Other
Characters:
Naomi
Collins
1795 (pictured), Judith
Collins Trask
1897, Elizabeth
Collins Stoddard
1970 Parallel Time, Flora
Collins
1840, Flora
Collins
1841 Parallel Time, Elizabeth
Collins Stoddard
House of Dark Shadows
The staunch matriarch of the present day Collins family, Elizabeth
Collins Stoddard is a dour widow, tormented by guilt over
the disappearance of her husband Paul Stoddard over 18 years
previously. Reclusive and headstrong, she refused to leave
the grounds of the Collinwood mansion for years. Fiercely
protective of her family and an astute businesswoman, Elizabeth's
composed visage masks an altogether more vulnerable woman,
who lives in fear that the shadows of her past will return
to haunt her.
Joan Geraldine
Bennett was born on
27 February 1910, in Palisades, New Jersey. Born into a family
of actors dating back to the 18th Century, Joan's parents
were busy jobbing actors throughout her childhood, often away
on touring theatre engagements. Her first stage appearance
was made at the tender age of 4, followed by her first film
appearance at the age of 5. The
Valley of Decision
also starred her father, with many members of the Bennett
family also participating.
Occasional roles followed over the coming years, and at the
age of 16 she married Jack Marion Fox, a man 10 years her
senior. The relationship was an unhappy one, which brought
Joan a daughter, Adrienne, in 1928. The couple divorced later
the same year. Faced with the task of bringing up a daughter
alone, Joan reluctantly turned to acting as a full-time profession.
1929 brought her first leading film role in Bulldog
Drummond, the success
of which brought a contract with Fox, under which she completed
14 feature films. She left Fox in 1933 to film Little
Women, a role that
she found to be a personal favourite. Signing a contract with
personal manager Walter Wanger, she continued to star in motion
pictures. A change in hair colour from blonde to brunette
for Trade Winds
(1938) drastically revamped her career, bringing her roles
as tempestuous film noir vixens and a new screen persona.
The coming years saw some of her finest work, including a
fruitful collaboration with the legendary director Fritz Lang.
Joan's numerous film credits included roles in Moby
Dick (1930), Me
and My Gal (1932),
The Man in the Iron
Mask (1939), The
Son of Monte Cristo
(1940), Scarlet Street
(1945), The Woman on
the Beach (1947), Secret
Beyond the Door (1948),
The Reckless Moment
(1949), Father of the
Bride (1950), There's
Always Tomorrow (1956),
Desire in the Dust
(1960) and Suspiria
(1977).
Joan married Walter Wanger in 1941. In 1950, Joan famously
crossed swords with the infamous gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
On Valentine's Day 1950, Joan, enraged by comments Hoppa had
made about her husband, sent a giftwrapped deoderized skunk
to Hedda, attaching a note that read: "Won't you be my
Valentine? No one else will. I stink, and so do you! Love,
Joan." Not to be beaten, Hedda kept the skunk and named
it Joan.
In 1951, Wanger shot
Joan's agent in a jealous rage and the scandal that followed
adversely affected her career. The couple divorced in 1965.
Having only made sporadic appearances over the past decade,
Dan Curtis scored a major coup in
enlisting Bennett's talents as part of the original cast
of Dark Shadows,
and she remained one of the few cast members to span the show's
entire run on ABC-TV.
In 1970, she co-authored a personal biography and history
of her family titled The
Bennett Playbill. Following
Dark Shadows
she entered retirement, making occasional cameos and nostalgia-related
appearances, including many appearances at Dark
Shadows conventions
throughout the 1980s. Joan died of a heart attack on 7 December
1990, at her home in Scarsdale, New York.
In a Dark Shadows interview
during the 1980s, Joan obligingly slipped into the character
of Elizabeth, reassuring fans that 'she' was the mother
of Victoria Winters.
Joan also has the
distinction of being the only regular Dark Shadows cast
member to be represented with a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame, an honour bestowed in 1960.
Photographs
· Click on the thumbnails
to view the full-size image
|
 |
Joan
Bennett pictured during the 1930s
...................... ................. |
|
|
Back
