Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
| Elizabeth Collins Stoddard | |||||||||||||||||
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| Dark Shadows | |||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Joan Bennett (1966 — 1971) Jean Simmons (1991) Blair Brown (2004) Michelle Pfeiffer (2012) |
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| First appearance | June 27, 1966 | ||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | January 1971 | ||||||||||||||||
| Cause/reason | End of the present-day storyline. | ||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Dan Curtis and Art Wallace | ||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | Liz | ||||||||||||||||
| Aliases | Elizabeth Collins (maiden name) | ||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Socialite | ||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Collinwood | ||||||||||||||||
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Elizabeth Collins Stoddard was a fictional character played by Joan Bennett on the cult television ABC-TV Gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows from 1966-1971. Jean Simmons portrayed the character in the revival series in 1991, Blair Brown took over the role in the WB pilot and will be played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the upcoming 2012 feature film. Elizabeth is the matriarch of the Collins family, the longtime owners of a cannery and shipping company in a small Maine fishing town.
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[edit] Original series
At the start of the series (1966), Elizabeth's husband Paul Stoddard (Dennis Patrick) had disappeared in 1949, some 17 years before the arrival of governess Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke). Elizabeth had not left the ancient family mansion, Collinwood, or its grounds since her husband went missing.
Elizabeth's younger brother is the snobbish Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds). The father of both Elizabeth and Roger was Jamison Collins. Roger has a darkly mischievous (some would say diabolical) son named David Collins (David Henesy), of whom Elizabeth is quite fond. Elizabeth's daughter is spoiled rich girl Carolyn Stoddard (Nancy Barrett). Despite her imperious and reserved exterior, Elizabeth is a deeply passionate woman who harbors several dark secrets. The main one that emerged in the course of the series was that the reason she had not left Collinwood for nearly 20 years was because she had murdered her husband Paul Stoddard and that his body was buried in the basement. This proved to be an elaborate con by Paul and his criminal colleague Jason McGuire (also played by Dennis Patrick) in which they planned to blackmail the Collins fortune out of her. Fortunately the truth came out before any real damage was done, and McGuire was killed shortly thereafter by Barnabas Collins as he desperately tried to recoup his losses. Paul eventually reappeared in 1969, and died the following year.
Many of the 1966-67 storylines centered on the character of Victoria Winters and her relationship with Elizabeth (as well as the greater Collins family as a whole). It was implied throughout the story that Vicki may have even been a blood relative of the family, but this plotline was never fully realized.[1] The character of Vicki was eventually written out of the show in 1968 when she fell in love with a young man named Peter Bradford from the years 1795-1796, and returned with him back to his time period to live out her life there.
In 1999, writers Stephen Mark Rainey and Elizabeth Massie wrote the Dark Shadows novel Dreams of the Dark. The story concludes with a confirmation that Victoria Winters is in fact that illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth Collins. The identity of Vicki's father, however, is never revealed, though some speculate that the identity of Vicki's father was fisherman Bill Malloy (murdered in an early storyline), or the unseen Ned Calder (whom Elizabeth once mentioned as almost marrying). In 2003, the Dan Curtis Productions-approved full-cast audio drama Return to Collinwood also confirmed that Vicki was Elizabeth's illegitimate daughter during the reading of the late Collins matriarch's will; again, the father was unidentified.
The character of Elizabeth Collins Stoddard also appeared in the 1970 MGM film, House of Dark Shadows. There is very little distinction between the film version of Elizabeth and the television version, despite the fact that both productions take place within independent continuities. In the film's sequel, Night of Dark Shadows, Grayson Hall's character, Carlotta Drake, states that Elizabeth died some time after the events of House of Dark Shadows.
Elizabeth also appeared in several of the Marilyn Ross gothic novels by Paperback Library published during the 1960s-70s, as well as the original Dark Shadows comic book series published by Gold Key Comics.
[edit] Revival series
In 1991 Dan Curtis Productions revived the Dark Shadows series as a one-hour night time soap opera for NBC. The role of Elizabeth was played by veteran actress Jean Simmons. Due to the series' early cancellation, very little attention was given to Simmons' character, but she differed from her predecessor in that she was not portrayed as an eccentric recluse, but rather as a high-spirited passionate woman with a strong devotion to her family. This version of Elizabeth also appeared in three separate comic book adaptations by the defunct publishing company Innovation Comics. As with the original series, there were plans to reveal that Elizabeth was, in fact, Victoria's mother if the revival had continued.
[edit] 2004 pilot
In 2004 a new version of Dark Shadows was produced for the WB television network. Only a rough pilot was made, and it never aired on TV as the WB opted not to pick the series up (it has aired at several Dark Shadows festivals). In it, Elizabeth was portrayed by Blair Brown.
[edit] Dark Shadows (2012)
The upcoming Tim Burton-Johnny Depp feature film adaptation will star Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth.
[edit] Production
- Joan Bennett, who played Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, is one of only two actors from the series who appeared in both the first and final episodes of Dark Shadows (the other being Louis Edmonds (Roger Collins)). Bennett was also one of only three actors who remained on the series during the entire length of its production.
- As happened with many of the regular cast, Joan Bennett played several other characters during her tenure on Dark Shadows, including Naomi Collins, Judith Collins Trask, Flora Collins, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (of Parallel Time 1970) and Flora Collins (of Parallel Time 1841).
[edit] References
- Dreams of the Dark; Stephen Mark Ramsey and Elizabeth Massie, 1999
[edit] External links
- Elizabeth Collins Stoddard at CollinWiki
- Dark Shadows website
- Dark Shadows Online
- Collinwood.net
- Dark Shadows at TV.com
[edit] References
- ^ This was inspired by the fact that actress Alexandra Moltke closely resembled Joan Bennett - so much so that when Bennett first saw Moltke (at a distance) she thought it was one of her own daughters!
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