ShareThisBy TERRY MORROW
When Don Diamont joined the cast of "The Young & The Restless" 21 years ago, he was younger, more restless and willing to take the shirt off his back.
Now, he's older, more settled but still willing to show off the old pecs on the venerable soap (12:30 p.m., EDT, weekdays, CBS).
"I was around 22 when I started the show. Not only did I understand what my role was, I embraced it," he says. "I needed to get a foothold and a fan base here. If that's what it takes to do it, then it's OK."
Diamont plays lady-killer Brad Carlton, who, as often happens in soaps, was introduced as a gardener two decades ago. His outdoor scenes often had him without a shirt, and the women of the afternoon tuned in.
Now, Brad has left the hoes and rakes behind. He's a buttoned-up captain of industry in the show's fictitious setting of Genoa City.
"For my first six months, my shirt was off a lot. I wore cut offs," he says. "... But my character has been a corporate executive longer than he was a groundskeeper, so the shirt has stayed on.
"But, hey, being the resident hunk is not a bad label to have at nearly 44 years old."
Last month, "Y&R" launched a storyline delving into Brad's past before viewers got to know him. Turns out he's not really a guy named Brad after all. He's George (not exactly the name of daytime hunkdom).
He changed his name after a scandal forced him to adopt a new identity.
"Brad is going to be a very different, multi-dimensional character from now on," Carlton says. "It's not rewriting history because we didn't know his history before now. There is more about this guy than we ever imagined."
The plot is certainly transforming Brad from the best-looking guy in town to a character of more substance.
His storyline has helped ignite ratings, too. Nationally, "Y&R" has been the top-rated soap for more than 900 weeks, a record that no other soap has defied in TV history.
As Diamont has grown with the show, he says he doesn't mind how he was labeled when he joined the cast.
"I take it as the ultimate badge of honor," he says. "Could you have started out as more of a hunk than I did back then? I've grown a lot as an actor, professionally and personally, since then.
"He was the ultimate gratuitous guy with his shirt off. Now, I almost never do that anymore."
