The three finalists for the role of Barnabas

[Joeytrom]

As the episodes we are reading about are airing, there are three actors being considered to play Barnabas.  The second one was Bert Convy, whom legend has it was DC's choice but overruled and stated as a "mistake" to DC by Robert Costello.

Does anyone know who the third one was?

In some parallel universe, there just may be a Bert Convy/James Hall version of Dark Shadows!

[KMR]

In some parallel universe, there just may be a Bert Convy/James Hall version of Dark Shadows!

Ewww, now I'm trying to rid my mind of a picture of Barnabas with big, curly hair!  Thanks a lot, Joeytrom!   

[MagnusTrask]

I don't even think of Bert Convy as an actor.  For me, he's just a guy who went on game shows.   I've heard he was actually good at some point, though.   

I picture James Hall impatiently yelling "Barnabas!!!" up the stairs, with Convy creeping downstairs, afraid of being hit...

[Uncle Roger]

With Convy, they might well have gone through with the plan to kill Barnabas off in thirteen weeks!

[DarkLady]

OMG, Burt Convy doesn't even bear thinking about!

But who was the second alternate? I'm assuming the third was JF.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Can you just imagine Barnabas with curls hanging across his forehead instead of pointy bangs?! 

I don't believe the third actor has ever been revealed. At least I'm pretty sure I've never read/heard about it if it has. And for all we know it could have been someone who was unknown or relatively unknown back then and whose career remained that way...

[DarkLady]

That's even more mysterious than the identity of the real Deep Throat!

Can you just imagine Barnabas with curls hanging across his forehead instead of pointy bangs?! 

What a horrible concept!

[Gerard]

If Bert Convy (may he rest in peace) had gotten the role, all I can imagine is a scene of him and Maggie, dressed as Josette and in a hypnotic stupor, appearing on an episode of Tattletales.

Gerard

[Philippe Cordier]

That is really funny ... I think of Bert Convey as someone who was a guest on the Love Boat ... I don't know how the character of Barnabas was originally envisioned (and there's been a lot of disagreement about who "created" the character). But Jonathan Frid brought a melancholy to the role, a sense of tragedy, created an antihero, and came through with a powerful, Shakespearean delivery ... hard to imagine anyone else doing anything quite like it.

[MysticScribe]

I liked Bert Convy best in Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood (a low budget classic). He played an undercover narco cop in a beatnik coffee shop and was offed via a frying pan to the head.

[Uncle Roger]

It's almost like being on Let's Make a Deal. Behind Door Number One is Jonathan Frid. Behind Door Number Two is Bert Convy. Behind Door Number Three is...the Dreaded Zonk. (The Zonk would be the nightmare casting of your choosing. My selection, though I loved him in other things, would be Buddy Hackett.)

[Janet the Wicked]

I liked Bert Convy best in Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood (a low budget classic). He played an undercover narco cop in a beatnik coffee shop and was offed via a frying pan to the head.

That's the only thing I remember him in. But for some reason when speaking of Convy playing Barnabas, I envision cream pies being thrown ala Soupy Sales.

[Joeytrom]

This is from Wikipedia on Convy's early career:

Convy started his career in the entertainment business as a featured performer and singer in the Billy Barnes Revues of the 1950s and 1960s. He appeared in the 1961 Warner Brothers drama Susan Slade, playing Troy Donahue's rival for the affections of Connie Stevens. Convy went on to became a Broadway actor, starring in Fiddler on the Roof (1964), The Impossible Years (1965), and Cabaret (1966). He also appeared in the Roger Corman film A Bucket of Blood, playing Lou Raby; and the soap opera Love of Life, playing Glenn Hamilton, a rapist.