Nineteen Years After Bryton James’ Young & Restless Debut, We Crack Open a Photo Album Full of Bittersweet Memories of His Roller-Coaster Ride as Devon
Thursday, June 1st, 2023
When Bryton James first appeared on The Young and the Restless on June 1, 2004, he was no green rookie. Though still a teenager, he’d been in showbiz since he was 2 years old. In fact, he’d gotten his big break, on the TGIF sitcom Family Matters, when he was only 4!
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Class photo? No, Family Matters promo shot.
Credit: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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Still, no one could have predicted the impact that he’d come to have on the CBS soap. Certainly not James himself. But he was sure game to give it his all. “Once I knew that they valued me and thought that I would be a great fit for this role,” he told Soap Opera Digest in 2020, “I immediately just wanted to get better every day and do the best I could to add to the show. I mean, I didn’t know anything about The Young and the Restless… I didn’t know the legacy that it had…
“But once I did,” he added, “I was very confident and eager to get going.”
At first, James’ character — Devon Hamilton, as if you didn’t know — was sorta the show’s go-to when it wanted to do a “very special” storyline, whether about the foster-care system or deafness or getting stuck in a lion’s cage at the zoo.
OK, maybe that last one wasn’t your run-of-the-mill Afterschool Special.
Malcolm’s reaction when Devon insisted that it could’ve happened to anybody.
Credit: Brian Lowe/JPI
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James, and along with him Devon, evolved — to the point that they’ve become frontburner mainstays. If a plot is hot and getting hotter, odds are you’ll find Neil and Drucilla Winters’ adopted son smack-dab in the middle of it. “I definitely didn’t anticipate this long [a run] or even think that far into the future” when trying out, the Emmy winner told TV Source in 2019. “Never in a million years did I expect it would be this integrated into the canvas of such an iconic show. And now here we are… ”
That, we are. On this joyful occasion, join us, why don’t ya, in paying tribute to James’ accomplishments as Devon by reviewing the character’s “Wait, what?!?” history via the below photo gallery.
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Image: Brian Lowe/JPI
1/23
<p>When Bryton James made his <em>Young & Restless</em> debut in 2004, foster kid Devon Hamilton was glacially slow to trust poor little rich girl Lily Winters. And wouldn’t ya know it? Just as he began to thaw toward his co-worker at the rec-center project that was keeping Victor Newman out of jail, the teen’s misbehavior was set to get him sent to a Level 12 facility — in other words, adolescent prison. He needed a hero, and in walked…</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
2/23
<p>Lily’s mother Drucilla saw in Devon a bit of herself at his age — and therefore wanted to steer him clear of some of the mistakes that she had made in her impetuous youth. (All of them would’ve been a bit much to shoot for!) Selling her husband Neil on the idea was… eh, let’s say, not easy. But he eventually came around and agreed to permanently foster Devon.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
3/23
<p>Though Devon wound up being welcomed with open arms into the Winters family, he was still so bummed that everybody <em>Sixteen Candles</em>’d his birthday that he stole away to the zoo and got himself stranded in the lions’ habitat. He was fine, by the way, but Neil almost died when Lily ran the rescue SUV right into her dad.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
4/23
<p>Devon tried to reconnect with birth mom Yolanda — but alas, only in vain. The drug addict traded one bad habit (crack) for another (coming on to Neil) till her now-grown little boy felt that the only sensible decision would be to decline her offer to move with her to Seattle.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
5/23
<p>When it rained, it poured for Devon, as big a magnet for heartache and angst as ever there was. No sooner had he come out on top in a bout with meningitis than he went deaf. Yes, <em>deaf</em>! And on top of that — as if that wasn’t enough! — he got arrested for the murder of Neil’s flirtmate, Carmen Mesta. (Needless to say, Devon was innocent — despite how heated this confrontation looks.)</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
6/23
<p>Because c’mon, you <em>know</em> Devon couldn’t possibly get the former without the latter! After a cochlear implant restored his hearing and he was officially adopted by Neil and Dru, he lost his now-official mother when she went tumbling off a cliff (<a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/news/593730/young-restless-drucilla-winters-death-anniversary-victoria-rowell-returning/" target="_blank">back up which we still expect her to climb</a> one of these days).</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
7/23
<p>Devon was happily dating Lily’s pal Roxanne, who weirdly never got a last name, when into the Winterses’ lives blew Hurricane Tyra, the “aunt” who proved to be so irresistible that newly remarried Neil cheated on wife Karen Taylor with her, and Devon cheated on his girlfriend with her. Hey, the temptress <em>was</em> played by <em>America’s Next Top Model</em> winner Eva Marcille.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
8/23
<p>No, Tucker McCall, we are not Devon’s biological father, that would be you, a fact that they only discovered after they’d rubbed each other the wrong way as the younger man pursued a career as a music mogul at his unwitting pop’s record company.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
9/23
<p>Devon and Tucker might never have become the best of buddies, but there was an almost priceless upside to the former’s discovery of his relation to the latter: When newfound grandmother Katherine Chancellor passed away, she left Devon the bulk of her estate. And, we presume, an entire town’s worth of vaults in which to store the loot.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
10/23
<p>Devon and Hilary Curtis were so slow to get on the same page about their attraction that, by the time they were <em>both</em> ready to admit that they were hot for one another, she’d — d’oh! — married Neil. Then, just when they were ready to break it to Neil that his marriage was kaput, he was — and we could not make this up — left blind after being electrocuted. So rather than burden him with the truth, Devon and Hilary… Oh, that’s <em>tacky</em>, guys. They cheated on him behind his back (which was overkill since he couldn’t see, anyway!).</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
11/23
<p>Once Neil regained his sight and lost his wife, Devon tied the knot with his beautiful stepmother… only to have her vanish on their honeymoon and return to him with amnesia. Even after Hilary’s memory was restored, it was anything but smooth sailing for the couple, owing largely to the bride’s inability to decide whether she was a bad girl or a <em>reformed</em> bad girl.</p>
Image: Howard Wsie/JPI
12/23
<p>In his divorce from Hilary, Devon not only lost his wife, he lost <em>GC Buzz</em>. But at least he was able to stipulate that its new honcho had to wait a year before firing anybody — in other words, Hilary’s co-host/frenemy and his own new girlfriend, Mariah Copeland.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
13/23
<p>In 2018, well before Abby Newman set her sights on Devon’s sperm, he was already looking to make a donation — to former wife Hilary, whose biological clock wasn’t just ticking, its alarm was going off. But, the former couple’s chemistry being as undeniable as it was, they soon gave up the “artificial” part of their plan to make her a mother via artificial insemination. </p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
14/23
<p>Devon and Hilary were happily planning their future as parents when… ack! Lily was so distracted by an argument with her ex-sister-in-law that she ran a red light and got in an accident that landed Hilary on her deathbed. Sadly, as quickly as Devon made her his bride once again, the fates made him a widower.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
15/23
<p>A resounding “no” was Devon’s answer for a good while after he lost Hilary. But then into his world came Elena Dawson. Suddenly, his heart began to feel something once again besides breaking. If only he wasn’t haunted by visions of his late wife…</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
16/23
<p>The dark cloud that seemed to have taken up residence above Devon’s head only got darker on what should have been a joyful occasion. As he opened fancypants restaurant Society with Abby Newman, he wanted to share the night with Neil. After all that they’d been through, their renewed closeness was reason enough to celebrate. Sadly, it was that very evening that Devon learned that his adoptive father had passed away. </p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
17/23
<p>Visions of Hilary were one thing. But then Devon got an eyeful of Genoa City’s newest attorney, Amanda Sinclair, who turned out not just to be a dead ringer for his late missus but — surprise, surprise — her long-lost twin sister as well. Despite the fact that Devon remained committed to Elena, insecurity drove her into the arms of his sexy cousin, Nate Hastings.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
18/23
<p>In the wake of Elena’s betrayal, Devon did exactly what she feared that he would and grew closer to Amanda. And though Elena began seeing Nate in earnest, her attraction to Devon hadn’t actually diminished any more than had his to her. So basically, everybody slept with everybody in much the same way that decades earlier, Neil and brother Malcolm kept swapping partners with Dru and sister Olivia. Ah, the more things change…</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
19/23
<p>No sooner had Devon settled into a stable new relationship with Amanda than he became a father… sorta. The baby that he and Mariah cooked up for Abby Chancellor was ushered into the world. And though he wasn’t intended to parent Dominic, circumstances conspired to send his paternal instincts into overdrive.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
20/23
<p>Devon knew that he was rolling the dice in a big way by mixing family matters and corporate intrigue to take Lily’s suggestion that they merge Hamilton-Winters with Chancellor Industries to form one giant mega-company. But then he looked at how well the Newmans work together, and the Abbotts, and… Wait, why would <em>anybody</em> have gone along with that crazy an idea!</p>
Image: CBS screenshot
21/23
<p>Devon came to regret hiring Nate nine ways to Sunday after his cousin became so fed up with his treatment at CW that he struck a deal with Victoria Newman that would allow Newman Enterprises to seize controlling interest in the company. Ya know what? On second thought, Devon regretted hiring Nate <em>10</em> ways to Sunday, not nine.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
22/23
