Other
Characters:
Evan Hanley
1897 (pictured), Charles
Dawson
1840, Doctor
Forbes
House of Dark Shadows
Arriving at Collinwood posing as the brother of Cassandra
Collins, Nicholas soon reveals himself to be something altogether
more disturbing than a concerned relative. His good looks
and suave, genteel manner disguise a twisted, vengeful creature
working as an emissary to the underworld, in thrall to the
mysterious Diablos. Consumed with passion for the black
arts, and an aptitude for manipulation and deceit, Blair proves
a dangerous opponent to the Collins family, and soon makes
his considerable powers known to many of the residents of
Collinsport...
Humbert
Allen Astredo was born
in Pasadena, California, and spent much of his childhood growing
up in San Francisco. His birthday is April 4. Born into
a family of restaurateurs, he was not interested in joining
the family business at the Union Street Astredo's Exchange.
During his youth, he often went backpacking in the Sierra
Nevada mountains, and developed a keen interest in sailing.
In a diverse range of ambitions, Humbert considered working
as both a lawyer and an electrical engineer, before finally
turning to the amateur stage in 1963, to acclaim. He
also operated the Lose Angeles Repertory Company from 1963
to 1964.
Off-Broadway roles
followed soon after, with an engagement at the Hollywood Bowl
in Faust. He soon essayed roles in Othello
and Baal, and in 1965 accepted an engagement with
the New York Shakespeare Festival, followed in 1966 with roles
for the Repertory Theatre of New Orleans. In 1968, he
joined the cast of Dark Shadows as the villainous Nicholas
Blair.
In 1970, he appeared on
Another World concurrently with Dark Shadows,
where he played an interior designer. Other television
work included the daytime series Edge of Night, Loving,
Guiding Light, Texas, Love of Life, One Life to Live and
For Richer, for Poorer. His primetime credits
include Hallmark Hall of Fame.
Humbert also worked in commercials extensively, providing
over 70 voice-overs for products and companies as diverse
as Beef-Steak
Rye Bread, Blatz Beer, Coca-Cola, Favor Furniture Wax, Jergen's
Lotion, Lux, Metropolitan Life, Palmolive, Static After Shave,
Virginia Slims and Volkswagen.
Humbert
continued to work primarily on the stage, including essaying
certain roles on Broadway, throughout the 1970s and early
1980s, including roles in An Evening with Richard Nixon,
The Entertainer, Dracula and Les Blancs, The Little
Foxes, alongside Elizabeth Taylor, which he also reprised
onstage in London.
His
other theatre credits include A
Flea in Her Ear, Cyrano, Fragments, The Taming of the Shrew,
The Railroads, Romeo and Juliet, Arms and the Man, A Place
For Polly, The Rehearsal, Uncle Vanya, The Entertainer, Inherit
the Wind, Big and Little, Grand Magic, The Jail Diary of Albee
Sachs, Breakfast Conversations in Miami, You Never Know, December
7, The Orestia, Epic Proportions, The End of the World, Diary
of a Scoundrel, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Lulu, A Walk in the
Woods, Inherit the Wind, Taming of the Shrew and Hedda
Gabler.Humbert
continued
to perform on the stage until his retirement at the beginning
of the 1990s.
Today,
Humbert Allen Astredo lives in Connecticut, spending many
months during the year on his sailing boat, a lifelong passion.
A keen sailor, he regularly makes voyages along the east coast.
Photographs
· Click on the thumbnails to
view the full-size image
|
|
Humbert
Allen Astredo in three unidentified plays from the
early to mid-1980s, some of his final roles prior to his
retirement. |
Commercial
Break! "You have lovely
hands!" A selection of screengrabs from a Jurgen's Hand
Lotion commercial Humbert filmed during his time on Dark
Shadows. Humbert plays a jeweller obsessed with a client's
soft hands... The miracles of Jurgen's writ large, apparently.
Click
on the thumbnails to view the full-size image
...
...
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