Maggie Evans

Maggie Evans was a character most prominently played by Kathryn Leigh Scott on the 1960s ABC-TV gothic horror soap opera serial Dark Shadows and in the 1970 film House of Dark Shadows.

Early days

Maggie was a waitress who lived in a seaside cottage with her widowed father Sam Evans (Mark Allen, later played by David Ford), an artist. Her mother had died when Maggie was a little girl. Maggie was initially acerbic, greeting newcomer Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) with, "You're a jerk," (Maggie was irritated that Vicki was working for the Collins family), but quickly showed herself to be a good, decent person. Maggie's father was a constant source of worry to her, as he had a drinking problem and had never gotten over his feud with the Collins family. After several months, Maggie began dating Joe Haskell (played by Joel Crothers), who had recently ended a relationship with Carolyn Stoddard (Nancy Barrett).

Kidnapping and Barnabas Collins

Maggie's life changed forever when she was bitten by vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), who saw her as the image of his long lost love, Josette DuPres. As a result of her loss of blood, Collinsport physician, Dr. Woodard (Robert Gerringer) requested a blood transfusion to save her life. Later she was kidnapped by Barnabas Collins, who tried to brainwash her into believing herself to be Josette. After attempting unsuccessfully to destroy Barnabas Collins, Maggie was recaptured and locked in a secret room. There she discovered a little girl playing with a ball and singing London Bridge. She learned this was the ghost of Sarah Collins (Sharon Smyth), and they became friends; Sarah later helped Maggie to escape.

After her escape, Dr. Woodard sent her to Wyndcliffe Sanitarium, because she had lost her memory. There she was put into the care of Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall). Doctors Woodard and Hoffman, together with Sam Evans and Joe Haskell, agreed to inform everyone in Collinsport that Maggie was dead, so that her mysterious captor would not seek her again. Dr. Hoffman soon learned that Maggie's disappearance involved the Collins family, and secretly brought her patient to the estate in effort to regain her memory. While doctor and patient were walking through the Collins family cemetery, Maggie was seen by Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) who believed her to be the ghost of Josette.

Maggie escaped Wyndcliffe with the help of Sarah's ghost. The first place she turned up was The Blue Whale Pub. There, upon seeing Victoria Winters, Burke Devlin, and of course Barnabas Collins together, she collapsed. Maggie remembered large fragments of her missing time, including the little girl Sarah. Barnabas Collins, fearing exposure, convinced his friend Dr. Hoffman to erase through hypnosis Maggie's memory of what he'd done to her. To Maggie, everything seemed fine after this. She was overjoyed to be reunited with her father and Joe.

Nicholas Blair

Maggie's memories returned fleetingly in a subsequent storyline in which her father died at the hands of man-made monster Adam. But the character was mostly sidelined, aside from a brief romance with warlock Nicholas Blair, who tried to sell Maggie's soul to Diabolos. Nicholas used Angelique, who was then a vampire, to lure Joe away from Maggie by making Maggie her slave. Joe was later institutionalized at Windcliff after his cousin Chris Jennings turned into a werewolf and attacked him. Following the departure of Victoria Winters from the series, Maggie moved into Collinwood as the new governess.

The Haunting

As governess to young David Collins and Amy Jennings, Maggie was terrorized by the ghost of Quentin Collins. Quentin drove everyone from the house, but Maggie fought valiantly for a possessed David. David died from the strain, and Barnabas journeyed to 1897 to rewrite history and make sure Quentin never haunted Collinwood.

Leviathans

When Barnabas returned, he was being controlled by the Leviathans, evil creatures plotting to take over the world. He gave a box to a local couple named Phillip and Megan Todd, and the "box" morphed into the form of a human baby. Within a very short span of time, the baby grew to adolescence and befriended, then began intimidating, David and Amy. Maggie became aware of these schemes and tried to help fight them as best she could. Later in the storyline, Angelique used her witchcraft to make Maggie fall in love with the human version of Quentin (after Barnabas changed history, Quentin went on to become immortal and came to live at Collinwood in 1969).

Parallel Time

Barnabas' bloodlust led him to venture to the parallel time room in Collinwood's East Wing, in hopes life might be different for him in this alternative timeline. In this timeline, Maggie and her (never seen oncamera) sister had grown up in the village, but moved away with their father at a young age. Maggie returned as the bride of Quentin Collins. Quentin had had a stormy relationship with his first wife, Angelique, who had died 6 months earlier. Their son, Daniel, was hostile towards Maggie, although she eventually won him over. Everyone treated her with one level of disdain or another, except Quentin's cousin Elizabeth (Joan Bennett). The person who hated Maggie the most was Angelique's devoted maid, Hoffman, who did her best to sabotage Maggie and let her know she would never compare to "the first Mrs. Collins." Quentin's temper and mood swings frightened Maggie, and when she saw him with a woman who looked just like Angelique, she fled town to be with her sister in New York City. The actress was written out of the current storyline for a month to enable Kathryn Leigh Scott to film House of Dark Shadows.

The woman was actually Angelique's twin sister, Alexis, a good-hearted person. Unfortunately for the Collins family, when Alexis went to see her sister's body, Angelique absorbed her life force and took her place. She wanted to ruin Maggie and Quentin for good, and thus used her powers to bring Quentin to the point of death. Maggie returned to Collinwood and when Quentin quickly returned to good health, they reconciled. "Alexis" befriended Maggie, secretly pitting Maggie and Quentin against each other and convincing each that the other was practicing witchcraft. When insane John Yaeger became obsessed with Maggie, "Alexis" helped him kidnap Maggie. Maggie was saved by Barnabas, and eventually, "Alexis" was exposed and she died after running out of life force. Maggie and Quentin (who had been on the run after "Alexis" framed him for the murder of Bruno Hess) reconciled permanently.

Exit

When Barnabas returned from parallel time, Maggie and Quentin had recovered from their infatuation with each other. During the subsequent haunting of Collinwood by Gerard Stiles in 1970, Maggie was unaware of most of what was going on because, after a date with astrologist Sebastian Shaw, his jealous business partner, Roxanne Drew (secretly a vampire), bit Maggie. Sebastian drove Maggie to Windcliff, her final exit from the show.

House of Dark Shadows

In 1970, MGM and Dan Curtis released a motion picture, House of Dark Shadows. The film covered the early Barnabas/Maggie storyline, wherein Barnabas was released from his coffin and tried to make Maggie into Josette. The chief differences were that Maggie was now dating Jeff Clark (Roger Davis) and that Barnabas was killed at the end of the movie.

1991 Revival

In the 1991 revival series, Maggie had a smaller role, due to Victoria Winters being used as the Josette figure. In the series, Maggie, played by Ely Pouget, still worked at the Blue Whale, but was now having an affair with Roger Collins (Roy Thinnes). She also had psychic powers.

Audio dramas

The character (as played by Kathryn Leigh Scott) has more recently appeared in a number of audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions.

See also

• Dark Shadows