Doug Davidson from Young and the Restless
Credit: Howard Wise/JPI

Young and Restless star being left behind?

Updated September 21: Y&R veteran Eric Braeden took to Twitter to voice his opinion on Doug Davidson being let go, referring to it as an ‘egregious mistake’ as he stated, “I normally don’t express my opinions reg the casting on Y&R! That’s the privilege of those who produce the show! However, this is a time when I have to make an exception! I’m still on vacation, hence my comment comes a little late: to let DOUGIE DAVIDSON GO is an egregious mistake,” and added, “My plea to management: we have lost some all time fan favorites! D DAVIDSON has been with the show for, i think, 39 years, and people have loved him! Same for CHRISTIAN Le BLANC, GREG RIKAART, Eileen DAVIDSON ( who left on her own volition)!”

On September 12, in regards to his Y&R firing, Doug Davidson told Soaps.com, “My contract was not renewed in January, I went on recurring, but just until they had new people in place. I have only 2 shows that haven’t aired and no dates. So, as far as I know, I am gone.” Stay tuned, as we’ll update readers with his final air date.

On September 11, Soaps.com learned that, apparently, Doug Davidson was fired from Y&R after a 40-year run as Detective Paul Williams. Young and Restless fans on Twitter woke up to see the actor’s account sharing the news as Davidson reacted to one fan’s question, “They haven’t let you go, have they?” with the response, “It seems so.” He went on to thank many Twitter followers for their concerned and outraged posts on his behalf, and made other remarks about his status with the show, including, “Honestly, it was a great run,” “I’ll miss you too,” and “It does hurt, to be honest.” His tweets also indicated a reason for the show’s alleged decision to let him go, and stated, “They’re going in another direction.” Davidson then confirmed that he was ‘not included’ in Y&R’s new direction.

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It’s important to note that he’s recurring anyway and that sometimes characters aren’t seen for a while, so his ‘It seems so’ response could just mean that he’s not had any work for a while or that the show just hasn’t had a place for Paul Williams in the story and he’s not appearing in upcoming scripts. Also, Davidson’s Twitter account has been hacked in the past, though it’s noteworthy in this instance that at least one of the outraged posts addressing his firing, was retweeted by Eric Braeden’s (Victor Newman) official account.

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Doug Davidson began playing Paul Williams in May 1978 as a young troublemaker in Genoa City, but went on to become an integral part of the Y&R canvas. His family members, meddling mother Mary (Carolyn Conwell), police chief father, Carl (Brett Hadley), unstable sister Patty (last played by Stacy Haiduk), and big brother, Father Todd (Corbin Bernsen), became well-known to longtime viewers of the show, and there was a lesser known brother, Steven, as well. Who can forget the days of Paul as a private investigator with his devoted secretary, Lynne (Laura Bryan-Birn), a career which later led to him becoming chief of police and following in his father’s footsteps? Paul had children over the years, Heather Stevens (last played by Jennifer Landon), and Ricky Williams (Peter Porte), and later found out he’d fathered a son with Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas-Scott), who had grown up as Dylan McAvoy (Steve Burton). His relationships with his kids were distant and difficult at times, and heartbreakingly, Paul shot his own son, Ricky, in one feature storyline. Paul wasn’t particularly lucky in love either, until he finally settled into a happy union with Christine Blair (Lauralee Bell), having had failed marriages to April Stevens (last played by Rebecca Staab), Lauren Fenmore (Tracey Bregman), and Isabella Brana (Eva Longoria), as well as tragic and/or doomed romances with Cindy Lake (DeAnna Robbins), Cassandra Rawlins (Nina Arvesen), Nikki, Maggie Sullivan (Tammy Lauren), and Nina Webster (Tricia Cast).

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Some of Paul’s most memorable storylines included his love story with Cindy, the ‘hooker with a heart of gold’ who died in his arms, his wife Lauren being buried alive by a stalker, falling for diabolical mystery woman Cassandra, trying to help his ex-wife April when she was being abused, marrying Christine after nearly being killed by a car driven by Phyllis Romalotti (then Michelle Stafford) and finding Chris in bed with Danny Romalotti (Michael Damian), Isabella trying to kill Chris, hunting down Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown), his emotional dealings with his mentally ill sister, Patty, and discovering he and Nikki had a son.

Soaps.com has reached out to Davidson’s representative and will update this story as more information becomes available.