Dark Shadows was an American soap series from the ABC. What distinguished the series from other soap opera series so far was the fact that it contained ghosts, vampires, and all sorts of other supernatural beings. John Karlen played the threatening thief Willie Loomis in the series since 1967. He accidentally freed a sleeping vampire from a coffin.
John Karlen
John Karlen later had a role in Cagney & Lacey, for which he received an Emmy Award. In that series he played the husband of a detective. Other series that he featured in were Murder, She Wrote, Mad About You and 227. In total, he had around 100 roles in series and films during his long career. John Karlen had been sick for about ten years. Cagney & Lacey was the last series in which he acted in 1996.