Do You Remember When Kate Jackson Played a Ghost on ‘Dark Shadows’?

Most wannabe actors know that there’s a ghost of a chance that they’ll ever make it in showbiz — but for Kate Jackson, future star of Charlie’s Angels and Scarecrow and Mrs. King, it was a ghost that gave her that chance. Jackson, then 23 and a new graduate of American Academy of Dramatic Arts, was working as an NBC page when she landed the role of Daphne Harridge, a sweet governess turned silent but deadly spirit, in the final season of ABC’s gothic soap, Dark Shadows (1966-1971).

Jackson’s time on the show was unfortunately short-lived: though the series premiered 59 years ago, on June 27, 1966, she only began appearing on the show in 1970, a year before the series ended. But it — plus a role in the feature film Night of Dark Shadows — created enough of springboard to launch Jackson into a spate of guest-starring roles on other popular series, and then on to TV stardom.