It’s a sad day for fans of Dark Shadows, the gothic soap opera that ran on ABC from 1966-1971. Lara Parker who played the witch Angelique has passed away.
“It was one of the best breaks an actor could get. I played a wonderful character. I was so lucky to be cast as Angelique” she recalled.
Lara believed after Dark Shadows ended that she would become a major movie star, that Dark Shadows would be a steppingstone to great things. “Little did I know that Dark Shadows would be the highlight of my career” she would later remember affectionately.
Angelique Bouchard first appeared in the 1795 storyline, where Victoria Winters was sent back to the past in an effort to save the Collins family of her time. Angelique was the personal servant of Josette Dupres, the fiancée of Barnabas Collins. She was madly in love with Barnabas and when she could not have him, she placed a curse upon him, turning him into a creature of the night, a vampire.
Angelique, along with Barnabas Collins and Quentin Collins became the faces of Dark Shadows. Angelique would return time and again to try and make Barnabas love her. In the final story arc of the series, Dan Curtis, creator of Dark Shadows, granted Lara’s wish to play a heroine as Catherine Harridge who was in love with Bramwell Collins, played by Jonathan Frid. And this time he loved her back.
Thirty years after the soap ended, Lara Parker became a novelist and wrote a series of books continuing the story of the Collins family of Collinsport Maine. Lara was one of the final surviving members of Dark Shadows and her death leaves just one of the main cast, Katherine Leigh-Scott, alive.
I was so fortunate to meet Lara at the Dark Shadows 25th anniversary celebration in Los Angeles and I found her very warm and embracing of all her fans and thankful to them for keeping Dark Shadows alive.
Lara Parker was 86 years old.
Great article!