Various sources have reported that TV horror veteran Dan Curtis succumbed to brain cancer on Monday, March 27 at the age of 78. Curtis, best-known as the producer and director of the long-running Gothic soap opera DARK SHADOWS, was one of the industry’s leading producers of televised mystery and horror during the 1970s. His credits include 1972’s THE NIGHT STALKER and its 1973 sequel THE NIGHT STRANGLER, both starring the late Darren McGavin as reporter of the supernatural Carl Kolchak, as well as 1973’s DRACULA, starring Jack Palance in the titular role.

Curtis’ other genre outings include the telemovies THE NORLISS TAPES (vampires), SCREAM OF THE WOLF (werewolves), THE TURN OF THE SCREW (ghosts), the 1968 ABC film THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE, for which Curtis received multiple Emmy nominations, and 1976’s theatrical release BURNT OFFERINGS (a haunted house chiller starring Oliver Reed and Karen Black). A longtime collaborator with author Richard Matheson, Curtis made another notably important contribution to the genre with 1975’s TRILOGY OF TERROR, in which Black and the audience were terrorized by the now-legendary Zuni fetish doll, a creation Curtis revisited in 1996’s TRILOGY OF TERROR II).

As for DARK SHADOWS, the supernatural series debuted on ABC in 1966 and ran for 1,225 episodes, spawned two MGM features (1970’s HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and 1971’s NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS, both also directed by Curtis)—as well a 1991 revival and a more recent, aborted update—and became a cultural phenomenon, spawning fan clubs, magazines, model kits and more. Curtis’ other credits include the much-lauded 1980s miniseries THE WINDS OF WAR and WAR AND REMEMBRANCE, the latter of which garnered Curtis an Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries as well as the Directors Guild Award, a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television, the People's Choice Award for Favorite Miniseries and the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Distinguished Service Award.

Curtis is survived by daughters Cathy and Tracy. —Sean Decker

Fuente: Fangoria