‘THE B*TCH OF DAYTIME’

Emmy-Winning ‘The Young and the Restless’ Star Dies at 85

Soap opera veteran Marla Adams, who starred as the scheming Dina Abbott Mergeron on and off for five decades, has died.

Marla Adams, who won an Emmy Award for her role as Dina Abbott Mergeron on The Young and the Restless has died. She was 85. Matt Kane, director of media and talent for Y&R, told The Hollywood Reporter the actress died Thursday in Los Angeles. She made a name for herself as June, the high school best friend of Natalie Wood’s character, Deanie, in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and joined Y&R in 1982 but left after her three-year contract was up. She returned in 1991, 1996, 2008 and 2017. Her character finally died in 2020 surrounded by her on-screen chiuldren Traci (Beth Maitland), Jack (Peter Bergman) and Ashley (Eileen Davidson), and was welcomed into heaven by her first husband, John Abbott (Jerry Douglas). It was that scene that many believed helped her win her Emmy just eight months later. “I was the bitch of daytime,” she said in a 2016 interview. “I played a good bitch.”