Brett Hadley, ‘Young and the Restless’ Star, Dies at 92

Brett Hadley, who starred as Genoa City police detective Carl Williams for more than a decade on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, has died. He was 92.

Hadley died Wednesday of sepsis at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his friend of 30 years, Darcy Lee, told The Hollywood Reporter. “He was a wonderful, sweet and kind man,” she said.

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Hadley joined the daytime serial as the father of Doug Davidson’s Paul Williams in 1980 and remained with the show through 1990, when his character mysteriously disappeared.

Wouldn’t you know it, just as his onscreen wife, Mary (Carolyn Conwell), was about to remarry, Hadley returned in 1998 as a man named Jim Bradley. It seems a savage beating had left Carl with amnesia, and he would never remember who he was. He left the show for good in 1999.

“He was a delight to work with and was an upbeat and happy presence in the halls and on the set,” Beth Maitland (Traci Abbott on Y&R) told Soap Opera Digest. “He was an old-fashioned guy, always professional, but full of fun stories and laughs and always happy to be on the stage. His memory speaks to a happy time, when soaps were in their heyday and the actors were legendary and larger than life.”

Born on Sept. 25, 1930, in Louisville, Kentucky, Hadley attended the University of New Mexico to study drama, then started his career at the venerable Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

He made his onscreen debut on a 1969 episode of NBC’s The Name of the Game and appeared 10 times on ABC’s Marcus Welby, M.D. in various roles.

His résumé also included guest stints on Room 222, Ironside, Police Story, Kojak, The Waltons, The Rockford Files, The Colbys and Highway to Heaven and parts in such films as The Mad Bomber (1973), Funny Lady (1975), Next of Kin (1989) and The Babe (1992).

For years between acting assignments, Hadley enjoyed tending bar at the country music nightclub The Palomino in North Hollywood, Lee said.

Survivors include his niece, Diane.

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