Australian-born star with over four-decades on Days of Our Lives, Thaao Penghlis, speaks with Janeane Bernstein

It’s one of the greatest runs in television. During his more than four-decade run on Days of Our Lives, Thaao Penghlis has kept the plots twisting and the passions burning by playing two look-a-like villains, Count Tony DiMera and his impersonator Andre DiMera. But the Australian-born star is much more than a guy who knows how to deliver a nasty line and take a woman’s slap. A world traveler and celebrated host of Hollywood dinner parties, Penghlis has authored the memoir Places: The Journey of My Days, My Lives, and the cookbook Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time. And now this child of Greek immigrants is pouring his own passions for all things Greece into a new podcast, The Lost Treasures, a thrilling detective story-style exploration of Greece’s greatest contribution to the world’s literature, the poet Homer. In a rollicking Mediterranean-hopping adventure, The Lost Treasurers explores the Iliad and the Odyssey through the amazing life of German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who changed history when he discovered the real-life locations and treasures in the epic poems. Written and narrated Penghlis, the podcast draws on his exclusive access to 60,000 pages of long-hidden documents and diaries. “Against all odds, Heinrich Schliemann proved that the myths of Troy and the myths of Mycenae really happened,” says Penghlis. “For more than 20 years, my interest in this subject never waned. Two visits to Troy, five to Greece, I completed the journey. And I’m still wanting more.” more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org