Nancy
Barrett
Dark
Shadows
Characters:
Carolyn
Stoddard Hawkes, Charity Trask, Millicent Collins, Melanie Collins,
Leticia Faye, Carolyn Loomis, Amanda Collins
Appeared
in: 405 episodes
First
episode: #2, June 28, 1966.
Last
episode: #1245, April 2, 1971
Born:
Shreveport, Louisiana; October 5, 1942
Biography
Like many youngsters who would go on to find acting success,
as a child Nancy Barrett mounted plays in her yard. With her little
sister, Martha, as co-star, Nancy was actress, producer, and ticket-taker.
The
Barrett family moved from Nancy's Louisiana birthplace when she
was very young, and settled in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where her
father was an oil executive.
Nancy
attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, for two years.
After
her second year at Baylor, Nancy and two girlfriends spent a summer
in Los Angeles. She starred in a production of Little Mary Sunshine,
and fell in love with Los Angles. She transferred to UCLA, where
she graduated a year later.
She
married agent Ralph Pine, and the couple moved to New York, where
Nancy pursued stage work. She made her Broadway debut in Pickwick
in 1965.
After
divorcing Pine, Nancy became part of the original core cast of Dark
Shadows in 1966 in the role of Carolyn Stoddard. While on the
show (playing seven characters in 405 episodes), Nancy took breaks
to appear in plays, including Neil Simon's The Star-Spangled
Girl and The Physicists.
Nancy
was one of the few actors to appear in both films House of Dark
Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971). In HODS
she played Carolyn, a sexy vampire; and in NODS she and John
Karlen played husband and wife writing team Clair and Alex Jenkins.
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In 1999 Nancy hosted the documentary Dark Shadows On Location, revisiting several spots used for exterior shots on DS. In this exclusive behind-the-scenes shot, she prepares to talk about the Black Pearl, a.k.a. The Blue Whale.
Many more photos from this visit will soon be releaed on the DarkShadowsOnline DVD Behind the Shadows. More information about that will be available soon.
Photo © Craig Hamrick
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While
on Dark Shadows, she was married to co-star David Ford. The
couple also divorced. In the early 1970s, she married Dr. Harold
Kaplan, a prominent New York psychiatrist who died in late 1997.
Before
his death, Nancy's third husband got a chance to see her fulfill
a dream. For years she'd considered performing a one-woman show,
and in August 1997, she did, in As If We Never Said Good-bye,
at the annual Dark Shadows Festival in New York City, with Harold
in the audience.
She
has since performed similar shows in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, the
midwest, and at the New York cabaret club Don't Tell Mama.
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Nancy Barrett
peforming cabaret in March 2004. Photo © Craig Hamrick
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Career Highlights
Daytime
TV:
• One Life to Live (Deborah Van Druten,
1979-82)
• Ryan's Hope (Faith Coleridge,
1976)
• One Life to Live (Rachel Wilson,
1974)
• The Doctors (Cathy Ryker,
1971-72)
Primetime TV:
• The Adams Chronicles (1976
PBS miniseries)
• Mr. Broadway (1964)
• Ed Sullivan Show
• Dupont Show of the Week
• Les Crane Show
TV Commericals:
Many, including Gilette
Spoiler razor.
Screen:
• Belizaire the Cajun (Rebecca, 1986)
• Night of Dark Shadows (Claire Jenkins,
1971)
• House of Dark Shadows (Carolyn Stoddard,
1970)
Stage:
• Three In Time (Carla Clayton, 1988,
NYC)
•Quadrille (1978-79)
• The Physicists (1969)
• Telemachus Clay (NYC)
• Take Her She's Mine (1964)
• The Fantasticks (Luisa, 1963, Los Angeles),
with Bill Bixby
• Little Mary Sunshine (1963,
L.A.)

Broadway:
• Pickwick (Mary, 1965)
• Dr. Faustus (Good, 1964)
Ballet:
• The Nutcrakcer (Grandmother,
debut: 1999, NYC)
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