Everyone Who's Ever Played Adam On The Young And The Restless
Adam Newman is either loved or reviled on "The Young and the Restless," both by his family and the audience. While his father, Victor Newman (Eric Braeden), has tried to show him how much he cares (except for when he's furious at him), he has never gotten a warm welcome from his half-siblings.
Plus, he's done some pretty terrible things that do not elevate him to hero status. Other fans believe he is just misunderstood and needs the love of his family and a good woman to bring out his better angels.
The character was born on the soap back in 1995 (via Soap Central) to Genoa City mogul Victor Newman and his former wife, blind Kansas farm girl Hope Adams (Signy Coleman). Originally called Victor Jr., he eventually changed his name to Adam to honor his mother's last name after she passed away (via Soaps In Depth). He didn't even know that the man he thought of as Uncle Victor throughout his childhood was really his father until he was a young adult.
Who are the actors who have brought Adam to life throughout his history on the CBS soap?
The children who played Adam Newman
Although little Victor (now known as Adam) was a known entity to fans, he was not seen much while he was growing up as his mother insisted on raising him away from the Wisconsin Newmans and in her Kansas home.
Victor would occasionally visit, and, during those visits, Hayden Tank (pictured above) would play Adam after several babies were used in the role when he was first born. According to Soap Central, Tank played Adam from 1996 to 1998 as well as for one episode in 2002.
During and after his stints as Adam, Tank has several other acting credits to his name, including roles on "Gilmore Girls," "Scrubs," "CSI: Miami," and "Six Feet Under." His last credit, per IMDb, was in 2006.
In 2020, grown Adam was in a storyline in which he flashed back to newly created scenes of his younger self defending his mother and pushing a man who was attacking her to his death (via TV Insider). In those scenes, Adam was played by Dane West, a young actor who appeared on 13 "The Young and the Restless" episodes and has also had roles on "City on a Hill" and "The Blacklist," according to IMDb.
Chris Engen played the first adult Adam
In 2008, the boy who used to go by the name Victor was now a full-grown man played by actor Chris Engen. Adam arrived in Genoa City with a chip on his shoulder after his mother told him that he was really Victor Newman's son just before she died.
At this point, Victor wanted to get to know the young man, so he asked him to move from Kansas to Genoa City and take a job at the family company, Newman Enterprises. This is when the family learned just how sneaky and underhanded Adam can be as he immediately didn't get along with Victor's other grown children and just wanted power (via Soaps In Depth).
Engen, whose other credits include "CSI: New York," "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," and "Saints and Sinner" (via IMDb), opted to leave the soap in 2009 after only a year in the role. His last acting credit was just a few years later, in 2012.
Michael Muhney was a controversial Adam
After Chris Engen left "The Young and the Restless," the role of Adam was recast with actor Michael Muhney, who played the part from 2009 to 2014 (via IMDb), turning the character into a practical monster who kidnapped babies — namely Faith Newman — but still felt bad for his deeds.
Muhney's Adam also fell in love with Sharon Collins, the mother of the baby he kidnapped.
In 2013, one of Adam's worst deeds was a hit-and-run accident in which Chloe Mitchell (Elizabeth Hendrickson) and Billy Abbott's (then played by Billy Miller) daughter, Delia Abbott (Sophie Pollono), was killed (via Soaps In Depth). Adam knew he had hit something but didn't realize it was a person, much less a child, so he kept driving, and Billy and Chloe both went off the deep end, determined to make Adam pay for killing their little girl.
In 2014, Muhney was abruptly let go from the soap amid quite a scandal. TMZ reported that Muhney was fired for inappropriately touching co-star Hunter King (Summer Newman). The married Muhney was accused of also being problematic on the set.
According to Soaps.com, producer and head writer Maria Arena Bell made the following statement at the time: "I am a fan of Michael Muhney the actor — not the person. Frankly he should have been let go months before because of his behind the scenes actions. It's still a loss for the fans."
After Muhney's firing, the character of Adam was allegedly killed in a car crash — but allegedly is the keyword here.
Justin Hartley brings out a new side of Adam
Later in 2014, Justin Hartley, whom soap fans knew as Fox Crane on the NBC daytime drama "Passions" and who also had a role on "Smallville," returned to daytime to play the next iteration of Adam Newman on "The Young and the Restless" (via IMDb).
After the crash, Adam had plastic surgery to make him look like the other man who died in the accident, Gabriel Bingham. He returned to Genoa City pretending to be Gabe, but, eventually, the truth came out, and Adam resumed his relationship with Chelsea Lawson (Melissa Claire Egan), according to Soaps In Depth. Meanwhile, Chloe and Billy continued to try to find justice for their dead daughter.
Hartley chose to leave "The Young and the Restless" in 2016 when he was offered a role on the hit NBC series "This Is Us," a show that turned him into a bonafide star. That's when Adam was presumed dead again in a cabin explosion (via Soaps In Depth). Of course, he was presumed dead and not actually dead.
Mark Grossman is the latest actor to play Adam
In 2019, "The Young and the Restless" was ready to recast Adam once again. This time, the soap went with daytime newcomer Mark Grossman (via Soap Opera Digest), who has a decidedly younger look than the previous two actors to play Adam.
It turned out that the character survived the explosion and somehow made it to Las Vegas, where he lived with amnesia while calling himself Spyder. When Victor found his son, he enlisted Sharon to coax Adam to return to Genoa City.
Eventually, Adam got his memory back and decided he wanted Sharon. When she eventually rejected him, he reunited with Chelsea Lawson and their son, Connor (Judah Mackey). Currently, Adam is involved with town outcast Sally Spectra (Courtney Hope), according to Soaps In Depth.
Off-screen, Grossman and Sharon Case, who plays Sharon on "The Young and the Restless," are involved in their own romantic relationship after meeting on the soap.