Burke Devlin was the anti-hero leading man bent on revenge to the family who wrongly sent him to prison for five years. When Dan Curtis was looking for the right actor to lead the series, he found him in Mitchell Ryan.  But Ryan's  time at Dark Shadows was tumultuous which was much of his own doing.  Even so, he was magnificent in the part leaving a huge hole when he was fired a year later.

​In part 1, we only touch the surface of Dark Shadows as Ryan's career was long, varied, and very successful.  Topics discussed:

• Why he said he felt he didn’t exist until he became an actor.

• On working with Robert Mitchum who became a lifelong friend.

• Working the early days of live TV , Broadway at night and George C. Scott.

• Learning from Lee Strasberg and the Actor’s Studio.

• Working with Clint Eastwood on High Plains Drifter and Magnum Force.

• Memories of Jim Carrey on set of Liar Liar.

• About the rumor where he was told he would never work again for turning down this role.

• On juggling his Broadway play Wait Until Dark and Dark Shadows.

• On working the early days of Dark Shadows and dealing with low ratings.

• On how he felt about Anthony George and what would have happened had he stayed.