The Cast of "Dark Shadows"

[Quent]

One of my favorite guilty pleasures of the past was "Dark Shadows", which ran from 1967- 1972. Once you were able to look past the atrocious acting and even worse production values, it was a hoot! I often wonder what became of the cast members. I know Kate Jackson went on to stardom. Also, Alexandra Moltke (Victoria Winters) became the "other woman" in the Claus and Sunny Von Bulow case. Anybody else know what happened to the other cast members?

[EricMontreal22]

Louis Edmunds was on All My Children as Langley

My big crush when Iw atched it in reruns, David Selby (Quentin) became somethign of a matinee idol and has made interesting films lately--he was just one half of the older couple in HBO's sexually graphic show Tell me You LoVe Me and was on primetime soap Flamingo Road and Falcon Crest

[maconrich]

You got me curious lol! I so wish they'd show re-runs somewhere; my memories are pretty vague.

Angelique was my favorite and Laura Parker has a site http://www.laraparker.com/

It looks like she's been very busy and it's set up so the first chapter of her book Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch can be read online.

[Paul Raven]

Several DS performers went on to other soaps in the 70's and 80's.

Jonathan Frid(Barnabas)just celebrated his 83rd birthday

Jerry Lacy was on Love of Life for many years and then had a short stint on Y&R in the early 80's

Joel Crothers went on to Somerset,Edge of Night and Santa Barbara before hid death around 84

James Storm wason The Doctors,Y&R and B&B

Chris Bernau was the original Alan Spaulding on GL

Anthony George was on Search for Tomorrow and OLTL

John Karlen had primetime success on Cagney&Lacey

Many other performers turned up on other soaps

Have you seen the primetime remake of the early 90's?

[LoyaltoAMC]

Nancy Barrett (Carolyn Stoddard) went on to play a few minor roles on OLTL and RH in the 70s and has done a lot of cabaret in NYC throughout the years. She was married for a while to David Ford, who played Sam Evans #2 on DS.

Mitchell Ryan (the original Burke Devlin) went onto a lot of prime time shows, most notably Dharma & Greg. He was also on AMC in the mid-80 as Alex Hunter, Natalie's husband and Jeremy's father. He was supposedly fired from DS and replaced with Anthony George due to showing up to the studio drunk.

Chris Pennock (Jeb Hawkes) went on to play Mitch Williams, Tracy Q's first husband on GH, and later played Justin Marler on GL.

Clarice Blackburn (Mrs. Johnson) became a soap writer, and was a staff writer on AMC for many years.

Thayer David (Ben Stokes) was in the Rocky movies.

Dennis Patrick (Jason McGuire) did lots of prime time, most notably as Vaughn Leland on Dallas, one of the suspects in the Who Shot JR? storyline.

Donna McKechnie (Olivia Corey) has done a lot of Broadway and was married to noted B'way producer, the late Michael Bennett.

[Scotty]

Here are updates on a few of the DS stars..

Jerry Lacy is married to Julia Duffy, who of course was on NewHart, Designing Women, and guest starred on Drake and Josh...she also played Karen Wolek for a short time prior to Judith Light's famous stint in the role.

Grayson Hall was on OLTL for a couple of years in the 1980s before her death in 1985 (I believe).

Joan Bennett is dead.

Jonathan Frid is retired.

Conrad Bain, who played hotel clerk Mr. Wells, of course went on to Maude and Diff'rent Strokes.

Jim Storm was the original Dr. Larry Wolek on OLTL in 1968 before his brother Michael took over the role.

Mitchell Ryan starred in Dharma and Greg

Kathryn Leigh Scott wrote the DS 30th anniversary book in 1996.

[EricMontreal22]

"Donna McKechnie (Olivia Corey) has done a lot of Broadway and was married to noted B'way producer, the late Michael Bennett. " You mean director/choreaogapher (of Dreamgirls, Promises Promises, Follies, Company among others and creator as well as choreogapher of Chorus Line)--even though their marriage was an unhappy partly staged one.

onna is a BRILLIANT dancer--one of the best Broadway has ever seen and I forgot she was even on DS

Check out some of these: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=donna+mckechnie

[Vee]

I believe Nancy Barrett played not one but two roles at OLTL, first in the '70s then the '80s. She played Rachel Wilson in the '70s, the fateful patient of Larry Wolek who he fell for as she was dying, but who was ultimately accidentally killed by an inadvertant overdose from Dorian and her lover Dr. Mark Toland (Tommy Lee Jones). This death cost Dorian her license. Nancy also played someone by the name of 'Debra Van Druten' in the '80s, and was apparently there along with Anthony George (playing a recast Dr. Will Vernon) and Grayson Hall (playing Euphemia Ralston, the matriarch of the Ralston clan which Bo thought he was a part of and where he met Delilah) because Sam Hall, Grayson's husband and a DS headwriter, headwrote OLTL with fellow DS headwriter Gordon Russell for much of the '70s and '80s. I wish Nancy worked more. Every time I see her today she looks like a raccoon. Too much eye makeup.

Denise Nickerson, who played little Amy Jennings, went on to fame as Violet Beauregarde, "the blueberry girl" in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Her parents turned down the Linda Blair role in The Exorcist due to content. She also played Liza on Search For Tomorrow at some point, but I have no idea when or how. Marie Wallace, who played everyone from Eve the artificial woman to crazy Jenny Collins, went on to Somerset. She also turned up as one of Sam Rappaport and Nora's clients on OLTL in 2000, and boy was I shocked to see her. Keith Prentice, who played the thankless role of Morgan Collins in the show's final storyline set in "1841 Parallel Time," was wonderful and heartbreaking in The Boys In The Band. I believe he died of AIDS, along with Joel Crothers and possibly Chris Bernau. John Karlen, who played Willie Loomis, went on to a long history of character work including on Cagney & Lacey.

Kathryn Leigh Scott did some decent film and TV work after DS. She had a brief but memorable role in the flopped film of The Great Gatsby with Mia Farrow and Robert Redford, in which she appears to be some sort of strung out floozy who declares, "she's a Cath-o-lic!" She also had a great guest spot on Police Squad! with Leslie Nielsen.

The '91 series had some good people too. Roy Thinnes from GH and OLTL (he was Sloan Carpenter and Alex Crown) was a great Roger Collins. And a very young Joseph-Gordon Levitt played David Collins. I think Veronica Lauren, who played the little ghost of Sarah Collins, grew up to play one of the millions of bitchy recurring teens on DOOL in the last decade, but I don't know or care who. Barbara Blackburn, who I think was on Ryan's Hope, was great as Carolyn Stoddard but I never saw her again in anything. Joanna Going played Vicki Winters and was also on AW for a few years. She does mostly character work in films now.

I wish some of the old DS grande dames like KLS and Lara Parker would consider doing some soaps. I'd love to see them.

[Quent]

Thanks for all the great iinfo. There seemed to be a lot of drama happening offscreen as well as on! I forgot about Donna McKechnie's ill-fated marriage to Michael Bennett (though she did get a Tony Award out of it). I was shocked when I first heard about Alexandra Moltke being the mistress of Claus Von Bulow. The AIDS deaths from DS cast members were indeed large: Joel Crothers (Joe Haskell/Nathan Forbes) was the shocker for me. I've also learned that Don Briscoe (werewolf Chris Jennings) had a tragic life after he left DS. Apparently , he had a breakdown of some sort and became a recluse. He gained a huge amount of weight, and when he died , virtually no one was at his funeral. On a more positive note, I thought Lara Parker was wonderfully evil as Angelique, and I think she made the show.

[EricMontreal22]

Very sad about Joel--he was one of my crushes as well (geez you'd think I watch these soaps for the guys...) While looking him up I found: http://www.darkshadowsonline.com/where-crothers.html which has a great "where are they now" for the characters

Some of Grayson Hall's OLTL eps can be found on youtube as well.

[LoyaltoAMC]

What I heard about Briscoe is that the breakdown was drug-induced. He had done LSD or some psychadelic drug which led to a mental collapse. THis happened while he was on DS, I believe, and he had to be abruptly written out. He moved back home with his parents, where he spent the rest of his life.

[Paul Raven]

The 91 version was great!

Also in that cast were

Michael T Weiss(Mike DOOL)

Julianna McCarthy (Liz Foster Y&R)

Ellen Wheeler (Marley/VickyAW ,now GL exec producer)

Rebecca Staab (Jesie Matthews GL)

Wayne Tippit (Ted Adamson SFT)

Steve Fletcher (Brad Vernon OLTL)