Bill Hayes, who has died aged 98, was an actor best known in the US for his 52-year stint, on and off, as convicted con artist-turned-lounge singer Doug Williams on the long-running NBC soap Days of Our Lives; in Britain he was best known as the singer of The Ballad of Davy Crockett, the theme song of the Walt Disney TV show Davy Crockett (1954) screened by ITV, episodes of which were edited into two films, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955) and Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (