They made a giant splash in an afternoon TV Gothic soap opera, but how did their careers fare after its five-year run? Smart readers will know what show I’m talking about. Here’s a hint; It was the only daytime drama with a vampire in it. There was also a witch, a warlock, a phoenix, a couple of werewolves, and the Leviathans (hated that storyline)! Yes, it was Dark Shadows, a true phenomenon in the soap world. The brainchild of producer/director Dan Curtis–one that came to him in a dream, no less–DS started out as more a mystery than horror. And Curtis got movie legend Joan Bennett to star as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, matriarch of the affluent Collins family of Collinsport, Maine.
The very first episode introduced us to Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke), the new governess to young David Collins (David Henesy), son of Elizabeth’s widowed brother Roger (Louis Edmonds). Also living at Collinwood, the family’s grand estate, was Elizabeth’s rebellious daughter Carolyn (Nancy Barrett). The show trodded along with plotting that provided some suspense, but it was tanking in the ratings. With the threat of cancellation looming, Curtis decided to add a vampire (Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins) to the mix.
What was to be a short stint for Frid turned into a career-changing role for the Shakespearean actor. The show’s ratings shot up and it became a must-watch show for teen-agers and housewives who found Frid sexy as the tortured bloodsucker. A trip to the year 1795 to show Barnabas’s origin story and introduce the fabulous Lara Parker as his nemesis, the witch Angelique, added to its popularity. Board games, bubble gum cards, comic books, magazines, paperback novels, and more attested to that.
But, alas, all good things come to an end eventually, and for DS that ending came on April 2, 1971. So what happened after its demise to all the wonderful actors that played numerous parts on the show and were beloved by the viewers? Let’s look at a few:
Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins) – Also known as the man who saved Dark Shadows. Frid was brought onto DS for a limited run as reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins. The character quickly became an audience favorite and thus a star was born.
Most of Frid’s credits were in regional theatre. He was in Much Ado About Nothing with Katharine Hepburn and appeared off-Broadway. After the show’s end he did the national tour of Arsenic and Old Lace with Jean Stapleton. Frid would also travel the country doing his one-man shows Fools and Fiends, Shakespearean Odyssey, and Fridiculous. His film credits included the 1970 feature House of Dark Shadows, the 1973 made-for-TV movie The Devil’s Daughter with Shelley Winters and Joseph Cotton, and Oliver Stone’s first film, 1975’s bizarre shocker Seizure. Jonathan’s last screen appearance was a cameo in 2012’s wretched DS reboot with Johnny Depp as Barnabas.
I interviewed Frid in 1993 and this is what he had to say about his DS experience. “I found Barnabas Collins a fascinating role, not in the sense the media saw it, as just a guy who zaps necks, but as a disturbed man who finds himself in an awfully incredible situation. It was a great joy to work on that, but the thing that bothered me with Dark Shadows is that I was too busy learning the bloody lines everyday to be critical of the values that were in it. I thought that the show had tremendous virtue, but it didn’t come out often enough.”
“I’m proud of some of the work,” he went on, “but most of the time I happen to see an episode, I usually watch it through my fingers. I thought every once in a while it coalesced into a beautiful story. I called it a dark Brigadoon. It had a lovely, never never land quality to it. The more it kept never never land, the more I liked it.”
Frid was no fan of House of Dark Shadows, calling it “dreadful.” “The producers weren’t interested in psychological drama, they were interested in guts, confrontation and violence. Everyone became a vampire.” Although Dark Shadows helped make him what he called “a minor celebrity at best,” he is extremely critical of his work on it. “I wasn’t creating enough reality, for my money as I should have, because I never had enough time to get it flowing.” I think thousands of DS fans would disagree. Jonathan died in 2012 at 87.
Lara Parker (Angelique Bouchard) – The beautiful witch with the evil laugh and bewitching eyes had her sights on a movie career. She made her film debut in Brian De Palma’s Hi, Mom (1970), starring a not-too-well-known Robert De Niro (Fun Fact: I saw this film with my mother at the TLA in downtown Philly and was mortified to sit through on-screen full frontal male nudity with her.). Parker came back as Angelique in the second film derived from the show, 1971’s Night of Dark Shadows…which I hope someday will come out with the 35 minutes of footage M-G-M cut out. In 1973 she had a small part playing a call girl in Save the Tiger with Jack Lemmon. 1975 brought the action film with Satanic overtones Race with the Devil with co-stars Peter Fonda, Loretta Swit, and Warren Oates.
Her one Broadway credit was in Woman Is My Idea, a play about Mormons which had a very short run (five shows after 10 preview performances). One reviewer called her acting “rudimentary” and 14-year-old me ran to the dictionary to discover that it was not really a compliment. She also appeared off-Broadway, playing the title role in Lulu in 1969 and in A Gun Play in 1971.
After that Parker was in innumerable prime time TV series. She popped up in Kung Fu, Medical Center, S.W.A.T., Police Woman, Kojak, Alice, Baretta, Barnaby Jones, and many more. In 2012 she, like several cast members, had a cameo in Tim Burton’s abysmal reimagining of Dark Shadows (Burton said he was a big fan of the show, but you wouldn’t know it from this!). Lara’s last film role was in 2024’s The Great Nick D, which also featured other series alumni. She started writing Dark Shadows novels in 1998 and always made appearances at DS festivals throughout the country. Parker died in October of 2023 at 84, but Angelique will always live on.
David Selby (Quentin Collins) – The tall, lanky and much cuter version of Abraham Lincoln (whom he has played), Selby joined DS in 1968 as 19th-century werewolf Quentin and was immediately embraced by the fanbase. David–and his sideburns–became a pin-up idol in teen magazines like 16 and Tiger Beat. Selby was the male lead in Night of Dark Shadows and continued pursuing a film career. In 1972 he was Barbra Streisand’s husband in Up the Sandbox, then came The Supercops, a 1974 action film with Ron Leibman. He worked steadily in movies, with roles in Rich Kids, Raise the Titanic, Rich and Famous, Dying Young with Julia Roberts, White Squall, and The Social Network.
Selby’s TV credits were equally impressive. He starred in the ’80s prime-time soap Falcon Crest for many years, playing powerful and cunning businessman Richard Channing. And, like Parker, he was in tons of episodic TV shows, including The Waltons, Family, Kojak, Ally McBeal, Touched by an Angel, Cold Case, and Mad Men. David has written several books, including collections of poetry.
Louis Edmonds (Roger Collins) – An original cast member, Edmonds appeared on early TV in shows like Studio One, Goodyear Playhouse, Kraft Theatre, and Robert Montgomery Presents. After DS ended he found another soap home on All My Children as debonair con artist Langley Wallingford, who later reforms and marries series matriarch Phoebe Tyler (Ruth Warrick). Along with House of Dark Shadows, Edmonds’ film credits include the secret agent spoof Come Spy with Me (1967) and the violent urban action tale The Exterminator (1980). His last role was in 1997’s Next Year in Jerusalem, a gay love story about an Orthodox Jew. Louis passed away in 2001 at 77.
Grayson Hall (Dr. Julia Hoffman) – Hall was the only DS cast member to have an Oscar nomination on her résumé. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1964 for her role in The Night of the Iguana and was also in That Darn Cat the same year. She also appeared in both DS films. Her husband Sam Hall also worked on the show as a writer. Her role of Dr. Hoffman was originally written for a man, but no man could ever pronounce “Bar-Na-Buussss!” like her.
Hall did a lot of 1950s anthology TV shows like Kraft Theatre and The Philco Television Playhouse. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E both had her on their programs. And it seems if you were ever on DS you were required to be in an episode of Kojak (maybe we should refer to the cast as the Lollipop Brigade). She also had a guest stint in Night Gallery and a role in the 1972 TV movie Gargoyles. Soaps beckoned her back with her role of overbearing, caftan wearing Euphemia Ralston on One Life to Live. She died at age 62 of lung cancer in 1985.
Donna McKechnie (Amanda Harris) – McKechnie was and is a real Broadway Baby. Some of her credits include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Promises, Promises, Company, and A Chorus Line, where she created the role of Cassie and won a Tony Award. She was spotted by series creator Dan Curtis when he saw her in Promises, Promises. He asked her to audition for DS and she won the part.
Her TV credits include Cheers, Family Ties, and Fame, and sharp-eyed viewers may remember her as a dancer on the 1960’s pop music show Hullabaloo. Her future husband, A Chorus Line choreographer/director Michael Bennett, was also a dancer on the show. In 2024 she stepped into the role of Madame Morrible for a spell in the Broadway smash Wicked. McKechnie has also written her autobiography, titled “Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life.”
Thayer David (Professor T. Elliot Stokes) – He was born David Thayer Hersey, but changed his name to Thayer David to honor his father, who was named Thayer. David was one of the most versatile actors on DS. He started as a replacement for George Mitchell as creepy caretaker Matthew Morgan and went on to portray many roles on the show, with Professor T. Eliot Stokes being the main one. He also was Count Petofi, Sandor, Mordecai Grimes, Timothy Stokes, and Barnabas’s loyal servant Ben Stokes (“Aye, sir, aye!”).
David’s Broadway resume included The Seagull, A Man for All Seasons, The Crucible, and the ill-fated, never officially opened Breakfast at Tiffany’s musical that starred Richard Chamberlain and Mary Tyler Moore. He made his big screen debut in 1957’s Baby Face Nelson, starring Mickey Rooney. He was also in Journey to Center of the Earth (1959), The Story of Ruth (1960), Little Big Man (a must-watch movie!), Save the Tiger (1973) with Lara Parker, The Eiger Sanction (1975), Rocky (1976), Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), and House Calls (1978). And, of course, the two Dark Shadows movies.
Thayer’s TV credits are also impressive. Like some of his other castmates he did anthology series such as Goodyear Theatre and Schlitz Playhouse. The Wild Wild West, The Rockford Files, Get Christie Love!, Harry O, the requisite Kojak, Starsky & Hutch, Columbo, Charlie’s Angels (with former castmate Kate Jackson), and the mini-series Roots and Washington: Behind Closed Doors all utilized his talents. His last role was in a 1979 TV pilot as Rex Stout’s orchid-loving private detective Nero Wolfe. David died of a heart attack in 1978; he was 51.
Kate Jackson (Daphne Harridge) – Fresh out of the Academy of Dramatic Arts, Kate Jackson’s first five weeks on DS were spent silent as a ghost…literally. The spectral Daphne Harridge was seen and not heard.
That certainly changed after the show ended. Prime time TV was where Kate really made her mark. She started out as Jill Danko, a nurse and wife of young cop Mike (Sam Melville), in ABC’s 1972-76 drama The Rookies and appeared in many TV movies, including Satan’s School for Girls, Death Cruise, Death Scream, and Death at Love House (I see a pattern).
In 1976 came the megasmash Charlie’s Angels that catapulted her and castmates Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith into major stardom (Smith has a DS connection, having once been married to Roger Davis). Losing out on the co-lead in Kramer Vs. Kramer (Meryl Streep got the part and won an Oscar) because of her commitments to Charlie’s Angels led Jackson to leave the show after three years. Then came the successful Scarecrow and Mrs. King (housewife as undercover spy) which ran for four years. Baby Boom (based on the Diane Keaton film) was next but only lasted one season. More TV movies folllowed, all with titles that sometimes sounded like SNL spoofs (The Silence of Adultery, anyone?).
Kate’s big-screen credits included Night of Dark Shadows; Limbo (1972), about the wives of MIA Vietnam War soldiers; Thunder and Lightning (1977) with David Carradine; Dirty Tricks (1981) with Elliot Gould; the controversial Making Love (1982) with former Rookies castmate Michael Ontkean, and Loverboy (1989), a fun romp with Patrick Dempsey. Her last acting credit was a 2007 TV spot on Criminal Minds.
John Karlen (Willie Loomis) – Joining the show in 1967, Karlen was a replacement for James Hall, who played Willie for five episodes, He certainly made his role as Barnabas’s lackey his own. Like many DS alumni, John started out on TV on the anthology cicruit, doing Kraft Theatre, Armstrong Circle Theatre, and Camera Three. He also appeared on Route 66, Naked City, Stoney Burke, and East Side/West Side and on daytime dramas The Doctors and Another World. He is also listed as playing Sharkey Primrose in the short-lived NBC soap Hidden Faces at the same time Karlen was on DS. Victoria Winters #2 Betsy Durkin (You were no Vicki!) was also in the cast.
John had a few Broadway credits, most notably being an understudy in Tennessee Williams’ The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore with Tallulah Bankhead, which ran all of four performances. His film credits included both DS films, the vampire chiller Daughters of Darkness (1971), A Small Town in Texas (1976), Killer’s Delight (1978), Pennies from Heaven (1981), Racing with the Moon (1984), Impulse (’84), Native Son (1986) and Surf Ninjas (1993).
Karlen also did tons of episodic TV shows, with roles in The Mod Squad, Night Gallery, Mannix, Medical Center, Hawaii Five-O, All in the Family, The Waltons, Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch, Lou Grant, Vega$, and, you guessed it, Kojak. His role as the husband of detective Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) in Cagney & Lacey brought him an 1986 Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor. John passed away from heart failure in 2020 at 86.
Mitchell Ryan (Burke Devlin) – Ryan was an original cast member of DS, brought in to play love interest Burke for Victoria Winters. He was fired from the show in 1967 and replaced by Anthony George; his alcoholism was the reason. In his autobiography “Fall of a Sparrow” the actor candidly wrote about his struggles with the disease.
Mitchell appeared on Broadway in Wait Until Dark, Arthur Miller’s The Price, and Medea. His extensive movie appearances include Monte Walsh, The Hunting Party, High Plains Drifter, Electra Glide in Blue, Magnum Force, Midway, Two-Minute Warning, Lethal Weapon, Judge Dredd, and Grosse Point Blank. Among his sizable TV credits are Naked City, The Defenders, The High Chapparal, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Baretta, Family, Dallas, The A-Team, St. Elsewhere, Murder, She Wrote, and The Golden Girls. Ryan starred as the head of an LAPD undercover unit in the 1973-74 NBC series Chase and played Greg’s father Edward Montgomery on the hit ’90s sitcom Dharma & Greg. He passed away at 88 in 2022.
Don’t worry if we didn’t get to your favorite Dark Shadows regular today. There are still more stars to talk about; look for Part II next Wednesday.