Biography

Nancy Barrett (born October 5, 1941) is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Carolyn Stoddard (among other characters) in the 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Barrett was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, but most of her early life was spent in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. After completing high school, she entered Baylor University in Waco, Texas, but she spent her final year of college at UCLA.After graduating from UCLA, she married Ralph Pine, her agent. The couple moved to New York City, New York, where she landed the role of "Carolyn Stoddard" on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows in June 1966. While on the show, she met David Ford, who was one of the other actors on the show. Following her divorce from Pine, Barrett and Ford married in 1967; the marriage lasted two years. Barrett, Ford, and her future Dark Shadows co-star Jerry Lacy all appeared on stage at the Wayside Theatre in 1967.While on Dark Shadows, she appeared in two films based on the series – House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971). The series itself was canceled in April 1971. She appeared in a total of four hundred and three episodes.Barrett married psychiatrist Harold Kaplan in the early seventies. Throughout that decade, she appeared on numerous soaps, including The Doctors, One Life to Live, and Ryan's Hope. She made her last onscreen appearance in 1986's Belizaire the Cajun.In 2009, she reprised her role of Carolyn in the audio drama Curse of the Pharaoh. Barrett's husband, the aforementioned Harold Kaplan, died in January 1998. Since his passing, she has appeared in the New York production of Francis Patrelle's The Yorkville Nutcracker, marking her ballet debut.Nancy married practicing New York dentist Stuart S. Leichter D.D.S. in 2005. Stuart died in Arizona after a long illness in 2017.