Michael Damian
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Michael Damian (born Michael Damian Weir on April 26, 1962 in San Diego, California) is an American singer and actor, most famous for his role as Danny Romalotti on The Young and the Restless. He played the role from 1981 to 1998.
Damian is also known for a singing career in the 1980s, which was also incorporated into his storyline on The Young and the Restless. His cover version of David Essex's Rock On reached #1 on the Billboard charts, and seven other singles reached Top 40 status. He also won the BMI songwriting award for his hit single "Was It Nothing At All." Some of his other songs include "Cover Of Love," "What A Price To Pay," "There Will Never Be Another You," "Reach Out To Me," "Time Of The Season," "Never Walk Away," "Why Not Me" and "Shadows In The Night." He is also known in the music world for his original holiday song, "Christmas Time Without You."
In 1993 Damian landed the starring role in the Broadway production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." The production became the highest-grossing revival in Los Angeles history, before hitting Broadway -- where it continued to break box office records as well as earning Damian a Grammy nomination.
In 1998, he was abruptly dropped from the show and was reportedly on bad terms with the casting department of Y&R for years.
In 2001, Damian co-wrote, produced and directed the Action/Spy TV series "Red Eye" for TF1 in Paris.
Damian was lured back to "Y&R" for one episode in September 2002, which led the soap press to speculate about a possible return. He had always been a fan favorite, and the speculation (which had always been more or less present in magazines since his 1998 departure) that he was to be re-signed grew more rampant with his one-off appearance.
In 2003 Damian and family released a holiday album called "The Christmas Album." The album featured the newly re-recorded version of Damian's song 'Christmas Time Without You' along with other holiday favorites and a couple of original songs. Damian was joined on the album by members of his family, including his mother (Maria Weir), father (Larry Weir), wife (Janeen Damian), brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews.
He finally returned to The Young and the Restless in late 2003, but was dropped to recurring status and was eventually let go entirely, due to the lack of story for the character.
In 2004, Jason Star recorded a tribute to Damian, with an updated version of Michael Damian's most popular song, "Rock On."
Lately, Damian has been more involved with film projects. Michael's feature film, "Hot Tamale" which he wrote and directed, made its debut at the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 23, 2006. "Hot Tamale" featured Randy Spelling, Jason Priestly and Carmen Electra. The DVD was released August 29, 2006
Michael and his wife, Janeen, began principle photography on their new feature film,"Moondance Alexander," on June 19, 2006
