Doug Davidson celebrates 40 years at Y&R

The Young and the Restless' Doug Davidson (Paul Williams) has achieved quite a milestone moment: he just marked an impressive forty years in Genoa City.

Social media has been blowing up this week with tweet after tweet detailing some of the greatest moments in Doug Davidson's history at The Young and the Restless -- and for good reason: the actor is celebrating 40 years of playing his Genoa City alter ego, detective Paul Williams.

That means that Y&R fans have watched the California native solve crime after nefarious GC crime for the past four decades, not to mention all the other wonderful moments he's been involved in over the years. Some of the most memorable storylines fans and Davidson's costars have been posting about include Christine (Lauralee Bell) and Paul's romance and recent Chancellor Park wedding, the time Paul unwittingly became a centerfold model after Lauren (Tracey E. Bregman) submitted a naked snapshot of the detective, his romance with Eva Longoria's Isabella, and many more.

"Happy 40yrs at #YR45 Doug!" Bell wrote on Twitter. "You make the show better, you make hard scenes easy but just listening to you, you are one of my closest friends & should be so proud of all your accomplishments!"

"You're the funniest man I know, you have the biggest heart I know, and I just wish you everything, everything wonderful," said Bregman in a video post added to the social media platform.

"Forty years! Incredible," wrote Jason Thompson (Billy Abbott). "The list of people who can say this can't be very long. You have earned it man. Good on you."

"When u really think about it... it is a phenomenal accomplishment to play a role on a network TV show for 40 yrs!" wrote Daniel Goddard (Cane Ashby). "To put it into perspective if u tallied up how long #Mash #Cheers #Friends & #Seinfeld where on TV... that's how long."

Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) also took to Twitter with a video celebrating his long-term costar. And it came with a humorous twist.

"What some of you may not know is that Dougie Davidson is one of the most serious guys I've ever worked with. He is very hard to move to laughter," he says. "Apparently, they found him studying, I think, to become a Buddhist monk in the far reaches of Nepal or Bhutan -- I forget where it was. They found him, and they asked him if he wanted to perhaps become an actor. So, he has graced us with his presence for forty years -- a year longer than I've been here. So, Dougie Davidson is one of the nicest guys to work with. The only difficulty is that he makes you laugh, every line, look in his eyes, you know he's about to burst into laughter, which makes it very difficult to work with him. Anyway, one of the great guys around. He's a good friend of mine, and we love him around here. Alright, so 40 years Dougie Davidson. He's so wealthy, he doesn't even know what to do with his money. He just has houses all along the Pacific coast. That's why he travels so far from, I don't know where he lives, somewhere North of here. And he's driven. Or he's flown in by helicopter. He's very wealthy."

"Hey Dad!" wrote Steve Burton (ex-Dylan McAvoy). "Wanted to say congrats on forty years! Incredible. Thank you for your passion, hard work and dedication. It was such a pleasure to get to work with you. I'll always cherish it..I miss it. Have a great day. Love ya."

In response to those posts and so many more from supportive costars, Davidson sent out a heartfelt thank you.

"Seriously, I don't know how to thank you all. I am so blessed to have so much love showered upon me," he wrote. "I thank you all for your compassion. God bless you all.

Would you like to leave a congratulatory message for Davidson? What are some of your favorite Paul Williams moments from the past 40 years? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.