The young and the restless Roger Howarth brings to the CBS soap in the role of Mitch Bacall, the husband of Sienna Bacall (Tamara Brown). But the big twist just came out and that is that Clark really died, a bad villain for almost 25 years who was presumed dead for a very long time.
We’re going to do a quick dive into the history so you understand why Sharon Newman (Sharon Case) and Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow) are horrified to find Matt Clark alive and in Los Angeles.
The Young and the Restless: Matt Clark returns from the dead
Sharon’s past tormentor, Matt Clark, was supposedly dead in 2001, but now the mega-villain has emerged alive and ready to do bad things to Sharon and Nick. Again, now I was so excited when we first heard that grate Soap vet Roger Howarth landed. If you don’t know his work from other series, Roger is a very nice guy, soft-spoken, kind of shy in real life, and plays villains well. Firstly, The young and the restless He revealed that he was playing Sienna’s husband, Mitch. But then came the shocking revelation that he had recast hulking monster Matt Clarke.
He terrorized and traumatized Sharon on and off from the early 1990s until his death in 2001. He did a lot of terrible things to Nick, too. But for now, Matt is living undercover like Mitch. And no one in Los Angeles knows about his sordid and criminal past in Genoa City because Holden Novak (Nathan Owens) has known him for years and years and has no idea.
A long time ago The young and the restless Viewers were clearly surprised to hear Matt Clark’s name, but they weren’t as surprised as Sharon when she bumped into Matt, who lied and said his name was Mitch. He started gaslighting Sharon right away, insisting that his name was Mitch. She’s wrong. He doesn’t know what you’re talking about. Then he walked away and asked the guard to prevent her from entering his club.
Origins of Punk: The Early Days of Matt Clark
So, if you are newer The young and the restless Or you need a refresher because it’s been two decades, here are the important things you need to know quickly about Matt Clark. When they first introduced the character grate, It was 1994 and Eddie Cibrian originated the role. In 2000, Russell Lawrence took over the role for four months and then Rick Hurst took over the role of Matt Clark until his presumed death in 2001. Rick Hurst is another guy who plays bad guys like nobody cares. It’s unbelievable.
So, when Matt first appeared on the scene grate, It was way back when Nick and Sharon were in high school. She dated Matt and then he and Nick quickly became enemies and then competed for her attention because Nick also wanted to be with Sharon. Now, in the end she chooses Nick over Matt, and then the two men get into a terrible physical altercation and Nick gets brutally beaten. Shortly afterwards, Matt rapes Sharon which sends her into this deep depression.
The Young and the Restless: Matt reveals Sharon’s secret as revenge
Matt then began dating Sharon’s best friend, Amy Wilson (Robin Scott/Julian Morris). So, at the high school dance, Nick and Sharon won king and queen. This is what led to Matt being suspended. So, he went to Nick and said that Sharon wasn’t a virgin, which is what Nick thought. Matt also said that Sharon gave birth to a child that she gave up for adoption when she was 16 years old.
And this reference here refers to the birth of Maria and Cassie, by the way. So, initially when Matt told him all this, we had Nick go and confront Sharon. He was angry that she kept these things from him, but hothead Nick eventually got over it and proposed to Sharon.
And then right before her wedding to Nick, we finally see Sharon tell Nick that Matt raped her that day. Nick was angry and went to confront Matt, but Nick found Matt shot and lying in a pool of his own blood. But he survived and then accused Nick of shooting him. Naturally, Matt was lying, but Nick was caught, convicted, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The Young and the Restless: Nick’s acquittal and Matt’s new identity
Well, Victor wasn’t going to allow that. He tracked down Matt’s ex-girlfriend Amy, who was in a mental health facility suffering from PTSD. It turns out that Amy was the one who shot Matt because he also raped her. This guy is a terrible creep. So Nick was acquitted and then Matt fled Genoa City in 1996.
Four years later, it’s the year 2000. Matt is back with a new face. He underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance. In addition to the new face, he changed his name to Carter Mills. So when he first returned using the fake Carter identity, he was initially Russell Lawrence as the new version.
He played the role from July through October of 2000. And then in October, Rick Hurst took over the recast role and played Matt until the character died in 2001. So, just for the sake of clarity, I’m not going to call him Carter. I’ll continue to call him Matt, even though he was using the name Carter at the time.
The Young and the Restless: Matt gets Nick thrown in prison
Okay. So, in 2000, Matt returned to Genoa City and got a job there crimson lights, Which Nick owned at the time with Sharon. Immediately, he started causing problems. So, Matt got this woman he was sleeping with to frame Nick for selling drugs. Nick ended up going to prison. While behind bars, Matt approached Sharon, but she didn’t know he was her high school rapist because he had a fresh face. So Matt drugged Sharon and nearly raped her again. But by then, Nick had broken out of prison and showed up in time to rescue Sharon.
Finally, after a bunch of bad things, the police realized that Carter was actually dead after plastic surgery and they started hunting him. Meanwhile, Sharon was with Matt in a remote cabin and he almost raped Sharon again, but this time Victor intervened and stopped him. Later, Matt’s ex-girlfriend, who suffers from PTSD, drives them down a cliff trying to kill herself and Matt. She survived, but his injuries were very serious. He was in the hospital, lying there dying, still planning until the bitter end. And Matt lied and told Nick that he raped Sharon again. So, Matt pulled out his breathing tube to try to frame Nick for killing him.
The Young and the Restless: Matt’s latest death plot shocks Sharon and Nick
Nick was initially a suspect but was later acquitted. And then Sharon found out she was pregnant. So, because Matt lied and said he raped her, Nick was worried that the creep was the father of her baby. Nick was pressuring Sharon to take a paternity test while she was pregnant. But at that time it was much more dangerous for the fetus. So I refused to do it, Nick was angry and he and Sharon argued and then she tripped and fell, went into early labor and the baby was still a baby. They ran a paternity test after his death and confirmed that Nick was the father.
So this series of events traumatized Sharon and Nick and ruined their relationship. Bottom line, Matt is a horrible human being, a repeat rapist, a criminal, and an all around creep. And Sienna has no idea that she is married to a monster. She doesn’t know Matt Clark’s name, and he wants to keep his wife Sienna in the dark and continue living his fake identity as Mitch.
The Young and the Restless: He died desperate to protect his secret
In a recent interview, Roger Howarth said that Matt has been pretending to be Mitch for a long time, and now he believes that is his true identity, and he would do absolutely anything to protect his dirty secret past. So, I wonder if Noah Newman (Lucas Adams) somehow found out his true identity, and Matt was the one who ran Noah out of the way. We’ll see. But here’s what you need to know. A rapist, creep, liar, sexual predator, and returns to torment Sharon. They keep bringing back these villains from her past. And here it comes again.
