25 Facts About Scott Clifton

Everything You Need to Know About This Talented Actor

Scott Clifton is the first and only actor to play the role of William Spencer III, aka Liam Cooper, on The Bold and the Beautiful since July 19, 2010, for which he won his third Daytime Emmy this year. Clifton previously appeared as Schuyler Joplin on One Life to Live, and Dillon Quartermaine on General Hospital. In addition, Clifton has guest starred on such primetime television hits such as Judging Amy, Undressed, and Roswell. His film credits include The Death Strip, Arizona Summer, and Terminal Error. Clifton also lent his voice to the IO Interactive video game, Hitman V. An accomplished singer and songwriter, Clifton self-produced and self-released albums entitled Untitled, Unbeautiful and So Much for the Night Life.

Here are 25 facts about the talented actor.

01
of 25

Marital Status

Scott Clifton

Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

Clifton married his fiancée Nicole Lampson on Saturday, October 20, 2012. Their wedding was attended by his The Bold and the Beautiful co-stars John McCook, Don Diamont, Ronn Moss, Adam Gregory, Kimberly Matula, and Jacqueline MacInnes Wood.

02
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Birthday

October 31, 1984

03
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Nickname

The closest thing to a nickname I ever had was Scooter. When I was going to acting classes when I was younger, everybody called me Scooter because Scooter was the typical other guy's name, so Scott = Scooter. It stuck.

04
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Daytime Roles

Dillon Quartermaine on General Hospital -- April 17, 2003 - 2007
Schuyler Joplin on One Life to Live -- January 9, 2009 - April 9, 2010
Liam Cooper on The Bold and the Beautiful -- July 19, 2010, to Present

05
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What Were You Like in High School?

"High school was the worst time of my life and I spent every moment of it trying to figure out how to get out, and I did, I succeeded. I took my GED and by mid-11th grade, I think, I dropped out of high school. Dropped out with a diploma, but I still am a high school dropout, technically. I was very awkward. I had no social skills -- I still don’t, as you may have noticed.

A little part of it was, I grew up in a very secular, non-religious/philosophical household, and, just before high school, my family moved to this very evangelical Christian community, so I was a little bit on the outside in that sense. I sort of became like a practice dummy for apologetic arguments and everybody was constantly trying to get me to go to church with them, and I did, I did, but high school was a very, very uncomfortable time for me.

I didn’t do well in school. I didn’t get good grades. I was a bright kid, but I hated all the assignments. I hated doing them, I didn’t see the point of them. I knew that I wasn’t going to do anything academic with my life ever, which is ironic because, after high school, I started really educating myself and reading things that I wanted to learn about. But yeah, I got picked on a lot and, I think, I said stupid things to people all the time."

06
of 25

How Have You Improved With Age?

"I don’t know if age is what improved me. I think once I got released out into the real world ... you know, let’s be honest, the way that high school works is not the way the real world works, and I’m much better acclimated to the real world than I was to high school. Some people just do high school fantastically; my wife is one of those people. She was the shit in high school. She was so popular and she somehow pulled that off while being nice to people at the same time and she misses high school.

I go, "How do you do it?" We have this ongoing argument where I tell her, "You would have been a bitch to me in high school," and she’s like, "No I wouldn’t, I was nice to everyone." I'm like, "No, that’s the thing about the cool kids in high school, other cool kids think the cool kids are nice to everyone. It’s the nerds who have that bird’s eye view and realize that the cool kids are not nice to everyone, they’re just nice to other cool kids."

07
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Favorite Books

"I don’t read a lot of fiction, hardly ever. The last fiction book I read because I was pressured into it, and I enjoyed it, was The Hunger Games. But really, I read a lot of philosophy books. I think my favorite book is probably either The End of Faith or The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris. The latter is probably more accurate. It’s an argument that science is capable of answering moral questions, as well, not just descriptive questions about the way that the world works."

08
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Favorite Movies

"My favorite movie is a movie that not a lot of people know about. It was written by David Mamet, stars Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin and it’s called The Edge. It’s about a billionaire whose plane crashes in Alaska or Canada, they don’t really say. He’s this sort of bookworm, very, very knowledgeable, but theoretical knowledge. So the billionaire crashes this plane with two other guys and they have to survive in the woods. To me, it’s such a man vs. nature, man vs. himself, man vs. other. It’s like every kind of conflict done so well and the writing is so good."

09
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Favorite Primetime TV Show

"This is probably not going to be shocking, but I really do think that Breaking Bad is probably the greatest television show that’s ever been made. Just in terms of, everything, it’s flawless. I can’t think of one flaw with Breaking Bad. Every other show, even shows that I really, really love, they're not perfect. Breaking Bad, to me, is a perfect show."

10
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Favorite Actor/Actress

"I have like a flavor-of-the-month thing with actors. I really, really love Tom Hardy lately. I think that he’s incredible, I also think that Mary Louise Parker from Weeds, she played Nancy, is great."

11
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Favorite Sport

"I never grew up with sports. Sports is so hard for me to wrap my head around. I never played any sports, I don’t watch any sports, I hardly know the rules to any sporting event. My wife is a big Lakers fan and so the most I’ve ever done is watch the NBA finals, just to support my in-laws. But really, I’m borderline mentally damaged when it comes to sports."

12
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Favorite Workout

"I’ve always struggled with being in and out of shape and I’ve gone through different phases where I’ve tried different things, but for the most part, once I figured out that I just have to not consume more calories than I’m burning, {laughing}everything kind of just started working out. I try to run and all, try to do push-ups and stuff like that, but really it’s about me, my biggest thing is I love to eat late at night, I love midnight snacks and that’s the biggest issue. So if I could, when I’m good about that, I’m in good shape."

13
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Hometown

"Sherman Oaks [California] is where I grew up. it’s the center of the universe to me. Everywhere else is just north, south, east, or west of Sherman Oaks."

14
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What Bugs You About Los Angeles?

"Traffic, you know, that’s never fun, but for all the things I might hate about L.A. here and there, L.A. is home to me. The people are different in L.A. There was a time when I lived in New York and that was a bit of a shock because everybody in New York was so honest, instead of so polite and backstabbing. But you learn to love the backstabbing politeness in L.A. (laughing)"

15
of 25

Hobbies

"I don’t know if music is a hobby in so far as it’s not something that I regularly do. I really haven’t done anything music-wise in a few years. Also, while I love to write songs, having to sing them or perform them in any capacity just terrifies me. If anything, my biggest hobby is I go online and I make YouTube videos. I debate philosophy and religion and stuff like that with my friends. That’s the thing that I spend most of my free time on, aside from the usual stuff that everybody does like watch TV or go to the movies."

16
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What Do You Like About Playing Liam?

"I really like that Liam is a very average kind of guy; he’s very flawed and very human. I think that playing Liam is when I’ve gotten to be the most natural in the way that I act and the way that I say the lines. I think the way that Liam talks is very conversational and the way that Liam thinks is very damaged, just like a lot of guys his age are. I think that he doesn’t really know what he wants. Liam is the most human character I’ve ever played. Not human like somebody who has a sexual addiction, or does drugs, but human in a way that even the most mentally healthy people are. They still have those very subtle flaws and, I think, that’s what I like most about Liam."

17
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What Do You Consider Your First Acting Break?

"My first acting break, not my first job, but what gave me the career that I have is when I got put in the role of Dillon on General Hospital. That was 100 percent because of Mark Teschner; I had auditioned for General Hospital a few times and the last time that I auditioned for him, he shook my hand, he pulled me in really close to him, and he said, "I’m going to get you on this damn show if it kills me," which was really nice. Then he did the next time I auditioned, so every job I’ve gotten since then was because I got that first one."

18
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Where Do You Keep Your Emmys?

"We have a bookshelf in our guest bedroom and I keep them both on that shelf."

19
of 25

Do You Have a Favorite Place You Like to Vacation?

"Part of the fun of traveling is seeing new places, right? But I always loved camping. I go camping as much as I can and usually I do it in the High Sierras. It’s just so beautiful up there. That’s the most consistent get-out-of-town thing that I do."

20
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Pets

"When I was living in New York, my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, I used to call her and go, "I really want to get a dog." She would say -- it was a long distance relationship -- and she would say, "Who are you kidding? You’re never going to be responsible enough to walk a dog three times a day, take it down from the tiny apartment you live in, and walk it."

So one day, we were walking on the streets of New York and there was a pet adoption, a cat adoption, out on the curb. She pointed to the cats and said, "Look, that’s the closest thing to a dog you’re ever going to get. You want a dog? There’s your dog."

I had never been a cat person before that, I didn’t know the first thing about cats. I mean, they think so differently than dogs. It’s just such an entirely different relationship, the one you have with a cat than the one you have with dogs. So now I have two cats and they’re sweethearts – they’re a pain in the ass, but they’re sweethearts."

21
of 25

Favorite Article of Clothing

"Oh wow! I have this one flannel shirt -- the people from, they must be sick of me, I wear it like almost every day when I go into work. I wear it over a T-shirt, or whatever, but I have this one blue flannel shirt that fits me just right. It’s hung in there for a while and I love that shirt."

22
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Favorite Food

"I really love Chipotle and any kind of sushi. Those are always treats. Totally different, opposite ends of the culinary spectrum, I know, but yeah."

23
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What Makes You Smile?

"Like on Instagram, pretty much like 90 percent of the people I follow are complete strangers that have pets. I really like looking at other people’s pets. Any time I see a dog anywhere, doing anything, it makes me smile. Even though I’m now technically in the cat-person club, I just love dogs, every dog, I can’t look at a dog without grinning."

24
of 25

Do You Have a Favorite Quote?

"I have so many. That’s really tough. My favorite one is too long for me to even actually remember it because it's like a little paragraph, but it’s the most profound paragraph. Instead I’ll give you this one: “Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” And that’s Shakespeare."

25
of 25

Worst Job?

"You know how sometimes you’ll be walking around at a theme park, like Magic Mountain, and you’ll see a really nice car that’s roped off, and there’s a counter where you can fill out a raffle thing and you put it in the box? And they draw a raffle for this car? The thing about that is it’s a lie because what they do with it is, you fill out that form and they sell it to people who will solicit you.

So what I would do is, I would stand next to this car and I would try to con people into filling out -- they do give the car away to somebody, but even when you win the car, you have to attend a seminar on timeshares in order to get the car. And they try to get you to buy, so it’s all marketing.

So that was a dark period in my life. Every day there were always different people coming in, and I worked pretty much alone, so I would try an accent and try to do different characters with all the strangers that I met."