Eric Braeden on Life Before The Young and the Restless and His New Book

The Young and the Restless fans know Eric Braeden as Victor Newman, the character he’s played on the CBS soap for 36 years. In his new book, I’ll Be Damned, Braeden gives readers a glimpse of his early life in World War II Germany, starting over in America and the career that led him to fame on the No. 1 daytime drama. Here, Braeden shares a behind-the-scenes look at his new memoir with Parade.

Related: Read an Exclusive Excerpt from The Young and the Restless Star Eric Braeden’s New Memoir

Why did you come out with the book now?

I was prevailed upon by friends and fans. I did it reluctantly. To be frank with you, ever since I have done this show I realize that I owe my existence to the fans. They keep the show going. In my case, for 36 years.

What will fans learn about the circumstances of your birth, during WWII in 1941 Germany, from reading your book?

My mother gave birth to me in the basement of a hospital. We barely made it out of the city. My coming into this life was rather dramatic, to say the least. The hospital I was born in was destroyed the day after my birth. The following four years of my life there were increasing amounts of bombs. War is a terrible thing.

You grew up one of four boys. Talk about your childhood.

It was a tough upbringing. We fortunately had a garden outside of our house and we had some livestock and lived off that. My father died when I was 12 and my family plunged into poverty. I have earned my own living since then.

Tell us how you came to live in America.

I had older cousins who were doctors and moved to America in the early 1950s, as Germany was destroyed during the war and a lot of eligible men had died. They both married non-Germans and taught medicine in Galveston, Texas. They came to visit us when I was 17 and asked me to come to America.

Why did you agree to leave home?

We were huge fans of things American. We had parties listening to Elvis Presley and all the rock and roll records that we could get. I remember seeing my first Marlon Brando and Clark Gable movies, especially Gone With the Wind. So I was very curious about America.

I said goodbye to my family in May of 1959. I was 18 and boarded the ship across the Atlantic with all the other passengers heading to America. We arrived at six in the morning, so my first sight of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty was at sunrise. It’s something you never forget.

Describe the long journey from working on cadavers in Texas to acting in Hollywood.

I took a bus to Texas after arriving in New York. My cousin gave me a job researching arthritis by cutting up cadavers’ knees. After that, I worked on a ranch in Missoula, Montana. I was an actual cowboy. Then I was involved in a river-rafting adventure, for a documentary about the trip. We went on a media tour for that film, which took me to Los Angeles.

Across the street from my hotel was restaurant row. I saw these young guys parking fancy sports cars. I did that for a $1.25 an hour. Man, was that fun. An agent who represented foreign actors came into the restaurant where I was parking cars. They needed German actors for programs about the Second World War. So they said, come into the office and read for us.

After working on films and starring in The Rat Patrol, how did you get a starring role on The Young and the Restless? 

I had heard about soaps from my friend Dabney Colman. I asked him, “What the hell is a soap?” He said, “Do it and you will love it.” Shortly after my interview for The Young and The Restless I was told they wanted me. I said I won’t sign for more than three months. I have been there now for 36 years.

Talk to me about the relationship between Erin Braeden and Victor Newman.

I don’t take any shit. That I carried onto the character. That Bill Bell knew. He recognized that and he tapped into something in me. At one point I was thinking of leaving the show and I asked him to help me think of a background that helps Victor Newman explain who he is. He devised a storyline I will never forget. It was a scene at Christmastime with Melody Thomas Scott, who plays Nikki. She knew nothing about Victor’s background. Finally I broke down and told her I was abandoned by my mother and grew up in an orphanage. Something in that rang a very familiar bell to me. When I did that scene I left the stage went into my dressing room and called my wife and said, “I’m staying.”

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