Who is Barnabas Collins

Thought you might want to see the newest addition to my "Dark Shadows" collection...

The Barnabas Collins Bubblehead figurine!



I found this one on eBay...AND SO CAN YOU!!!

1. Barnabas Collins was the first Vampire to star in a television series.

2. Barnabas Collins is considered the first Supernatural "Sex Symbol"

3. He wore a really cool cape (it's even better than Batman's...honest, I'm not kidding)

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.

In 1967, Willie Loomis (John Karlen) was foraging in the Collins family crypt in Eagle's Hill Cemetery for the family's "lost jewels". He stumbled upon the chained coffin in which Barnabas slept. Believing the coffin to contain the lost riches of the Collins family, Willie accidentally released the vampire. Barnabas attacked Willie and turned him into his unwilling servant.

Barnabas introduced himself to the modern Collins family as a cousin from England - a hard working businessman never seen during the day. The family accepted this story, even though they've never heard of him before, because of his 'uncanny resemblance' to a portrait of the ancestral Barnabas (actually one & the same). Thirsty for new blood, Barnabas made victims of several Collinsport residents.

He was particularly taken with waitress Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), who resembled his lost-love Josette (whose spirit he was told still haunted the Collinswood estate). He kidnapped her, hypnotized her into believing she really was Josette, and planned to make her his vampire bride. Maggie escaped, but not unscathed. The emotional distress of being kidnapped (by a member of the undead, no less) caused Maggie to regress to a child-like mentality, and to forget all that happened to her.

Barnabas next targeted Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke), the governess at Collinwood, as his potential vampire consort. He opted to use alternate methods though, first trying to seduce her away from her fiancée Burke Devlin (Anthony George) before biting her. While this was happening, the ghost of Sarah appeared in & around Collinwood, tormenting Barnabas (who felt responsible for her untimely death) and warning him not to do evil deeds.

Meanwhile, Maggie was sent to Wyncliffe sanitarium, where Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) tried to make her remember what happened, as well as to identify her kidnapper. Dr. Hoffman soon found out that the answer lay somewhere at Collinwood. She discovered who and what Barnabas was.

Julia fell in love with him however, and attempted to cure him. Barnabas initially distrusted Julia, and when her medical cure failed, he viewed her as a risk - she would be able to expose his true nature. He attempted to kill her, or drive her mad so that no one would believe accusations of vampirism from her.

Ultimately though, Barnabas realized he needed an ally and eventually became rehabilitated to the point that they became friends. Even though the romantic relationship Julia desired never happened, she became Barnabas's chief confidante and helped him many times, even risking time travel to aid her afflicted friend over the next several years.

After 1,225 episodes, and still commanding impressive viewing figures, Dark Shadows ended its network run in April 1971, a cult television legend and a unique footnote in television history. A final voice over assured viewers that "...for as long as they lived, the Dark Shadows of Collinwood, were but a memory of the distant past."

Of course Dark Shadows itself continued to endure throughout the 1970's & 1980s, and after many rumors of reunions and sequels, Ben Cross assumed the familiar Inverness cape and wolf's head cane for a short-lived prime time NBC revival series in 1991.

Series creator and executive producer Dan Curtis returned to spearhead the new project, which also starred Barbara Steele and Jean Simmons. Boasting lavish production values and locations, the series retold the original Barnabas storyline for an adult audience. Sadly, in spite of a rigorous publicity campaign, the misfortune of debuting on the eve of the Gulf War proved insurmountable. The new Dark Shadows was canceled after just 12 episodes, in spite of NBC receiving over 50,000 letters of protest.