Night of Dark Shadows

David Selby (Actor) .. Quentin/Charles Collins

Born: February 05, 1941

Trivia: Lead and supporting actor David Selby is best remembered for playing Richard Channing on the television nighttime serial Falcon Crest between 1982 and 1990. A native of Morgantown, WV, Selby obtained a master's degree from West Virginia University and a doctorate from Southern Illinois University before launching his acting career in regional theaters such as the Cleveland Playhouse (where he has been inducted into their Hall of Fame). He has also worked on and off-Broadway as well as in major theaters across the U.S. Selby made his feature-film debut in Up the Sandbox after playing Quentin Collins on the spooky daily serial Dark Shadows between 1968 and 1971. Throughout his subsequent career Selby has divided his time between stage, screen, and television. Notable film efforts include Raise the Titanic (1980) and Headless Body in Topless Bar (1995).

Kate Jackson (Actor) .. Tracy Collins

Born: October 29, 1948
Birthplace: Birmingham, Alabama, United States

Trivia: Willowy brunette actress Kate Jackson spent her early adulthood in summer stock, in training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and as a page and tour guide at the NBC studios in Rockefeller Center. Anxious to burst forth with reams of dialogue as a film and TV actress, Jackson found herself in the utterly non-speaking role of a glamorous ghost on the mid-1960s daytime TV serial Dark Shadows. She was allowed to flap her gums a little more often as Jill Danko on TV's The Rookies (1973-76). Full stardom arrived for Jackson when she was cast as Sabrina Duncan, "the smart one" on the prime time jigglefest Charlie's Angels; she remained with this series from 1976 through 1979. Her last regular weekly TV effort was Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983-1987) in which she played an average housewife who moonlighted as a secret agent. Though Jackson has made sporadic film appearances, it is safe to say that her greater fame rests upon her small-screen work. Jackson received an outpouring of industry sympathy and support when she battled breast cancer in the early 1990s. Kate Jackson has been a prolific and popular TV commercial spokesperson, and narrated Trouble in Mind, a series documenting the effects of mental illness, from 1999 to 2000.

Lara Parker (Actor) .. Angelique Collins

Born: October 27, 1938
Birthplace: Knoxville, Tennessee, United States

Trivia: Blonde American leading lady Lara Parker came directly from the stage to daytime drama. Not so unusual, that: what was unusual is that Parker was not your typical long-suffering soap ingenue. She was, in fact, a witch--not a witch by disposition, but by birth, for she played glamorous 200-year-old Angelique on the Gothic serial Dark Shadows (1966-71). Lara was later more conventionally cast as Linda Vandenburg on another daytime cliffhanger, Capitol (1982-1987). Most recently, Lara Parker appeared in the 1990 TV movie The China Lake Murders.

Grayson Hall (Actor) .. Carlotta Drake

Born: January 01, 1927
Died: August 27, 1985

Trivia: Educated at Cornell University, American actress Grayson Hall established her reputation on stage. Among her many theatrical achievements were Six Characters in Search of an Author, under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie, and The Balcony, supervised by Jose Quintero. Hall's first film was Night of the Iguana (1964), for which she received an Oscar nomination. The actress then played the kidnapped bank teller in Disney's That Darn Cat (1965), probably the biggest moneymaker with which she was associated. In 1966, Grayson signed on for ABC's supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows, playing a doctor who tried to cure Barnabas Collins of his vampirism but who wound up falling in love with him instead. Grayson Hall left Dark Shadows in 1971 for a long stint on another, more sedate daytime drama, One Life to Live.

John Karlen (Actor) .. Alex Jenkins

Born: May 28, 1933
Birthplace: New York City, New York

Trivia: Stocky, blondish character actor John Karlen gained a mid-1966s following as Willie Loomis (and several other roles) on the Gothic TV soap opera Dark Shadows. Thereafter, Karlen became a fixture in other Dan Curtis productions, appearing in such feature-length Curtis endeavors as House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Trilogy of Terror (1973). In 1987, Karlen won an Emmy for his portrayal of Harvey Lacey, the contractor husband of Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly), on the TV series Cagney and Lacey (1982-88); two years later he co-starred on the less successful video weekly Snoops. John Karlen's TV movie credits include the role of Jerry Barr in the execrable Roseanne: An Unauthorized Biography (1994).

Nancy Barrett (Actor) .. Claire Jenkins

Born: October 05, 1941

James Storm (Actor) .. Gerard Styles

Born: August 12, 1943

Diana Millay (Actor) .. Laura Collins

Christopher Pennock (Actor) .. Gabriel Collins

Born: June 07, 1944

Thayer David (Actor) .. Rev. Strack

Born: March 04, 1926
Died: July 17, 1978

Trivia: Actor Thayer David did quite well for himself on stage, screen and television. By virtue of his prominent eyebrows and chin and his brutish frame, David tended to be typecast as villains, notably as the odious Count Sacnusson in Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959), the shadowy arsonist in Save the Tiger (1973) and the untrustworthy boxing promoter in Rocky (1976). But in 1977, David was on the verge of TV hero-dom, thanks to an excellent showing in the title role in the 90-minute pilot film Meet Nero Wolfe. Alas, he died of a heart attack before the pilot could be spun off into a series. Thayer David was at one time married to actress Valerie French.

Monica Rich (Actor) .. Sarah Castle

Clarice Blackburn (Actor) .. Mrs. Castle

Born: February 26, 1921

Trivia: American supporting actress Clarice Blackburn has worked on stage, screen and television. In theater, she was a major figure in the development of off-Broadway theater.

10:05 pm - 12:10 am, Wednesday, October 29 on WNYW Movies! (5.2)