Daytime’s Reigning ‘Don’

Actor Don Diamont Balances ‘Young and the Restless’ with His Real-Life Role as Palisadian Dad

He’s just your average Palisadian dad. He picks up his kids from school, listens to Elvis, and shops at Target. He also happens to be a Hollywood heartthrob adored by millions of female viewers nationwide who watch him daily and religiously on CBS. Okay, perhaps Don Diamont is not your average Palisadian after all. But aside from his handsomer-than-average looks, you’d never mistake this unpretentious 45-year-0ld for the Hollywood actor stereotype. If any soap opera deserves this town’s rooting interest, it’s ‘The Young and the Restless.’ After all, the Palisades is well represented not only by Diamont (as the ethically suspect Brad Carlton) but co-stars Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) and Joshua Morrow (Nicholas Newman), who both live here. A 23-year ‘Young and the Restless’ veteran, Diamont says that he still loves working on the show, especially since it affords so many story twists and license to test a thespian’s range. For example, something major in Brad Carlton’s character arc occurred on the July 28, 2006 episode, when it was revealed that Carlton was, in fact'[gasp!]… Jewish! Turns out that Carlton’s real name was George Kaplan, and his mother was an Italian Jew forced into hiding after cataloguing looted Nazi art. Post-war, she immigrated to the United States, started a new family, and became a hunter of stolen works. That’s when her adversaries bludgeoned her family to death, except for herself and George, who managed to go into hiding. The back story was not only a shocker to Brad Carlton, but to the actor who had played him for two decades. ‘I came across the part [in the script] that revealed Brad’s real name is George Kaplan,’ Diamont tells the Palisadian-Post. ‘I said, ‘Hmm. George Kaplan.’ I called Lynn [Latham, then-head writer] and asked her, ‘Is he really Jewish?’ She wanted to have a Jewish family in daytime. I was the first real Jewish male lead in daytime. I said, ‘Let’s do it!’ It’s out of the box and I totally embraced it.’ The identity twist was doable for two reasons: as scripted, Carlton had always been something of an enigma’and in real life, Diamont himself is Jewish. ‘There was a 20-year history of mystery of Brad’s past,’ he says. ‘Nobody knew anything about him. Nothing.’ In 2006, Latham told a reporter her reasons for making Carlton Jewish. ‘I have always preferred to write for an ethnically and racially mixed cast that represents most religions. That’s the world … most of us live in.’ So how did the soap’s attentive following react? ‘Fans were very supportive,’ Diamont says. ‘The ratings were higher than they were for a while.’ An understatement, given that ‘Young and the Restless,’ while celebrating its 35th anniversary in March, broke industry records by topping the ratings for the 1,000th consecutive week, averaging 5.79 million viewers daily and outperforming various prime-time shows. As Variety put it, ‘The CBS daytime drama that has been on top since the final weeks of the Reagan administration.’ ‘We’ve been number one for 17 years,’ Diamont says, although with a caveat: ‘There’s definitely an attrition going on. You have the Internet, 500 TV channels ‘ it’s ever more of a challenge.’ And after 23 years, isn’t playing the same character a challenge in itself? ‘A lot of that comes from the writers and the stories that they come up with,’ he counters. ‘They keep you enthralled.’ Diamont brings personal history to the character’s identity change. Like Carlton, he downplayed his Jewishness while growing up because of some bullying he encountered as a teen. Although Diamont excelled at basketball and football while attending Brentwood School, his negative experiences had a cumulative effect, and when he began to pursue his acting career, Diamont adopted his mother’s less ostensibly Jewish maiden name over his surname (Feinberg). Raised secular, ‘I didn’t know who I was, or why I should have pride in who I was,’ he told a reporter in 2006. ‘Part of me was ashamed because I had been shamed … I wanted to hide.’ Thankfully, today’s climate is more multicultural, and Diamont can take pride in his ethnicity, as do fellow Palisadian mensches Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow and Steven Spielberg. Several deaths in the Diamont family unit helped the actor make peace with his heritage. He learned that his mother’s cousin had been injected with gasoline at Auschwitz. Dying of cancer in 1987, Diamont’s father lamented raising his children without a cultural identity. When Diamont’s brother, Jack, was diagnosed with a brain tumor two years later, the siblings decided on a joint bar mitzvah. Only Diamont made it to Stephen S. Wise Temple’s bima, from which he paid tribute to his late sibling. More recently, Diamont’s sister, Bette, succumbed to cardiac arrest, and his mother died of emphysema in 2006. Diamont struggled to work. ‘It is ironic that as my mother passed, my TV mother has just been introduced on the show,’ he said at the time. No doubt, millions of women would like to bed down bad boy Brad Carlton, but his real-life doppelganger is spoken for. Diamont’s wife is Cindy Ambuehl, 43, who starred as Renee Peterson on the long-running primetime series ‘JAG,’ also on CBS. Rounding out the Diamont-Ambuehl nest in Santa Monica Canyon are the couple’s twin boys, Anton and Davis, 5; and Diamont’s children from a previous relationship, Lauren, 19, Sasha, 16, Alexander, 13, and Luca, 7. Diamont’s Tulane-bound nephew, 19, the son of the actor’s late sister, also lives with them. Ambuehl, who has a front-row seat to the fanfare Diamont receives from viewers, explains how fan reaction vacillates, depending on what’s happening in Brad Carlton’s world. ‘Sometimes it’s, ‘Oh, Brad, we love you,” she says. ‘Other times, ‘Brad, we’re so mad at you.’ The fans are always flipping out when they see him. Whether it’s at the beach or at the mall, he is so gracious. He never ceases to amaze me. [Recently], he hosted nine fans on the set. Donald truly appreciates his fans.’ Continues Diamont’s number-one fan, ‘He’s Jerry Lewis in an Elvis Presley body. He’s very funny and goofy.’ Diamont and family love the Palisades. ‘When we were looking for a home, it was our desire to live in near the water and in a healthy, relaxed environment,’ Diamont says. ‘What better place than the Palisades? You’re in a metropolitan city, but you feel completely removed from that in this beach community.’ Outside of his day gig, Diamont posed for Playgirl and landed in People’s ’50 Most Beautiful People’ issue. His movie credits include ‘Anger Management’ starring Sandler, and ‘A Low Down Dirty Shame.’ But features are not priority, as Diamont has a more important commitment pending: football season. Alexander, who practices at Palisades High, will quarterback the Westside Bruins in the Valley Conference, and dad wants to be there, watching from the stands. ‘What brings me my greatest joy is my family,’ Diamont says.