Barnaba Collins...Truly The Best Vampire Ask any baby boomer to name a Vampire other than Dracula and most will say without hesitation, Barnabas Collins
Actor Jonathan Frid rose to fame in the late 60's and early 70's playing the infamous Vampire Barnabas Collins on the ABC soap opera Dark Shadows This lens is a peek into the character made famous by Frid..the role that made him a cult legend. The Barnabas Collins Saga (part 1)?In The Beginning:Barnabas Collins was a member of the 18th century-era Collins family, from the (fictional) town of Collinsport, Maine. He was the son of Joshua Collins (Louis Edmonds) and Naomi Collins (Joan Bennett), and had a sister Sarah Collins (Sharon Smythe) many years his junior (Barnabas was already an adult when Sarah was born, and looked at her almost as if she were a surrogate daughter.) In the year 1795, he intended to marry a beautiful heiress from Martinique named Josette du Pres (Kathryn Leigh Scott), although he was also having an affair with Angelique (Lara Parker), Josette's maidservant. Unbeknownst to him or Josette, Angelique was actually a powerful witch, well acquainted with voodoo and the black arts. After Barnabas decided to end his affair with her, Angelique cast a spell on Josette to make her fall in love with Barnabas's uncle, Jeremiah Collins (Anthony George). After Jeremiah and Josette eloped, Barnabas challenged Jeremiah to a duel. Jeremiah lost, dying shortly after being shot. Later, Angelique tricked Barnabas into marrying her by placing a curse on Sarah, so that she suffered an incurable malady. After Barnabas agreed to marry her, Angelique removed the spell on Sarah, but claimed to have cured her through a medicinal remedy. When Barnabas discovered that Angelique was responsible for the marriage of Josette and Jeremiah, along with other strange happenings at Collinwood, he shot her. With what she believed to be her dying words, she took revenge on Barnabas by summoning a vampire bat from hell to attack him. Barnabas fell extremely ill and died. Angelique survived and attempted to rescind the curse, but was unsuccessful. Shortly thereafter, Barnabas rose as a vampire. He immediately killed Angelique (the only witness to his rising from his coffin). Later, he frightened his aunt Abigail to death, and entombed witch-hunter Reverand Trask (Jerry Lacey) in the Old House basement. Sarah saw her deceased brother roaming Collinwood and hid from him in the cold darks woods all night; because of this she contracted pneumonia and died. Barnabas also attempted to transform Josette into a vampire. At first, she was willing, if not quite fully cognizant of what this would entail. But then Angelique (who had become far more powerful after her death) revealed to her a vision of what she would become. Fleeing from Barnabas, Josette leapt to her death off the cliffs of Widow's Hill. Unable to bear what he had become, Barnabas asked his father, Joshua Collins, to slay him. However, Joshua was unable to murder his son, and so he ordered Barnabas's devoted servant, Ben Stokes (Thayer David), to perform the task. Ben was also unable to kill the vampire and instead chained him in a coffin in the secret room of the family mausoleum.
