List of The Young and the Restless characters introduced in the 1980s
This is a list of notable characters from the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless that significantly impacted storylines and debuted between January 1980 and December 1989, in order of first appearance.
Julia Newman
Julia Newman first appeared in February 1980 along with Victor Newman. She was portrayed by Meg Bennett until June 9, 1981, with reprise appearances in July 1982 and from October 13, 1982 to December 20, 1984, from September 9, 1986 to March 25, 1987, and also from March 1 to September 3, 2002. In February 2018, it was reported that Bennett would be returning as Julia to commemorate with the show's 45th anniversary. Bennet also returned in February 2020, to celebrate Braeden's 40th anniversary on the soap.On June 13, 1970, Julia and businessman Victor Newman were married. Ten years later, she and Victor moved to Genoa City so that he could help run Chancellor Industries for Katherine Chancellor. He was very protective of his wife, and kept her secluded at the ranch. Victor was so consumed by his work, he was barely there himself. Julia met and became friends with Katherine Chancellor's son, Brock Reynolds. Victor got jealous and had a one-night stand with his secretary, Eve Howard, in retaliation. Julia admitted she was falling in love with Brock, but they were not lovers, and she agreed to break it off if Victor fully committed to their marriage. Victor, however, was not convinced and turned to Lorie Brooks for attention. Brock caught Victor and Lorie kissing, so he tried to resume his romance with Julia, but he finally left town because of Julia's inability to end her marriage to Victor. Thinking it would convince Victor of her love for him, Julia told him that she wanted to have a baby. Victor responded by having a vasectomy without telling her.
When offered a job modeling for photographer Michael Scott at his studio, Julia jumped at the chance. For once, Victor did not say no. Michael admired the dark-haired beauty, and they became close friends. While Victor was out of town, Eve suddenly resurfaced. Eve let Julia know that she was there to get Victor back. Feeling vulnerable and confused by Eve's presence, Julia slept with Michael. Julia was immediately overwhelmed with shame. Her friendship with Brock had remained strictly platonic but now that she had slept with Michael, Julia had actually cheated on Victor for the first time. When Julia began talking about her friend, Michael, Victor became jealous and began following them and taping their conversations. Then, Julia turned up pregnant.
Convinced the baby was Michael's, Victor kidnapped Michael and held him prisoner in the bomb shelter under the Newman Ranch. Victor had had it outfitted with cameras so he could observe and torture Michael by making him watch Victor and Julia making love. Victor fed Michael sparingly and taunted him often. Once, dinner even turned out to be a dead rat. Victor hired Paul Williams to feed Michael when he was out of town and told Paul that Michael was a mentally disabled relative who was not allowed out because he was violent and delusional. Eventually, when Julia discovered that Michael was being held hostage, she and Paul freed him. When Victor intervened, they had a struggle and Julia tumbled down a flight of stairs. Julia was rushed to the hospital where she miscarried, and Victor learned that he had, despite his vasectomy, fathered Julia's baby. Soon after, Julia and Michael both left town, but not together.
In 1982, Eve Howard ran into the now-divorced Julia in Paris and heard about Lorie Brooks abandoning Victor at the altar. She told Julia that she was involved with a wealthy count, Max Siebalt. Soon after, Eve went to Genoa City to be sure that Victor was going to continue to provide for their son, Cole Howard, and learned that Victor had put him in his will. Max and Eve began to scheme to get Victor's fortune, because Max was broke. Eve convinced Victor to hire her back as his personal assistant and, for a while, everything seemed fine. When Victor's manservant, Charlie, left, Eve offered to cook Victor's meals for him, lacing them with a slow-acting poison that, in small doses, could not be traced. Victor began to lose weight and appeared ill and, after Victor's dog ate some of his poisoned food and died, Victor became suspicious. Julia overheard part of their plan on the phone and warned Victor that he was in danger, but it was too late. Apparently not totally too late, though, because an antidote was found and Victor survived.
Julia proved that Eve was involved by having the poison analyzed. Victor realized that Eve had tried to poison him so that their son, Cole, could inherit half of his wealth. With the help of Julia and his friend, Douglas Austin, Victor began a scheme to trap Eve into confessing and even proposed to her which the greedy Eve quickly accepted. The day of Victor and Eve's wedding, she arrived at the Newman estate to learn that Victor had died. Eve arranged to have Victor's coffin placed in the Newman living room and took over as the grieving fiancée. Max, sensing that she was losing her grip on reality, quickly married her, since it appeared that Victor had left his estate to Eve. When Julia confided to Eve that she thought Victor was murdered and that she wanted to exhume his body for an autopsy, Eve sent Max to the graveyard to dig up the corpse. At the cemetery, Max was so shocked to see Victor alive that he fell against a pitchfork and died. Eve tried to stab Victor and was committed to a sanitarium.
A year later, Victor was marrying former stripper, Nikki Reed. Julia was at the ceremony and Eve Howard even escaped the sanitarium to try to stab Nikki. She failed, however. Around the same time, Julia tested another modeling career as Victor's enemy, Jack Abbott, hired Julia as Jabot Cosmetics' top model instead of his mistress, Diane Jenkins. At the same time, Julia had an affair with Ashley Abbott's fiancé, Eric Garrison. Julia ended up pregnant, but Eric never knew that Julia had given birth to his child. By 1985, Julia and her little girl, Jamie, left Genoa City and Julia ended up marrying Charles Martin. Jamie grew up assuming that Charles was her father, not Eric. During this time, Julia also built up a major interior design firm, Martin Designs, in Lake Forest, Illinois.
In March 2002, a newspaper article alerted Victor that a hostile takeover was threatening Julia's Martin Designs, so he dropped everything to go to Lake Forest. Julia was happy and surprised to see him. He told her that she looked wonderful and that he knew about the takeover bid, then offered to help. After some reminiscing, Julia told him how she and her late husband, Charles, had created their successful design business together and said that she did not think Victor was the kind of person that could work side-by-side with his wife in business. She joked that he was not as controlling as when they were married, but she was young and he was older and set in his ways. She asked about his kids and his love life and was pleased that he was dating Nikki again, whom she liked. Julia told him about her daughter, Jamie, who was in college.
They met with Maxwell Hollister who refused Victor's offer to buy all the stock in Julia's company, even at ten percent over the value. Before Hollister could leave, Victor promised to create a similar design division at Newman Enterprises, put Julia in charge of it, attack Hollister's company at its weak spots and run him out of business. Thwarted, Hollister signed Victor's purchase agreement and left. Julia thanked Victor for saving the company that meant so much to her. After a few more reminisces, Victor asked her what she thought of their time together when she looked back. She said that he was domineering and always in control of any relationship that he entered. They hugged and even kissed then said goodbye. She seemed sad to see him leave. An angry Max tracked down Leanna Love. He told her he would read Ruthless and knew she was once married to Victor, then told her how Victor humiliated him and that he wanted revenge. Leanna explained that Victor's actions for Martin Designs was much more than business, explaining that Julia was Victor's first wife. Max agreed to do Leanna's TV show and give her the scoop on Julia and Victor, in exchange for some recent photos her photographer shot of Victor and Ramona Caceres.
Nikki Newman saw the show and was upset that Victor had visited both Ramona and Julia without telling her. Soon, Max approached Nikki and suggested she join him against Victor. Victor tried to explain to Nikki his soul-searching visits to Julia and Ramona, as well as Hope Wilson. He said that he did not want to repeat his mistakes of the past and proposed to Nikki with an engagement ring. Nikki was also reluctant to try again and said she would give him an answer when she returned to town in two weeks. Max went to Victor and let him know that he was courting Nikki for revenge. Victor ended up telephoning Hope, Julia, and Ramona. They convinced Leanna to do a retraction of the story. When Nikki returned, she accepted Victor's proposal. Then, Lorie Brooks showed up in town looking for Max to sign their divorce papers. When Max found out that Lorie was once a love of Victor's, he tried to get her to join him in his revenge. She ended up agreeing, but their scheme fell apart as Lorie ended up falling for Victor and could not follow through on the scheme. Victor and Nikki ended up remarrying in September 2002.
Mary Williams
Mary Williams first appeared in March 1980 as the Williams family matriarch. She was portrayed by actress Carolyn Conwell until May 10, 2004. Beginning and ending as a series regular, Conwell had been bumped back and forth between contract and recurring.Mary was the wife of officer Carl Williams and the mother of Patty, Paul, Steven and Father Todd Williams. She also has a late sister named Jane. Mary was first introduced as the understanding mother of four children. She was front-burner early in her run when her character had a sudden late life pregnancy yet ended up miscarrying the child. Mary spent much time either volunteering at her Catholic church or fretting over her children, especially troubled Patty who was involved with the wealthy playboy Jack, and the rebellious Paul who went through a brief teen marriage which produced a daughter. Mary became worried in 1982 when Carl was all of a sudden fired from the police thanks to Pete Walker, a mob boss determined to keep Carl's nose out of his business. Thanks to Paul, Carl was cleared, but not before Mary was held hostage by Walker's men. Carl and Mary were horrified when it was revealed that their good friend Alex Morgan was on the mob payroll and had Carl fired. Pete and Alex would kill each other in a shoot-out. Later, Mary and Carl were devastated by the death of Paul's new girlfriend Cindy Lake, a former prostitute trying to make a go of it. It was ironically around this time when daughter Patty found Jack having an affair with Diane Jenkins and shot him, afterwards forgetting what she had done.
Sometime after this, Mary underwent a personality transformation, becoming more demanding and nosy and trying to push Paul into relationships with women he did not love. Mary could not stand Paul's new girlfriend, wealthy Lauren Fenmore whom she found too uppity for the likes of her son. Carl tried to make his wife see that her sudden meddling ways would harm her relationship with her children rather than help it, but Mary would not budge. When Lauren submitted a nude photo of Paul as part of a centerfold, Mary took "I told you so" to a new level.
In the late 1980s, Carl went missing and was presumed dead, devastating Mary and her children. Paul, having become a private detective, desperately tried to locate Carl, but to no avail. Ten years later, after Mary had accepted a marriage proposal from Charlie Ottwell, Paul's wife Christine was shocked to discover that Carl was still alive, and living in Norfolk under the name Jim Bradley. It was revealed that he had been captured by criminals while working on a police case, and was beaten and left for dead. An amnesiac Carl had been found and rescued by a woman named Ruth Perkins. Christine convinced "Jim" to return to Genoa City with her. Mary was shocked when Carl returned, and eventually broke off her engagement with Charlie. However, Carl never regained his memory or reconnected with his family, and he went back to Norfolk with Ruth.
Paul and Christine divorced, and Mary became intent on breaking up Paul's latest marriage, to Isabella Braña, of whom Mary did not approve. She enlisted Christine's help in breaking up the marriage, but Christine was unable to convince Paul to leave Isabella. Despite the fact that Isabella had given Mary the grandchild that she had always wanted, a boy who was named Ricardo Carl Williams, Ricardo went to live with Isabella's parents in California. Mary has not been seen on-screen since 2004 after a sudden drunk driving charge was made against her after an argument with Paul. In 2009, a "slowing down" Mary returned with her eldest son, Father Todd Williams, for Paul's nuptials to Nikki Newman. As of 2014, Paul revealed to Nikki that Mary had died.
In 2024, Charlie Mason from Soaps She Knows included Mary in his list of the best mothers in American soap operas, writing, "She never did manage to set up son Paul with that nice Lynne Bassett. But it was not for lack of trying on the buttinsky's part. And heaven knows, none of Mary's kids ever wanted for spare ribs and sauerkraut!"