Humbert Allen Astredo... it's a mouthful of a name. I'll just go with his Dark Shadows name - Nicholas Blair. He's one of the best characters ever made on the show and Astredo was one of the best actors on the show.
He was brought in to be a kind of control for Angelique. He was her keeper for a while after the 1700's story that explained Barnabas' damage. He was smooth and had an amazing voice.
Nobody could preform an occult ritual quite like Blair. He would start quietly and rise to a fitted passion in a most believable and breathtaking fashion. He had a lot of lines to memorize to preform these dastardly rituals and he almost never missed a word. Or, if he did you couldn't tell because he was a fantastic method actor. Of course, after a while, a person could probably ad-lib some of the enchantments based on previous scenes. But Astredo made it special because he would always start by striking a pose of one who is controlling the elements, as in the top picture.
He also looked really sharp all the time. Even in his sixties fashions you could pluck him up and put him in the modern world and he wouldn't look much out of place. Debonair and dashing. A man with a purpose. Always in complete control of every situation. His character never got to expand beyond that of a villain. He was slightly altered in different timelines. He was an all-powerful warlock in one and more of a wannabe warlock in another who ultimately had to be a subordinate to the primary villain of the story line, but he was always shady not to be trusted.
Of course, he had a thing for Maggie Evans like most of the characters and fans, which was his downfall at one point. But he would always resurface more charming and evil than ever.
Here's a clip of Nicholas Blair sparring with Reverend Trask played by Jerry Lacy, another one of the best actors on the show. Classic gold.
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