Doug Davidson: Failed Teen Idol turned Soap Superstar

Speaking of forgotten teen idols, who is this "Doug Davidson" photographed next to Shawn Stevens as the latest Tiger Beat fave raves circa 1978?

According to IMDB, the 64-year old actor's most memorable character is Paul Williams on the soap The Young and the Restless from 1978 to 2018.

40 years playing the same character!  Five Daytime Emmies!

Paul Williams began as a teenage hoodlum who romanced series regular Nikki and gave her an STD, but soon he retooled his chaotic energy into more respectable pursuits.  He became a private investigator, and later police chief.  He's had a series of romances, one of which produced the bad boy for the new generation, Ricky (Pete Porte).

Whoa.  Could we make this post about Peter Porte instead?

Born in 1954 in Glendale, California, Doug was a theater and marine biology at Occidental College when he appeared in Fraternity Row (1977), a drama about a fraternity hazing that results in a student's death.  It hasn't been released on DVD or streaming video, but apparently it starred Gregory Harrison, the future star of Trapper John, MD

Next Doug had an uncredited role in The Initiation of Sarah, about a sorority girl who uses her Carrie-like superpowers to wreak havoc on a rival sorority.

In the spring of 1978, he visited a friend at CBS Studios and was spotted by Young and the Restless producer John Conboy, who asked him to test for the new bad boy character.  His first episode was in May 1978, just after he graduated, and the rest is history.

His aborted teen idol career seems to have occurred around 1980 and 1981, just as his Young and the Restless character was getting started.  Usually teen magazines ignore soap operas, assuming that only middle-aged housewives are watching, but apparently Doug had something special that drew the photographers to him.

What was it?  Three guesses.

But Doug's teen idol fame only lasted for a few issues, as he failed to do any teen-oriented projects.  Soaps keep you busy with a five-day-a-week shooting schedule, so he hasn't had time for much more screen work at all: a male model on I'll Take Manhattan (1987), Paul Reiser's best friend on Mr. Write (1994), himself on a Diagnosis: Murder episode that takes place on a soap opera set.  He has also hosted The New Price is Right and its Las Vegas stage version, The Hollywood Christmas Parade, and the Tournament of Roses Parade. 

Since 2000, Y&R has had several gay and bisexual characters, but none with particularly major or positive storylines. 

I guess we'll have to make do with Doug Davidson's chest.