Don Diamont Reflects on His ‘Extraordinary’ 40-Year Journey From ‘Y&R’ to ‘B&B’

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Forty years ago this month, Don Diamont joined the CBS daytime family as Brad Carlton on The Young and the Restless, the beginning of a journey that would later lead to his iconic role as Bill Spencer, Jr. on The Bold and the Beautiful.

Diamont’s soap career began when he was cast as Carlo Forenza on Days of our Lives in 1984, a gig he sensed wouldn’t last long. “I was just so incredibly green,” he recalls. “And the character was introduced in a party scene, so I was walking out on the set with all of these veteran actors on the show, and I was very nervous. The executive producer at that time came out on the set and pulled me aside, but well within earshot of everybody, and I’ll never forget it. He said, ‘I can take an actor who’s nervous, I cannot take an actor without energy. Now get it together.’ I played every sport imaginable, so I’m used to being coached, but it did not sit well with me. It wasn’t good coaching. It was embarrassing in front of everybody, so we didn’t get off to a great start.”

Carlo remained in Salem for less than a year, but Diamont’s next job would mark the beginning of his remarkable CBS run. “I was told by my agent at the time, Sid Craig, that Bill [Bell, creator/head writer of Y&R] had seen me on Days, and wanted me to screen-test for Brad Carlton,” he recounts. “I believe there were seven other guys. I was directed by [producer] Ed Scott for that screen test, and he was wonderful. I felt confident, but screen tests are nerve-racking. It was with Brenda Dickson [Jill Abbott], who was blowing smoke in my face during it. She was a character.”

Howard Wise/jpistudios.com

Diamont landed the role and felt more prepared to tackle his second soap character. “Whatever part of me at that time was cocky, at Days of our Lives even, maybe didn’t appreciate the craft required, the artistry required, and what it really took to bring it as an actor,” he concedes. “So, in that time between Days and Y&R, which was about four months, I started to work privately with a coach to approach the work as a professional and to learn what the hell I was doing.”

As a result, his Genoa City start was memorable, but this time for a good reason, Diamont relays. “I finished that first day, and there was a knock on my dressing room door, and it was Wes [Kenney, executive producer], and he said, ‘I just want to tell you, you had a really good first day. Keep working, listen, and you’re going to do great. It’s going to be great.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, what a different experience.’”

Finding his way as the Abbott family groundkeeper took some time, but Diamont knew what he had to do to succeed. “I spent the first three months, either in those Daisy Dukes [shorts], with no shirt or a tank top and hedge trimmers in hand,” he recalls. “And I embraced it. I understood the whole ‘hunk’ thing and the medium, and being introduced in that way, and building a fan base. If I’m not delivering, they’ll get another guy who could take his shirt off and walk around the pool, so I took it really seriously.”

CBS / courtesy Everett Collection

His new castmates helped Diamont acclimate to life in Genoa City. “I really was blessed to be working with Beth Maitland [Traci Abbott], who was already so accomplished and a good person and fine actress, as she is today, and Jerry Douglas [John Abbott] and Terry Lester [Jack Abbott],” he lists. “And also, Eric [Braeden, Victor Newman], Eileen [Davidson, Ashley Abbott], and then Peter [Bergman, Jack Abbott]. Peter and I are very, very dear friends, and him joining the show [in 1989] was just wonderful and wonderful for me, because he is so talented and such a fine actor, and that challenged me.”

Eventually, Brad transitioned into the corporate world, and Diamont felt his hard work had paid off. “That was a big deal when I was moved from being just the hunk to being in a three-piece suit,” he reflects. “It was important because my dad got sick, and what really meant a lot to me is that it gave my dad such comfort that I seemed to be entrenched and becoming a core part of the show. I remember driving him to radiation treatments, and there was one conversation where he said, ‘You know, when you started, you weren’t very good, and you’re really good now. I’m really proud of you. You learned a lot.’ That meant a lot to me.”

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As did his relationship with the boss, William J. Bell. “Looking back on my life, Bill Bell was huge, just incredibly important in my life, as it turned out,” Diamont notes. “He was so wonderful with me. It was familial. Very early on in my tenure there, I went through the loss of my dad and then my brother right after that, and Bill called me up to his office just to check on me, and this wasn’t a typical thing.”

So, when Diamont was notified just before Thanksgiving in 2008 that Brad would be written out by a new team of writers, “that was hurtful,” Diamont says. “That was the changing of the guard. It wasn’t Bill [who passed away in 2005] anymore, and that just came completely out of the blue when that particular regime was brought in. First order of business seemed to be killing Brad and Colleen [Carlton, Brad’s daughter]. It didn’t take long. It never would have happened if Bill was alive, never. I have a handwritten note that still is sitting on my desk at home in my office, among other things that he wrote, ‘The Young and the Restless will always be here for you.’”

As Diamont was leaving the studio after getting the news, he decided to walk across the hall to see Bell’s son, Bradley Bell, the executive producer and head writer of The Bold and the Beautiful, who created the role of Bill Spencer, Jr. for Diamont in 2009. “And the rest is history,” he muses. “Bill was committed to me, and Brad was committed to me, and it meant everything. Brad was my champion, period, full stop. He created a very dynamic character, and he was as huge at that point in my life as his father had been at the 22-year-old point in my life.”

Playing “Dollar” Bill, a brash publishing magnate, was a welcome pivot for the actor. “Brad was so wonderfully collaborative,” he praises. “He gave me the outline of this character and let me take the ball and run with it, and was willing to listen to my insights about what I felt made this guy tick. It was just a tremendous opportunity. Getting a job is one thing, keeping it is another, and this is the character of a career and character of a lifetime.”

Howard Wise/jpistudios.com

Being paired with so many talented actors over the course of his 16-year run has been a high point for Diamont. “I’m just so blessed,” he says. “One of the most meaningful things in my career is when Heather Tom [Katie Logan] heard I was coming to B&B, she emailed Brad immediately that she wanted to work with me. That meant the world to me because there’s only one Heather Tom. And she is a dear, dear friend. There’s nobody I love working with more than Heather, and I don’t feel much differently about [Katherine] Kelly [Lang, Brooke Logan]. She’s just wonderfully talented, and it’s a pleasure to work with Jacqui [MacInnes Wood, Steffy Forrester], too. And the blessing of [TV sons] Scott [Clifton, Liam Spencer] and Darin [Brooks, Wyatt Spencer], working on those Spencer men scenes together, was amazing. And now we add Crew [Morrow, Will Spencer] to the mix, and he’s doing a great job.”

That he’s celebrating 40 years on CBS soaps isn’t something Diamont takes for granted. “That’s pretty crazy,” he marvels. “As you get older, you’re lucky to have the gift of reflection and counting your blessings. I feel all of those things as I walk into the studio every day. I still take it in, and it’s pretty extraordinary. I feel so lucky, so fortunate to have been in that building for all these years, and if longevity is a marker for success, I’ll take it.”

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