Brett Halsey facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Brett Halsey
Halsey in March 2011
Born	Charles Oliver Hand (1933-06-20) June 20, 1933 (age 92) Santa Ana, California, U.S.
Other names	Montgomery Ford
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1953–Present
Spouse(s)	Renate Hoy ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1959)​ Luciana Paluzzi ​ ​ (m. 1960; div. 1962)​ Heidi Brühl ​ ​ (m. 1964; div. 1976)​ Victoria Korda
Children	5
Relatives	William Halsey Jr. (great-uncle) Alexander Korda (grandfather-in-law)

Brett Halsey (born Charles Oliver Hand on June 20, 1933) is an American actor. He has appeared in many movies and TV shows. Sometimes, he was known by another name, Montgomery Ford. He was also the first actor to play the character John Abbott on the TV show The Young and the Restless.

Brett Halsey is related to a famous person from history! He is the great-nephew of Admiral William F. Halsey Jr., who was also known as Bull Halsey. Admiral Halsey was a commander in the United States Navy during World War II. The movie studio Universal Pictures chose Brett Halsey's acting name because of this famous admiral.

Becoming an Actor

Brett Halsey was interested in acting from a young age. When he was a teenager, he worked as a page at CBS Television studios. A page helps out around the studio. There, he met famous entertainers Jack Benny and his wife, Mary Livingstone. They introduced him to William Goetz, who was in charge of Universal Pictures. Goetz helped Brett get into an acting school for the studio.

Before becoming a full-time actor, Halsey served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. While in the Navy, he worked as a disc jockey, playing music for others.

Acting Career

Brett Halsey started his acting career in the 1950s. He appeared in many TV shows and movies.

Early TV Roles

In 1956, he played a Cheyenne Indian named Swift Otter in two episodes of the Western TV series Brave Eagle. That same year, he was in an episode of the popular Western show Gunsmoke.

In 1958, Halsey appeared several times in the Western series Mackenzie's Raiders. He also had a main role in an episode of Highway Patrol, where he played a sailor who saved lives. He was also in Harbor Command, a show about the United States Coast Guard. He even appeared in an episode of the detective show Perry Mason and starred in the movie The Cry Baby Killer. In 1959, he was in the science-fiction film The Atomic Submarine.

Movies and International Work

Halsey took on many supporting roles in Hollywood films. Some of these movies include Return of the Fly (1959), Jet Over the Atlantic (1959), and The Best of Everything (1959).

In the early 1960s, he moved to Italy. There, he became very popular in adventure films. He often played a hero who used swords, like in Seven Swords for the King (1962) and The Avenger of Venice (1964). He also appeared in Westerns made in Italy, known as Spaghetti Westerns, and spy movies. For some of these films, he used the name Montgomery Ford.

Return to the U.S.

In the early 1970s, Brett Halsey came back to the United States. He continued to work in both movies and television. He appeared in popular TV shows like General Hospital and Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. He also had roles in movies such as Where Does It Hurt? (1972) with Peter Sellers.

Later in his career, he had roles in bigger films like Ratboy (1986) and The Godfather Part III (1990). He also worked with Italian horror director Lucio Fulci on several films. He appeared in an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as a space liner captain and in the detective show Columbo. His later roles include films like Beyond Justice (1992) and Expect No Mercy (1995).

Personal Life

Brett Halsey has been married four times and has five children.

In 1954, he married Renate Hoy, an actress who had won the Miss Germany contest. They had two children, Charles Oliver Hand, Jr. and Tracy Leigh. They divorced in 1959.

From 1960 to 1962, Halsey was married to Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi. They had one son, Christian. They even acted together as a newlywed couple in the 1961 film Return to Peyton Place.

In 1964, Halsey married the German actress and singer Heidi Brühl. They had two children, Clayton Alexander Siegfried and Nicole. They divorced in 1976.

Later in the 1990s, Halsey moved to San José, Costa Rica, where he taught film acting. As of 2025, he lives in Laguna Hills with his fourth wife, Victoria (whose maiden name was Korda). Victoria is the granddaughter of the famous film producer Alexander Korda. Brett Halsey continues to write and sometimes appears in films.

Filmography

Brett Halsey has been in many films throughout his career. Here are some of them:

Television

He has also appeared in many television shows: