Over 40 years ago, millions of kids ran home from school every day to catch the adventures of vampire Barnabas Collins and his family of werewolves, witches and other creatures. Dark Shadows remains one of the most popular cult TV shows of all time. Barnabas & Company tells the tale of the marvelous actors and actresses who came together in a tiny studio in New York City to make magic. Through the performers' own words, read about the paths that led them to the fictional haunted hamlet of Collinsport, Maine and beyond. Learn about the show and the actors that inspired the 2012 Tim Burton-Johnny Depp major motion picture Dark Shadows. Included are updated chapters on Jonathan Frid, Kate Jackson, David Selby and interviews with Humbert Allen Astredo, Betsy Durkin, Robert Rodan, Jerry Lacy, Lara Parker, Denise Nickerson, Conard Fowkes, Addison Powell, Christopher Pennock and more!

Barnabas & Company

THE CAST OF THE TV CLASSIC Dark ShadowsBy Craig Hamrick R.J. Jamison

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Craig Hamrick and R.J. Jamison
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-1034-6

Contents

Foreword by Joe Salvatore........................................xiiiIntroduction.....................................................xvPart I The History of Dark Shadows...............................1Part II The Original DS Company..................................19The Core Cast....................................................21Humbert Allen Astredo............................................22Nancy Barrett....................................................32Joan Bennett.....................................................41Christopher Bernau...............................................54Clarice Blackburn................................................61Donald Briscoe...................................................68Kathleen Cody....................................................74Terrayne Crawford................................................79Joel Crothers....................................................83Thayer David.....................................................93Roger Davis......................................................108Betsy Durkin.....................................................117Louis Edmonds....................................................128David Ford.......................................................140Conard Fowkes....................................................146Jonathan Frid....................................................154Anthony George...................................................173Robert Gerringer.................................................181Grayson Hall.....................................................186David Henesy.....................................................205Kate Jackson.....................................................209John Karlen......................................................219Jerry Lacy.......................................................230Donna McKechnie..................................................241Diana Millay.....................................................251Alexandra Moltke.................................................257Denise Nickerson.................................................267Lara Parker......................................................277Dennis Patrick...................................................287Christopher Pennock..............................................296Addison Powell...................................................300Keith Prentice...................................................309Lisa Richards....................................................313TP1[Robert Rodan]TP1.............................................317Mitch Ryan.......................................................325Kathryn Leigh Scott..............................................332David Selby......................................................342Sharon Smyth.....................................................356James Storm......................................................358Michael Stroka...................................................363Peter Turgeon....................................................367Virginia Vestoff.................................................373Marie Wallace....................................................378Donna Wandrey....................................................387Supporting Actors and Day Players................................391Part III Dark Shadows Photo Gallery..............................451Part IV Dark Shadows Reborn......................................467Part V Cast Trivia...............................................481Why Dark Shadows by Craig Hamrick................................520Afterword by Stuart Manning......................................525Appendix #1: Original Series Cast List...........................529Appendix #2: Additional Cast Lists...............................543Appendix #3: DS Related Websites & Addresses.....................547Appendix #4: Selected Bibliography...............................549About the Authors................................................551

Chapter One

The History of Dark Shadows

"Dark Shadows has remained popular because of a unique combination of story and chemistry among actors. I think that's the only valid explanation after all these years. It's just some sort of divine combination." —Kathryn Leigh Scott

In 1965, a young TV executive named Dan Curtis had a nightmare that changed his life—and altered the destinies of countless others. Curtis was an Emmy -winning producer of CBS Golf Classics, and he was more than a little bored in that job. One night he dreamt of a mysterious young woman on a train.

"I saw a girl with long, dark hair," he told 16 magazine in March 1970. "She was about 19, and she was on a train that stopped in the dark, isolated town. She got off the train and started walking and walking. Finally, she came to a huge, forbidding house. She turned and slowly walked up the long path towards the house. At the door, she lifted a huge brass knocker and gently tapped it three times. I heard a dog howl, and then—just as the door creaked open—I woke up!"

The next morning at the breakfast table, the producer told his wife, Norma, about his eerie dream. She thought it sounded like a great plot for a new TV show. Soon Dan pitched it to ABC, and network officials agreed with Norma.

Curtis hired Art Wallace to develop a story from the fragment he'd dreamed, the show's original working structure entitled Shadows on the Wall. Robert Costello joined as Line Producer, Curtis' title was Creator and Executive Producer, and Lela Swift, one of the few female directors in the industry, agreed to take the helm of the new soap opera. Robert Cobert composed atmospheric theme music, and Sy Tomashoff set out to design Collinwood, the dreary mansion where the action would take place. With his dream team in place, Curtis had to find the people who would populate the town of Collinsport.

Alexandra Moltke, a 19-year-old actress with a handful of stage credits and an aristocratic lineage, was cast as Victoria Winters, the orphaned governess who finds herself working for the Collins family and searching for clues about her mysterious past. Movie star Joan Bennett was tapped to play Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Victoria's stern employer. Elizabeth's arrogant, hard-drinking brother, Roger, was played by Louis Edmonds, a Louisiana native who had spent the previous twenty years acting on and Off-Broadway in New York. Stage actress Nancy Barrett was cast as Elizabeth's daughter, Carolyn, and child actor David Henesy played Victoria's charge, Roger's son, David Collins.

The first episode, beginning with Victoria on Curtis' dreamed-about train, was taped June 13, 1966, and it aired two weeks later, on June 27. To enhance the Gothic tone, the show was introduced by Alexandra Moltke telling the audience, "My name is Victoria Winters. My journey is beginning...."

Variety reviewed the first installment of Dark Shadows in its June 29, 1966, issue: "Writer Art Wallace took so much time getting into his story that the first episode of this neo Gothic soaper added up to one big contemporary yawn."

The reviewer would have preferred to see more of legendary Joan Bennett and less of relative-unknown Alexandra Moltke, who "did okay in her ambiguous part." Variety did praise...