Who is Matt Clark on Young and Restless — Everything You Need to Know
Matt Clark went by two names on Young and Restless and also had two different faces, so it’s understandable if some viewers might need some things cleared up. And newer viewers might not even know who he or Carter Mills was! Well, that’s where we come in. The character was introduced in May 1994 and was played by Eddie Cibrian until 1996. Matt returned to Y&R in 2000 played by Russell Lawrence for just a few months before Rick Hearst took over in October. Now calling himself Carter Mills, the villain only lasted until November 2001 before dying a dramatic death — one that was reversed in October 2025 when Roger Howarth assumed the role. The third time around, he had created yet another identity, that of Mitch Bacall.
Back in 1994, high school senior Matt Clark dated Sharon Collins and was rivals with Nicholas Newman, who eventually won Sharon’s heart. A fight between the young men left Nick badly beaten, and shortly after, Matt raped Sharon. He later dated Sharon’s best friend, Amy Wilson. When Nick and Sharon were named king and queen of a school dance, a bitter Matt exposed the truth that Sharon was not a virgin and had given up a baby for adoption when she was 16!
Nick was stunned, but ultimately forgave Sharon and they were engaged to be married. Before the wedding, Sharon finally confessed that Matt had raped her and Nick went to confront the villain only to find him lying in a pool of blood having been shot! Matt survived and claimed Nick had shot him, leading to Nick being sentenced to 15 years in prison. But Nick’s father, Victor Newman, tracked down Amy in a mental institution suffering from PTSD and discovered she had shot Matt after he’d raped her. Nick was acquitted and Matt skipped town in 1996.

In 2000, Matt returned to Genoa City under a new name, Carter Mills, and with a new face, thanks to plastic surgery. He got a job working for Nick and Sharon at the coffee house and used Tricia Dennison to frame Nick for selling drugs. While Nick was in prison temporarily, Sharon grew close to Carter, and he nearly succeeded in drugging and raping her, but Nick came home just in time to thwart his evil scheme. Paul Williams began investigating Matt and suspected he may have changed his appearance. Carter lured Sharon to a cabin where he again tried to rape her but was again interrupted, this time by Victor. Tricia tried to kill herself and Carter by crashing her car, but she survived.
Carter’s injuries were more serious, and he pulled out his own breathing tube at the hospital, killing himself and framing Nick. While Nick was ultimately found not guilty of Matt’s murder, the villain’s lie that he’d raped Sharon again led to Nick demanding a paternity test when she became pregnant. When Sharon gave birth prematurely, the baby was stillborn and the paternity test proved the child had been Nick’s all along.

In late 2025, it turned out that reports of Matt’s death had been greatly exaggerated, as the death of so many soap villains had been before him. He had assumed a new identity, Mitch Bacall, and had a wife, Sienna, with whom he lived in Los Angeles. Sharon took one look at him and gasped: “Matt Clark?!” But the story of his return has only begun to unfold….
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