Virginia Vestoff

[WaylonS...@webtv.net]

Ahhhh...1840 at last, and another opportunity to enjoy the fine acting
of Virginia Vestoff as Samantha Collins. The richness of her portrayal
certainly places Ms. Vestoff among the best of the DS cast members. It
is such a shame that she died so young. What a career she might have
had...

[EMELZEY]

I agree. Ms. Vestoff's role as Samantha was excellent. I love Gabriel's
description
of Sammy. "She's a strong will woman!"

P.S. I think Barn would have had some trouble putting the bite on Sammy in the
forest.

Eric

eme...@aol.com

[Jedpeck]

Virginia Vestoff was by far the best actress on DS in terms of nuanced, shaded
performances. Betsy Durkin was the worst. Sad that a talent such as Vestoff's
was lost to cancer. Good that a lack of talent such as Durkin's was lost in the
ether that is television...and unfortunate that someone cannot CGI Moltke or
Going or Groves into all the Durkin episdoes as Vicki.

[Graeme]

>>Virginia Vestoff was by far the best actress on DS in terms of nuanced,
shaded performances.
>>

Uh... maybe. She's certainly very good. The best?

>>
Betsy Durkin was the worst.
>>

Mmmm, again I dunno. She wasn't very good, but the worst? I actually thought
Donna McKechnie was pretty awful at first, even though she went on to big
things. And Donna Wandrey is terrible as Roxanne in Parallel Time, though I
admit she gets much better very quickly in the next story.

Same with Don Briscoe. He seemed pretty bad the first time or two, but
improved fairly quickly.

[Eric Newman]

She would have twitched her nose and turned him into a bunny or
something.

[Charles Delaware Troll]

In article <20010214221215...@ng-cp1.aol.com>,
graem...@aol.compost (Graeme) wrote:

A poignant line quoted in "The Dark Shadows Companion" (I think) is what
Kathryn Leigh Scott told Lara Parker when she was trying out for Angelique,
basically that the show is slapped together, but for your first acting job,
it's a great place to practice/learn your craft. No doubt some of the cast
did, and some didn't do as well.

--
Charles Delaware Troll
***************************************************************
Read Troll's "DARK SHADOWS CONTINUED: EPISODE 1246 & BEYOND" at
http://members.aol.com/chasdtroll/mainp.html
***************************************************************

[WaylonS...@webtv.net]

Best and worst? Hmmm...hard to pick an absolute best, although I think
Nancy Barrett and Thayer David were probably the most consistently solid
performers on the show.

As for worst, I would have to say that Geoffrey Scott was one of the
least impressive actors to appear on DS. Terry Crawford wasn't so hot,
either, and Erika Fitz (Leona Eltridge) was quite laughable and, as I
recall, looked a bit like a young Marianne Faithfull with collagen
injections.

[Guy Haines, II]

<WaylonS...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:8469-3A...@storefull-616.iap.bryant.webtv.net...
> Best and worst?

I'd feel disloyal if I picked out what I thought were the two "best" DS
actors.

However, for worst, how about the guy who played Collinsport undertaker, Mr.
Jarrett? The poor guy couldn't even get out his first line without making an
unforgivable blunder/blooper! "Is Mr. Jonathan in?" rather than "Is Mr.
Barnabas in?"

A close second to this guy would be the old fella who plays the Collinsport
Gaoler when Eve is transported back to 1796. He tells her about the witch
who was hung and who mysteriously changed places with some unknown woman,
thereby escaping death. "Her name was Gloria Winters!", he intones. You have
to give Marie Wallace credit for not bursting out laughing. (Actually, there
was an actress named Gloria Winters who starred on "Sky King" in the 1950s.
The poor old guy must have known her.)
Guy

[Graeme]

>>However, for worst, how about the guy who played Collinsport undertaker, Mr.
Jarrett? The poor guy couldn't even get out his first line without making an
unforgivable blunder/blooper! "Is Mr. Jonathan in?" rather than "Is Mr.
Barnabas in?"
>>

I don't know if you can judge an actor from one flubbed line (and if you could,
you'd condemn half the cast. There really isn't enough of that guy to make any
kind of value judgement.

If you want to know dumb moves, I would vote not for that Fitzsimmons guy, but
rather for Peter Turgeon who, his first day on the job CORRECTED Joan Bennet.

She said something like "I'm sure we're closer to a... to a... situation than
we were before." and Turgeon replied "A solution? I'm sure we are."

And you wonder why he was dead a few episodes later?

>>A close second to this guy would be the old fella who plays the Collinsport
Gaoler when Eve is transported back to 1796. He tells her about the witch who
was hung and who mysteriously changed places with some unknown woman, thereby
escaping death. "Her name was Gloria Winters!", he intones. You have to give
Marie Wallace credit for not bursting out laughing. >>

Again, that's just a line flub. And if that makes an actor bad, then Frid was
the worst actor on the show. Do you really want to say that?

For worst actors, I don't know if I could pick an absolute worst. There are a
couple who come to mind as bad though. Ray Carlson, for example, Aldon Wicks
in Parallel Time did seem to me like he was reading his dialogue to Yaeger off
of a page instead of speaking it naturally. It was even more unfortunate
because Pennock seemed to be doing a particularly *good* job in that scene,
which made him look worse.

[KenLondon]

Graeme wrote:

> I don't know if you can judge an actor from one flubbed line (and if you could,
> you'd condemn half the cast. There really isn't enough of that guy to make any
> kind of value judgement.

I would point out that every actor flubs lines.

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[Eric Newman]

On 16 Feb 2001 16:00:45 GMT, graem...@aol.compost (Graeme) wrote:

>>>However, for worst, how about the guy who played Collinsport undertaker, Mr.
>Jarrett? The poor guy couldn't even get out his first line without making an
>unforgivable blunder/blooper! "Is Mr. Jonathan in?" rather than "Is Mr.
>Barnabas in?"
>>>
>
>I don't know if you can judge an actor from one flubbed line (and if you could,
>you'd condemn half the cast. There really isn't enough of that guy to make any
>kind of value judgement.
>
>If you want to know dumb moves, I would vote not for that Fitzsimmons guy, but
>rather for Peter Turgeon who, his first day on the job CORRECTED Joan Bennet.
>
>She said something like "I'm sure we're closer to a... to a... situation than
>we were before." and Turgeon replied "A solution? I'm sure we are."
>
>And you wonder why he was dead a few episodes later?
>
>>>A close second to this guy would be the old fella who plays the Collinsport
>Gaoler when Eve is transported back to 1796. He tells her about the witch who
>was hung and who mysteriously changed places with some unknown woman, thereby
>escaping death. "Her name was Gloria Winters!", he intones. You have to give
>Marie Wallace credit for not bursting out laughing. >>
>
>Again, that's just a line flub. And if that makes an actor bad, then Frid was
>the worst actor on the show. Do you really want to say that?

You really can't blame a day player for saying "Gloria" instead of
"Victoria." Those people didn't know the context. I remember a
day-player sheriff who kept saying "the old HOUSE" instead of "the OLD
house."

[Hugaround]

I think I agree with you about Betsy Durkin. I think that the worst male actor
on the show was the fellow who played the mad doctor who created Adam. Mind
you, much as I love the show, there was, in general, more bad acting than good
on it. I have often thought, watching it recently, that it is a pity that Dan
Curtis never hired Ed Wood to direct "Dark Shadows". I think he and the show
would have fit each other. (And I mean that in a NICE way...) Ed Wood had a
certain magical way of making incompetence endearing and artistically
distinctive. "Dark Shadows" has some of that quality as well. As much as one
may find to legitimately ridicule about DS, it is hard not to love a show that
is so cheerfully eager to jump out from behind a curtain and go "Oogah-Boogah!"
at you....

[Bill]

>I have often thought, watching it recently, that it is a pity that Dan
>Curtis never hired Ed Wood to direct "Dark Shadows". I think he and the show
>would have fit each other.

Oh, great. Then we'd have Tor Johnson as Inspector Patterson, Dudley Manlove as
Roger Collins, and unemployed chiropractors impersonating Barnabas on days that
Jonathan Frid couldn't make it to work. Not to mention the "Glen or Glenda?"
storyline revolving around Dr. Hoffman.

[V Bermant]

Grayson Hall would look marvy in pink angora - whether Dr Hoffman was male
or female on a given day.
Valerie
"Bill" <wh5...@cs.comnospam> wrote in message
news:20010217005426...@ng-xc1.news.cs.com...

[EMELZEY]

>Jarrett? The poor guy couldn't even get out his first line without making an
>unforgivable blunder/blooper! "Is Mr. Jonathan in?" rather than "Is Mr.
>Barnabas in?"
>>>

I remember Jarrett's gaff. It ranks up there with Rog's (incestors) and
Yeager's sword cane breaking down on national television. :-)

Eric
eme...@aol.com

[Greg Fernandez]

"Eric Newman" <ed...@carroll.com> wrote in message
news:3a8dc91...@news.carroll.com...

> You really can't blame a day player for saying "Gloria" instead of
> "Victoria." Those people didn't know the context. I remember a
> day-player sheriff who kept saying "the old HOUSE" instead of "the OLD
> house."

Do you mean, "...the Ollllllld House"? Or did Sam Evans say that?

gf