A Hard One - Best Actor(ess) on DS????

[Dr. Eric Lang]

Best Actor: Thayer David. He has the advantage of being able to portray many varied characters and creates a unique and distinct person each time. A close runner-up would be Louis Edmonds.

Best Actress: Nancy Barrett for the same reason. Close runner up would be Clarice Blackburn.

[lurkerintheshadows]

Best actors for me would be frid and thayer.Best actresses would be barett,hall,and parker.

[Luciaphile]

Thayer David and Nancy Barrett.

I don't think I need to say why.  They were that good.  

Runners up would be Louis Edmonds and Clarice Blackburn.

Luciaphil

[Perankh]

John Karlen certainly had a few advantages:

He had formal training as an actor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

He had already been in a number of theatrical productions.

He already had extensive experience working in Television.

Willie Loomis was a role that allowed considerable room for an actor to "stretch" as far as he thought he could get away with.  The character changed so much over the course of his existance.

I think it's fairly evident which of the actors (Frid, Bennett, Edmonds, David, Karlen, Hall) had the advantage of experience and which others did not.  

Some of the young performers were excellent talents and would have gotten better and better with more roles and different challanges.  Unfortunately, most of them never seem to have gotten the chance.  

Being famous for Dark Shadows was obviously the kiss of death for more than one career.

Rainey

yikes!!!! - i had no idea he had such experience.  Wasn't this Lara Parker's first tv role?

[VAM]

 Wasn't this Lara Parker's first tv role?

Yes,  it was Lara's first TV role.  I believe she had  a little theater experience.

[Julia99]

I don't think its ever too soon to discuss who is pulling you into this weird universe of DS-fandom. . someone's doing it. . so best acting chops--
male=Thayer David, John Karlen and David Selby.  I luv JF but he seemed to flub some really important scenes with my gal. . .

female=Nancy Barrett (hands downs), Lara Parker and my gal, Grayson.

Now as to Dan C being cheap. . i have read vintage articles where people talk openly, in some awe, about the number of quality fo the sets for DS and the production budget. . .let's not judge the show by today's out-of-this-world standards. . .judge it by its day and age. . .they DID have it pretty good. .
Where DC seemed to skimp was in the # of actors on per episode. . such as today . .GH had 2 weeks of Vampire Victim work and then she's cured and gone for an entire week. . .in today's soaps there would be lingering questions from folks about her weirdness, near death and miraculous recovery. . also her "stay" at the Old House and just **what** type of relationship did she and Barnabas have anyway?  I actually think that was more DC's attention-deficiet disorder rather than cheapdom. . .ahhhh the missing scenes. . .

[VictoriaWintersRox]

It's so hard to choose who I think is hte best actress or actor. For best actress, I'd have to say either Nancy Barrett or Lara Parker. Nancy played many diverse characters, and she played them well. Lara did a great job as the woman scorned. Clarice Blackburn also did a great job. For best actor, I'd have to say Thayer David. He was, like Barrett, able to play many diverse characters on the set, going from the servant Ben Stokes to the witty sophisticated Timothy Stokes. His performances were always great, and he had get chemistry with Jonathan Frid during the 1795 storyline. Louis Edmonds was also a great actor.

[VAM]

female=Nancy Barrett (hands downs), Lara Parker and my gal, Grayson.

So Julia99 the truth does surface...You place your gal THIRD best among the ladies!

[thom]

Frid and Parker were obviously the best actors on the show and well thought of by their peers in the daytime industry as well. This long before daytime emmy awards. Grayson was too hammy(but hilariously fun just the same), David Selby gorgeous but all over the place, Alexandra was underrated - she was excellent in the beginning but started to slip at the end. Louie Emonds was priceless and bombastic. For the supporting acting nods Thayer David and Nancy Barrett win hands down. Whoever mentioned Virginia Vestoff above, I disagree with the DS role. I had seen her struggle as Althea on The Doctors replacing Liz Hubbard and knew she'd be bad on DS and I thought she was.  Too stiff, but I would have loved to have seen her play Eve or Megan Todd.

[Annie]

Hi,Terry 308 You have excellent taste !!!  I too
think that David Selby is the best actor on DS!!
OF COURSE ANNE WOULD THINK SO BECAUSE
SHE LOVE THE Q-MAN ALOT!!
                  Love Anne

[IluvBarnabas]

It's Craig Slocum all the way, no one catches my eye, attention, or casts a spell on me like he does! I choose Nancy Barrett as best actress. I like her best as Carolyn Stoddard even though she was a snot to Harry Johnson.

No disrespect to the late Mr. Slocum, he was great as Noah, but he was unfortunately absolutely wasted as Harry Johnson. IMO he is definitely NOT the best actor on the show, not even in the top 10. And I definitely don't think he was a better actor than Jonathan, David, Louis, John, Thayer, Humbert, etc.

My personal pick for Best Actor/Best Actress: Jonathan and Joan

Personal picks for Best Supporting Actor/Actress: Humbert Allen Astredo and Nancy

BTW I think Harry deserved the grief he got from Carolyn considering he was such a grade-A prick to his mother and Adam.

[loril54]

Jonathan Frid  I would have loved to see him on the stage.  Very much the characters.   
John Karlan     Great with character change. 

Nancy Barrett  All her characters
Grayson Hall    Magda the Best and Subtext with character.

Also it does depend on what the writers wrote. I think they wrote Julia very stiff.

[Lydia]

Jonathan Frid.  There he is, at the beginning of the 1795 storyline, 42 years old with the lines on his face to prove it, and he makes me believe that he's a sweet, callow, idealistic kid in his twenties.

[Raineypark]

Nancy Barrett and John Karlen.  Hands down.  There were no performances anywhere on this show that rivaled the warring Loomises.  They weren't just good enough to be on DS.....they were good enough to have been on Broadway.

[Alondra]

Male: Thayer David, John Karlen, David Selby. I would pick Jonathan Frid, since in some scenes he's absolutely brilliant, but those flubs and pauses sometimes hinder what could have been great acting. Not his fault since he had the most lines and not enough time to study them. It's a shame because I think if he'd known his lines he would be undoubtedly the best.

Female: Nancy Barrett, Lara Parker, Grayson Hall. Nancy played so many diverse characters and did them all well. Lara was the perfect choice for Angelique.

I must say that Craig Slocum (the poster not the actor) really loves her man, and it's great that someone does love him. I pick on poor Harry a lot, I find him extremely unnattractive and a whiner but it's great when someone is so loyal to him. Though I'm sure none of us agree that he was the best actor on DS, I'm glad someone likes him. It's too bad Harry didn't have someone in real life who believed in him. Who knows what might have become of Harry if he'd had a good woman who loved him? He put up with a lot of verbal abuse from his mother and Carolyn. But there is one scene in which he really shines IMO, [spoiler]when he talked Adam out of killing himself. He explained to Adam that there was a range between love and hate, Adam had thought Carolyn hated him because she didn't love him. Harry explained that she liked him, and got him to understand. Kudos to Harry for this scene.[/spoiler]

Alondra[/b]