Soap Vet Don Diamont Reveals What Really Happened During His 1980s Stint on ‘Days of our Lives’

Don Diamont has made a decades-long career on CBS soaps, first as Brad Carlton on The Young and the Restless for close to 25 years and then as Dollar Bill Spencer on The Bold and the Beautiful, a role he still holds today per IMDb. However, Diamont got his daytime television start on another beloved soap that’s still around in 2026, Days of our Lives. The actor recently revealed how things really went on his first soap job.

Diamont Learns the Soap Opera Ropes

In 1985, 22-year-old Don Diamont was cast as Carlo Forenza on Days of our Lives. Carlo arrived in Salem and quickly landed a job as the Curtis stable hand, as he had a connection to Liz Chandler Curtis’ business manager. Eventually, Liz and the younger Carlo entered into a steamy affair before Carlo revealed he was really there to avenge his father’s death, which he blamed on Neil.

DAYS was Diamont’s first big role and he recently admitted that he was a little “green” at the time. On the podcast Soapy, hosted by B&B co-star Rebecca Budig (Taylor Hayes) and DAYS’ Greg Rikaart (Leo Stark), Diamont explained that before he had even taped a scene, he had mentioned media and press coverage to producer Al Rabin, who warned him not to get ahead of himself.

When Diamont finally got to the set to tape his first scenes, he really heard it from Rabin, who stopped the action to have a talk with the young actor.

“I walk in and I say whatever my lines are and they stop tape and Al comes out of the booth onto the set, calls me off the set … and I will never forget it,” Diamont relayed. “He said, ‘I could take an actor who’s nervous. I can’t take an actor without energy. Get it together.'”

Diamont admitted that although he was bothered by the comments at the time, it made him “take things more seriously.” He learned from veteran stars like Joe Gallison and Gloria Loring, who played Neil and Liz.

“I was really learning on the job, truly trial by fire,” admitted. “My point is that I didn’t just blame Al for what happened. I had to take ownership as well. I was just way too cocksure at the time… just overconfident.”