He is portrayed by Australian actor Daniel Goddard, who had auditioned for Brad Snyder on As the World Turns but was recommended for a role on The Young and the Restless instead.

Former head writer Lynn Marie Latham introduced him during the episode airing on January 12, 2007 as an Australian bartender in search of his family.

Though characterized as "mysterious", Cane is "loyal and dedicated", while Goddard described the character as a "typical Australian, working-class kind of guy".

The character has been involved with Amber Moore (Adrienne Frantz), Chloe Mitchell (Elizabeth Hendrickson) and most notably Lily Winters (Christel Khalil), a romance that garnered significant fan attention.

However, the actor was rehired soon after viewers campaigned for his return, revealing that Cane's identical twin brother was in fact the man who died.

[7][8] Goddard describes Cane as a "typical Australian, working-class kind of guy who mined opals, raised goats, then went off for travel and adventure to sort of find himself".

Bell had created the character of Phillip Chancellor III in 1976, and he remained a vital part of the soap opera's storylines until his death onscreen in 1989.

[5] The initial lack of information made portraying Cane difficult since there was an amount of ambiguity over whether he was a good, bad, or mediocre character.

The ambiguity deepened when Goddard read the script revealing that a DNA test performed for Jill and Cane came back negative.

Goddard stated that Rogers being on the soap opera "created a father/son rapport" for the character, which he thought had "a lot of promise" and was a "wonderful dynamic".

[30] Soap Opera Weekly reported another rumor regarding the firing, saying tension between the actor and his co-stars resulted in Goddard's exit.

[32][33][34][35] As part of the campaign, a group of viewers paid for an airplane to fly over CBS Studios with the message: "Y&R Fans Want Daniel Goddard As Cane Ashby".

[12] In January 2007, Cane debuted as a bartender at "Indigo", Neil Winters' (Kristoff St. John) nightclub, remaining in the United States beyond the expiration of his visa, leaving him fearful of being deported.

Thereafter, he became involved with Amber Moore (Adrienne Frantz), who first used him to make Adrian Korbel (Eyal Podell) jealous and later found out Cane was looking for his birth mother.

He had been adopted by a woman named Violet Montgomery and raised by her brother, Langley Ashby, after her death in Canberra, Australia.

Cane shared a kiss with Lily Winters (Christel Khalil) in September 2007, sparking an attraction to Heather Stevens (Vail Bloom).

Cane later discovers that the child, Delia, was not his and was convinced by Lily not to fight for custody but instead resume their relationship; they were later married.

Her uterus was taken out during surgery, but the doctors were able to harvest two of her eggs; they decided to start a family with Mackenzie Browning (Clementine Ford) acting as their surrogate mother.

Cane was then blackmailed by the crime family he turned to in Australia, and embezzled money from Tucker McCall's (Stephen Nichols) company with the help of Sofia Dupre (Julia Pace Mitchell).

Cane then tried to stop their wedding but was shot in the chest by Blake on the church steps; he died afterward, leaving Lily devastated.

After recovering their marriage, Cane and Lily agree to become the new managers of the Genoa City Athletic Club after her brother Devon Hamilton (Bryton James) buys it.

Prior to this, while on a business trip to Tokyo, Cane gets drunk and has sex with a colleague, Juliet Helton (Laur Allen).

Victoria feels forced to settle the suit and fires Cane for costing her company a substantial amount of money.

After a DNA test proves Cane is the father, he is thankful that Lily decides to stay in their marriage but the videographer comes back asking for more money.

Cane, afraid of Lily learning he is responsible for her national commercial being pulled, uses the twin's private high school tuition money to pay him off.

Cane is devastated at the loss of his marriage and after weeks of hoping Lily will return to him, he finally signs the divorce papers.

In the fall of 2019, will pages are discovered that names Cane as the heir to the bulk of Katherine Chancellor's fortune, as opposed to his former brother-in-law Devon.

This week you could not only see but feel Cane's despair as he realized by the real Phillip Chancellor, III coming back to Genoa City, he would be the one losing.

[37] Nelson Branco of TV Guide Canada found the story unrealistic, but praised the addition of Goddard and Cane to the series, saying: "A few eyebrows were raised when The Young and the Restless decided to rewrite history by bringing in Daniel Goddard to play Jill's 'real' son, Phillip Chancellor.

[43] In 2013, another writer from Canyon News, LaDale Anderson, commented that it was difficult for Lily to resist attraction to Tyler Michaelson (Redaric Williams), saying that "trouble in paradise is brewing".