Don Diamont Talks 40 Years as a CBS Daytime Soap Opera Hunk: ‘I Feel Blessed’ (EXCLUSIVE)
The ‘B&B’ star and ‘Y&R’ alum reflects on how being a soap star has shaped his life
As the Luna’cy of Dollar Bill’s latest machination spins out on The Bold and the Beautiful, Don Diamont is celebrating 40 years of juicy CBS Daytime drama. The soap opera star and People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive ’09 list-maker talks to Woman’s World about his epic run—from wearing daisy dukes as The Young and the Restless’ Brad Carlton to helming a family as The Bold and the Beautiful dynamo Bill Spencer Jr.
Diamont also reflects on how working with the Bell family—starting with The Young and the Restless creators William J. and Lee Phillip and continuing with their son, The Bold and the Beautiful showrunner Bradley—has impacted every part of his life.
Don Diamont still gets choked up over 40th anniversary: ‘It was all just so moving’
Last month, The Young and the Restless legacy player Beth Maitland and Peter Bergman joined The Bold and the Beautiful stars like John McCook, Heather Tom, Scott Clifton, Thorsten Kaye and Crew Morrow at Don Diamont’s 40th anniversary celebration—and when asked about the special day, the veteran soap actor still gets emotional.
“I anticipated some by-the-book speeches and a couple chuckles, but it was so deeply heartfelt,” he says—and he has showrunner Bradly Bell to thank. “Brad is usually a bit more matter-of-fact at these things, but he hit me with, ‘My dad thought of you like a son,’ and that killed me. Then Beth, Heather, Peter, Scott and Thorsten spoke… it was all just so moving.
“Plus, having Beth and Heather as my love interest bookends was pretty extraordinary,” he says of the Emmy-winners who play The Young and the Restless’ Traci and The Bold and the Beautiful’s Katie, respectively. “Such wonderful talents, and such exceptional women.”
While the actor has great memories with his costars and current boss, it was icon William J. Bell who first brought a 22-year-old Diamont to CBS after seeing his 1984 stint on Days of Our Lives.
“I was killed off of Days and voted Best Newcomer in the same week,” Diamont recalls with a laugh, but that first soap gig got his feet wet and helped him land the role of Brad Carlton.
The ‘Y&R’ vet reflects on his first ‘trial by fire’ days on CBS
After a rocky start at Days of Our Lives that Diamont chalks up to his own naivete, the then-green actor was thrown into the deep end on The Young and the Restless, premiering as Brad on May 16, 1985.
“It was just a crazy learning curve,” he recalls. “Trial by fire! That’s another reason I so appreciated having Beth as my love interest. She was so experienced and talented. And I had [now retired Daytime Emmy-winning producer] Ed Scott working with me my second year, and he just demanded the best and pushed me.
“I made it through that summer of having my shirt off and wearing daisy dukes and being the pool guy,” he cracks. “Then Brad was moved into the shipping department by John Abbott, and I was in a three-piece suit—and once I put some clothes on, I figured that was a good sign I’d stick around!”
The ‘B&B’ star on just how bad Bill Spencer Jr. really is
By the time he crossed the halls of TV City to join sister show The Bold and the Beautiful in 2009, Diamont had two decades of experience under his belt. With Brad Carlton laid to rest, he also had a clear picture of who “Dollar Bill” Spencer Jr. could be.
“I felt very comfortable with this character right off the bat, and Brad Bell was wonderful,” Diamont recalls. “He let me have the beard, dress Bill the way I wanted to dress him, and wear the jewelry. I thought it was right for the character and I also wanted him to be very different from Brad.”
With a penchant for blackmail, machination and the occasional murderous plot, Bill has certainly proven to be a lot more trouble than good guy Brad ever was!
“Bill was introduced as the ultimate billionaire playboy and misogynist, but I’ve never had him be a mustache twirler,” Diamont says. “From off the bat, I’ve played him with vulnerability and honesty. That might not have always been on the surface! But he was a bastard child and for all his bravado and machismo, this was a guy with a black hole inside of him—and a lot of mommy issues.
“From his first story with Katie, you saw his edges soften,” he adds. “But as I recently said on the show, he’s in a constant battle with his demons. He’s been unable to get out of his own way so many times and ends up hurting the very thing that he loves the most—his family.”
The star takes ‘a lot of pride in having spawned the Spencer dynasty’
While the Spencers go all the way back to the beginning of The Bold and the Beautiful, Diamont’s arrival as Bill Jr. marked the resurrection of that family.
“Bill was an island, initially, and I felt like, ‘Something has to give if I’m going to make it over here,’” he recalls. “Then I got Scott Clifton and Darren Brooks as my sons, Liam and Wyatt, and now I’ve got Joshua Morrow’s son Crew playing my other son—which is amazing. They’re wonderful actors and people.”
Along the way, the show also brought back Joanna Johnson as Bill’s half-sister, Karen, and Linsey Godfrey as her daughter, Caroline to get into the drama.
“They built a family around me and I take a lot of pride in having spawned the Spencer dynasty, as it were,” he says. “Because getting a job is one thing: Holding onto a job is another!”
The soap hunk reflects on making ‘Most Beautiful’ & ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ lists
Beyond keeping him employed, working in daytime opened a lot of fun doors for Diamont.
“When I look back on my career and the opportunities that these soap operas presented, it’s pretty crazy,” he says. “Muhammad Ali became my very dear friend, and we met because of my celebrity from the show. Spending a couple months in cages with lions and tigers on Circus of the Stars was a dream come true. I met President Reagan, Prince Albert and so many athletes that were fans of the show. It was one extraordinary thing after another.”
His soap opera fame also helped him become the first daytime star to make People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” list.
“I was thrilled,” admits the good-natured actor. “I would just throw that out every so often to my wife or kids. ‘You can say whatever you want. Do you know that in 1990–‘ ‘Yeah, we know! We know’ Then ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ happened in ’09, and that gave me some new ammunition. So it was very important in my house. We just get a good kick out of it.”
The biggest perk of 40 years in daytime: Meeting his wife!
For all the fun Diamont has had, the greatest blessing to come out of his soap star life has to be meeting his wife since 2012, Cindy Ambuehl, back when she screen-tested to play Ashley. While Bill is a womanizer and a player who found his sons later in life, this actor is a family man with seven sons between the ages of 22 and 36 and one tiny grandson.
“We always said, ‘Before we ever get these kids out of the house, there’ll be a grandchild,’” Diamont chuckles. “And sure enough, we’ve got the grandson and got a couple kids back at home.”
The whole Diamont brood comes together for family vacations regularly, but their most recent reunion came for a graduation—which happened to fall on The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless vet’s 40th anniversary with CBS.
“Everybody spent a week at our house and was able to be there for the 40th anniversary tribute party,” Diamont tells Woman’s World. “That was amazing, because they all grew up running around those halls. During the summer, they’d often come into work with me. Alexander [30] would sit on the boom when I was doing scenes on The Young and the Restless and he had his own little CBS pass, so to have all of them there was… I can’t even put it into words.
“I just feel blessed, and so thankful,” he concludes. “From 22 years old, I worked for Bill and Lee Bell and then Brad, so the professional and personal impact that these people have had on my life is extraordinary.”
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