Brett Halsey (born June 20, 1933, in Santa Ana, California), is an American film actor, sometimes credited as Montgomery Ford. He is best known as the original John Abbott on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, a role he held from 1980 to 1982, before being replaced by Jerry Douglas.
From 1961-1962, Halsey starred with Barry Coe and Gary Lockwood in the ABC television series Follow the Sun, a story of two magazine free-lance writers living in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In 1961, Halsey won the Golden Globe award for "New Star of the Year". His Follow the Sun co-star, Barry Coe, had won the same honor in 1960. The award was discontinued in 1983.
Halsey played supporting and co-starring roles in Hollywood, having appeared in such films as Return of the Fly (1959) with Vincent Price. By the early 1960s, he relocated to Italy where he found himself in high demand in a score of adventurous films such as Seven Swords for the King or The Avenger of Venice, being often cast a swashbuckling hero. he also appeared in a few spaghetti westerns and Eurospy films.
In 1954, he married Miss Germany 1952/actress Renate Hoy, who appreared in such films as The Sea Chase with John Wayne. They had two children, son Charles Oliver Hand (a.k.a. Rock Bottom of the notorious L.A. punk band Rock Bottom and the Spys) and daughter Tracy Leigh. They divorced in 1959.
From 1960 to 1962 he was married to Bond-girl Lucianna Paluzzi. They had one son, Christian, and co-starred as a newlywed couple in Return to Peyton Place (1961).
In 1964, Halsey married the popular German actress and singer Heidi Brühl. They had two children, son Clayton Alexander Siegfried and daughter Nicole. They divorced in 1976.
He returned to the United States in the early 1970s and worked in film and television. He made many appearances in such serials as General Hospital and Love is a Many Splendored Thing but also made supporting appearances in higher-profile films such as The Godfather: Part III.
Brett Halsey, of the handsome beefcake variety, came to Hollywood during the James Dean era of delinquents on motorcycles. After a series of bit roles, he more or less came into his own in such forgettable cheapjack productions as Hot Rod Rumble (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Roger Corman's Cry Baby Killer, The (1958) and Speed Crazy (1959). More quality roles came his way with Return of the Fly (1959) opposite Vincent Price (I) and Return to Peyton Place (1961). By the early 60s, however, he could see the writing on the wall as his career was going nowhere. He moved to Europe and settled in comfortably with scores of dubbed spectacles and adventures, then spaghetti westerns a la Clint Eastwood. Managing for well over a decade in this manner, he eventually returned to the US and eeked out a living on 70s and 80s daytime soaps and in scattered filming, often as a high-ranking official. Halsey married and divorced three actresses, including Luciana Paluzzi, a former Bond girl.
