Biography

March 6, 1927 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

April 29, 2005 · Los Angeles, California, USA (complications from Alzheimer's disease)

William Joseph Bell

Father of Lauralee Bell, William J. Bell Jr., and Bradley Bell.

Said to have contributed to the writing of some 15,000 daytime TV soap-opera episodes.

Father-in-law of Maria Arena Bell and Colleen Bell.

Began his tv career as a comedy writer at WBBM-TV in Chicago.

On writing for daytime: You have to have darn good characters that people like, admire, can relate to or hate; but feel some kind of emotion about and you have to have interesting stories with a heartbeat to them stories [viewers] can relate too, escape with, and learn from in terms of social issues. I'm a strong believer that we're here to do more than entertain, that we're here to impact on the lives of our audience.

On The Young and the Restless (1973): I absolutely loved the Fosters and the Brooks. It took us three-and-a half years on the air to go to first place. That was exciting, because we were doing different kinds of stories with young people as a focus.

In 1992: I imagine the day will come when The Bold and the Beautiful (1987) becomes an hour show and I'd like to create another soap. It would be fun to do a play, but I don't know if I'll ever get around to it. Scripting daytime is very consuming. But it's exciting to see what you write come to life every day.

On Irna Phillips: I used to come home for lunch in grammar school and listen to [error] on the radio. After the title the announcer would say 'created by Irna Phillips'. Her name was ingrained in my mind. I met Irna in 1954 and I asked I could try writing for her. She let me write a week of sample scripts.

My wife, Lee Phillip Bell had her own television show in Chicago when I started doing serials. We both knew there were problems with security in the television business, so we promised each other that if one of us got fired, the other would quit his job and we'd go live in Europe for a year. Neither one of us were ever fired, and we've been working ever since.