBC (2)
3/20
<p>Stefano’s beautiful daughter with the late Lee DuMonde was still reeling from the revelation that her sister was her mother when she did the math and realized that — ew! — that also made true love Tony DiMera her brother. As cruel fate would have it, the couple’s actual lineage was only sorted, and the lovers reunited reunited, just in time for her to be murdered by the Salem Slasher.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
4/20
<p>Though raised as Stefano’s son, the count, he learned too late to keep his romance with Renée afloat, shared no blood tie with the Phoenix. Rather, he was the offspring of Stefano’s common-law wife Daphne and a lovely chap who — oh dear — his father figure had killed out of jealousy.</p>
Image: NBC
5/20
<p>Every family has one, right? André was introduced as Stefano’s nephew but was, in fact, his son. And since Tony wasn’t quite the chip off the ol’ block that Daddy Dearest hoped he’d be, the villain had André undergo an extreme makeover that turned him into a dead ringer for the count.</p>
Image: Columbia Tristar/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
6/20
<p>When not giving side eye to romantic rival Hope Williams (and somehow <em>still</em> being upstaged by Nurse Honeycutt), Maxwell Hathaway’s ill-fated adopted daughter revealed with every plot she hatched that she shared DNA with biodad Stefano, the biggest Bad Bad Salem’s ever known.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
7/20
<p>Did we call Megan ill-fated? Because apparently, she was no more dead than… well, pretty much anybody else who ever lived in Salem. (Don’t look so shocked, Steve; you’re a zombie, too, after all!) In 2022, the vixen resumed the family tradition of making trouble for the locals and has been doing so once again ever since.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
8/20
<p>“No need to undress for a DNA test… although if you <em>insist</em>.” In 2023, Megan’s surprise son, whom we’d already met on <em>Beyond Salem</em> as ISA operative Kyle Graham, made tracks to Salem to turn good vs. evil into a shirts vs. skins sorta fight.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
9/20
<p>Celeste Perrault moved heaven and earth to keep her beloved daughter from discovering that it was Stefano to whom she should’ve been sending Father’s Day cards her entire life. But when at last the truth came out, some of the late good girl’s misbehavior suddenly made a whole lot more sense.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
10/20
<p>Stefano did not have what anyone would’ve called a <em>close</em> relationship with his son by Ellen Hawk. Maybe that was because the madman had had Ellen killed. Or because Benjy had lost his hearing in an explosion at one of Stefano’s homes. Or because he was threatened by Papa and murdered by André.</p>
Image: Betsy Annas/JPI
11/20
<p>Stefano’s adopted son — the villain picked up kids as randomly and often as we do trashy magazines at the grocery-store checkout — was a schemer through and through. When he wasn’t helping Pop manipulate sister Kristen, he was making Jack Deveraux look to Jennifer Horton like a saint by comparison. Oh, and also apparently aggravating tigers, the bastard.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
12/20
<p>Believe it or not, Peter’s sister (originally Eileen Davidson) started out as a Ms. Nice Gal who was pursued by — ack — pseudo sibling Tony. But whether out of frustration over true boo John Black’s lingering feelings for Marlena Evans or just her corrupt upbringing, she eventually unleashed her inner supervixen, and honey, that is one genie that ain’t <em>never</em> going back in the bottle!</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
13/20
<p>Yes, Kristen (now Stacy Haiduk, at least usually) deserves two entries in this photo gallery, if only because of the number of times her masked shenanigans have caused us to wear the exact same expression as Tony here. Or is that André? Honestly, can we ever be sure? It could be freakin’ Megan with a mask of her own!</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, NBC
14/20
<p>The less said about the way that Stefano impregnated Kristen’s sister Susan Banks by pretending to be Elvis Presley, the better. All you really need to know at this point is that Elvis Jr. (first James Scott, then Dan Feuerriegel) grew up to be every bit the manipulative power player that Daddy Dearest had been.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
15/20
<p>Whew. No doubt because he was raised by honorable dad Abe Carver, the cop’s son with Lexie has managed to sidestep the penchant for lying, stealing, kidnapping and wreaking overall havoc that everyone in Salem knows is the calling card of any of Stefano’s kin.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
16/20
<p>EJ’s son with scheme queen Sami Brady — twin sis Allie is Lucas Roberts’ (don’t ask!) — seemed like a nice enough young fella… until the devil went and took possession of his hot bod. In the aftermath, we have to wonder whether Johnny willl realize that he kinda <em>liked</em> being a hell-raiser.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
17/20
<p>File this under “Stories You Probably Won’t Bring Up to the Kids Someday”: Chad is the product of Stefano’s tryst with appellate court judge Madeline Peterson. What’s so shocking about that? At the time of said encounter, Mom was a prostitute; Dad, her pimp.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
18/20
<p>It wasn’t until 2017 that we learned that Vivian Alamain had borne Stefano a son about whom he’d never known. Heck, even Viv didn’t learn that the baby had survived until he was a grown man. Alas, Stefan (originally Tyler Christopher) wasn’t long for this world. Luckily, he just happened to have a twin brother…</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
19/20
<p>To put it mildly, Stefan’s sibling (Brandon Barash as if you didn’t know) was as surprised as the rest of Salem to find out that he wasn’t an unusually attractive mechanic after all but the heir to not only a fortune but also kinda-sorta his widowed sister-in-law Gabi Hernandez’s affections.</p>
Image: Peacock screenshot
20/20
