William Joseph Bell was born on the 6th March 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, USA and was a screenwriter and television producer, probably best recognized for creating such TV soap-operas as “Another World”, “The Bold And The Beautiful”, and “The Young And The Restless”, among others. His career was active from 1956 to 2005, when he passed away.
So, have you ever wondered how rich William J. Bell was? According to authoritative sources, it was estimated that the total size of William’s net worth was over $30 million at the time of his death, accumulated largely through his successful involvement in the entertainment industry.
William J. Bell Net Worth $30 Million
Information about William J. Bell’s early life is unknown in the media, except that he studied at the catholic DePaul University in Chicago.
Speaking about his career, it began when he was hired as a comedy writer by WBBM-TV in Chicago. In 1952, he began writing scripts for the TV series “Guiding Light”, which was aired from 1956 to 1957, and really marked the beginning of his net worth. When the filming was ended, William moved his focus to another TV series entitled “Another World” (1964-1985), writing all 343 episodes, along with Irna Phillips. In 1965, he co-created the TV series “Our Private World”, and in the following year wrote an episode for its spin-off series entitled “As The World Turns”.
In 1966, William was hired as a head writer of the TV soap opera series “Days Of Our Lives”, collaborating with other creators – Irna Phillips, Allan Chase, Ted Corday. Four years later, he decided to leave the project in order to create his own TV series, but was sued by the producers, so he worked for them until 1975, meantime adding a considerable amount to his net worth.
Nevertheless, William did not quit on creating his own show for the CBS channel, so alongside his wife, he wrote a script for “The Young And The Restless”, for which he was also the executive producer and which lasted from 1973 to 1998. The show reached enormous popularity, and became one of the longest in soap opera history, so increasing his net worth by a large margin. Parallel with this project, he began to work on a new TV series for the CBS Daytime channel, which was entitled “The Bold And The Beautiful” (1987-1993). This TV series was also produced by him, became successful and added further to his wealth.
Thanks to his accomplishments in the entertainment industry, William won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 19th annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 1992. He also had more than 30 nominations for Daytime Emmy Awards, and he won ten.
Regarding to his personal life, William J. Bell was married to host Lee Phillip Bell from 1954 until his death. They had three children together – Bradley, Bill Jr., and Lauralee – all of whom are involved in the entertainment industry. He died from complications associated with Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 78, on the 29th April 2005 in Los Angeles, California.
