Julia Hoffman is a fictional character played by Grayson Hall in the 1966 ABC soap opera Dark Shadows. A self-serving and conniving doctor in the fields of psychology and rare blood disorders, she is also head of the Windcliff Sanitarium, who moved into Collinwood and discovered the vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). Initially, Julia represented a threat to Barnabas' undead existence, but eventually, she became one of his most staunch allies. Together, Julia and Barnabas worked to assist the Collins family in the past, present, future, and in Parallel Time.
First brought onto the show to be as a type of Van Helsing character focused on destroying the vampire. Instead, as the storyline developed, Dr. Hoffman fell in love with Barnabas, bringing a twist of tension to the narrative.. Craig Hamrick, R. J. Jamison. 2012. Barnabas & Company: The Cast of the TV Classic Dark Shadows. iUniverse. P. 6.
In addition to her role as a character who investigated and later helped Barnabas, Dr. Julia Hoffman also functioned to slow down the storytelling and build in elaboration. “One of her signature lines, spoken in tentative, leading tones was “You mean...,” thus allowing another character to restate a bit more of the story and flesh out each episode.”Harry M. Benshoff. 2011. Dark Shadows. Wayne State University Press. P. 62
1966-1971: Dark Shadows 1967-1971 Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall)The character of Dr. Julia Hoffman was originally intended to be a male character. Early script drafts identified the character simply as Dr. Hoffman, "Dr. J. Hoffman" or "Dr. Julian Hoffman." The character was renamed after Grayson Hall was cast in the role. was introduced as the head of Windcliff Sanitarium after Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott) was admitted after escaping from the vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), who had wished to transform Maggie into a mental replica of his long-dead love Josette du Pres (also played by Scott). In order to protect herself from the trauma Maggie had mentally regressed to childhood, playing with a doll given her by the ghost of Sarah Collins (Sharon Smyth) and singing "London Bridge". So as to protect Maggie from her unknown kidnapper, authorities falsely stated that Maggie had died shortly after admission to hospital without saying anything, on the grounds that her attacker would presumably seek her out again if she were known to be alive. Only Julia, Maggie's father Sam (David Ford), her boyfriend Joe Haskell (Joel Crothers), Collinsport physician Dr. Dave Woodard (Richard Woods), and Windcliff staff were aware that Maggie was alive. Both Sam and Joe were desperate to see Maggie, but Julia wanted to work with Maggie without their distractions. Julia allowed both Sam and Joe to visit Maggie, hoping that seeing her in the condition she was would make them not want to see her for a while; as she had predicted, both men were shaken by Maggie's mental instability and agreed not to visit again.
Julia was recommended to Maggie's case by Dave Woodard (then played by Robert Gerringer), an old friend and colleague of hers, because of Julia's expertise in both psychology and blood disorders. Julia and Dave would constantly disagree on methods of treatment. Dave wanted to show Maggie a sketch drawn by Sam but Julia did not want this. Dave won the argument, and Maggie was able to identify the girl in the picture as Sarah Collins.
Julia was able to get Maggie to remember certain things, including the memory of being in a cemetery, the scent of jasmine, and a musical tinkling sound. By this time Julia clearly had her suspicions of what had happened to her patient, but constantly refused to elaborate to Dave, suggesting he find Maggie a new doctor if he didn't like her methods. Dave declined and objected to Julia wanting to take Maggie back to Collinsport. Julia did take Maggie back to Eagle Hill Cemetery and was spotted by Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke), who thought she had seen Maggie's ghost. Maggie was terrified of the Collins Mausoleum and claimed that someone would kill her if she did not leave.
With Dave's help, Julia posed as a historian and arrived at Collinwood to learn more about Maggie's experiences. Julia claimed to be writing a book about famous New England families and spoke with both Victoria and David Collins (David Henesy). Julia was interested in Victoria believing that Sarah was not real. Victoria took Julia to the Old House to meet Barnabas so that he could help Julia with her book, as Barnabas had shown a great deal of knowledge about the Collins family history - nobody was aware that that knowledge was from personal experience, of course. Julia then recounted several names to Maggie, in hopes of gaining a reaction; Maggie was horrified when Julia mentioned Barnabas.
Back at Collinwood, family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Joan Bennett) was initially hesitant when Julia wanted to discuss plans about her book involving the Collins family. Victoria talked with Elizabeth, who reconsidered and invited Julia into living in Collinwood so as to continue her research. Barnabas was also reluctant to cooperate, refusing to share information with Julia. Julia showed a family album to Barnabas, and while he was looking through it, Julia took out a compact mirror to find that Barnabas cast no reflection in it. When Barnabas confronted her about it, Julia claimed she was checking her makeup; she then told Victoria she learned everything she needed to know.
During a storm, Julia studied the Collins family history and questioned Victoria about Josette - Victoria had recently attended a party at the Old House in one of Josette's dresses, unaware that Barnabas was planning to change her into a duplicate of Josette, as he had tried with Maggie. Julia became interested in Josette's music box (the tinkling sound heard by Maggie) and the fact that Barnabas kept one of Josette's old perfume bottles in her room in the Old House - Josette's favorite scent was jasmine. Julia suggested that Barnabas may be attempting to recreate Josette, which offended Victoria. The next day, Julia broke into the Old House and found Barnabas asleep in his coffin. When Dave questioned Julia about her findings, she lied and told him she had found nothing. Barnabas returned to Collinwood to speak with Julia and she offered to work with him, saying that she had information about the original Barnabas and deliberately hinting that she knew his secret. The two agreed to meet again later that evening, and Julia told Barnabas’ portrait that neither could wait that long.
Later that night Barnabas went to Julia's room with the intent to kill her; however, Julia had been expecting this and placed a dummy in her bed. Julia told Barnabas that she had been waiting for him and said that she thought that she knew of a way to cure him of his vampirism.
The Cure Julia admitted that she had long been fascinated with the relationship between life and death and wanted Barnabas' help to bridge them. Her plan was that, over a period of time, she would inject new plasma into Barnabas' bloodstream to counteract the destruction of his own blood cells and thus counteract his vampirism. Julia and Barnabas went to the Old House to pick a room in the basement for a laboratory. Barnabas, however, still planned on murdering Julia. As he was about to, Julia revealed that Maggie was still alive and would identify Barnabas as Julia's killer unless Julia stopped the memories from returning. Shortly thereafter Maggie escaped Windcliff and reappeared in Collinsport to everyone's shock; again Barnabas threatened to kill Julia, but she hypnotized Maggie to suppress her memories. Julia told Barnabas that she would continue to do so only if he continued to participate in her experiments.
Julia was wary of Barnabas and Victoria's relationship, attempting to keep the two of them apart. When Victoria became engaged to Burke Devlin (Anthony George), Julia cautioned Barnabas that he not hurt anyone; he now willingly agreed to participate in Julia's experiments, in the hope of winning Victoria as a mortal.
David Collins began to grow suspicious of Barnabas and was closing in on his secret, threatening the experiments. Julia hypnotized David when he broke into the Old House. Dave Woodard (at this point played by Peter Turgeon) then found out that Barnabas was actually the son of the eighteenth century Joshua Collins (Louis Edmonds) and stole Julia's notes from the experiments from her room in Collinwood. Julia confronted Dave and attempted to convince him to keep Barnabas' secret. When Dave refused to cooperate, Julia agreed to help Barnabas murder him. Barnabas injected Dave with a substance which would mimic the appearance of a heart attack. Because of Julia's guilt, she wanted to cancel the experiments but Barnabas refused.
Now completely at the mercy of Barnabas' demands and in love with the reluctant vampire, Julia attempted to remove her rival, Victoria Winters, from the situation. After she told Victoria that Barnabas would rather be left alone, Barnabas demanded that Julia stay out of his personal affairs. Secretly, Julia began planting subconscious fears in Victoria's mind, hypnotizing the family governess and showing her Barnabas in his coffin.
The treatments for Barnabas began to show unusual effects, and Barnabas' hand aged to that of an old man. After a failed attempt to reverse the aging, Barnabas' entire body aged to its true chronological age. Julia volunteered to become Barnabas' victim, hoping that not only could he use her blood to return to his youthful state, but that he would see her sincerity. He declined her offer, attacking Carolyn Stoddard (Nancy Barrett), who had sneaked into the Old House basement and discovered his coffin. The blood from Carolyn returned Barnabas to his normal appearance, and she became his eyes, ears and hands at Collinwood. Barnabas refused to continue the experiments, even though Julia had calculated that her timetable of treatments would deliver more positive results.
Barnabas now began a plan to drive Julia insane by making her believe that Dave Woodard's ghost was haunting her. Hoping the ghost of Sarah Collins would protect her, Julia managed to speak with the spirit of the little girl, who was upset that Julia had aided Barnabas in Woodard's murder. Julia told Barnabas that she had spoken to his sister, who intervened when Barnabas tried to strangle her. The doctor later confirmed that David was telling the truth about Sarah to Elizabeth Collins Stoddard and Victoria Winters, and urged the Collins family to hold a séance to contact the girl's spirit. Julia assisted Roger Collins (Edmonds) in the ritual, during which Victoria disappeared to the year 1795. Like the rest of the members of the séance, Julia was frozen in time when Victoria vanished.
As far as Julia and other séance participants were aware, Victoria suddenly reappeared in an eighteenth-century dress reacting as if she was being strangled (she had travelled back just as she was being hanged for witchcraft). Julia did not allow Roger or Elizabeth to call a doctor, finally admitting that she was actually a doctor and not a historian. While unable to explain Victoria's disappearance and reappearance at the table, she deduced that the marks on her neck were rope burns and that she had also been shot in the arm. Unwilling to expose Barnabas as a vampire and reveal her true motivations for coming to Collinwood, Julia lied to Elizabeth that she had been close to suffering a nervous breakdown in her medical practice and left to write a book about the Collins family as therapy. Although appearing calm to everyone else, Julia enjoyed the fact that Barnabas feared Victoria may have learned his secret in 1795, and that he had no control of the situation. She gloated and refused to let Barnabas in to see Victoria while she rested in her room.