Julia Hoffman

Julia Hoffman is a fictional physician and one of the central characters from the 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Played by actress Grayson Hall, Doctor Hoffman was not introduced until episode 265, but remained a primary cast member throughout the remainder of the series.

Biography
Doctor Julia Hoffman was a physician at Windcliff Sanitarium, located one-hundred miles outside the town of Collinsport, Maine. She was a colleague of a Collinsport general practitioner named Doctor Dave Woodard. In the summer of 1967, Doctor Woodard was charged with caring for a patient named Maggie Evans, who demonstrated strange blood anomalies that Woodard could not understand. He referred Maggie to Doctor Hoffman's care at Windcliff. Julia was also mystified by the inexplicable enzymes found in Maggie's blood, but after further study, she determined that Maggie had been infected by something that defied all logic - a vampire.

Determined to find the root cause behind Maggie's condition, Julia took up residence in Collinsport. She eventually learned that the vampire responsible for Maggie's condition was a member of the august Collins family named Barnabas Collins. When Barnabas learned that Julia had discovered his secret, he threatened to kill her, but Julia kept him at bay, telling him that should anything happen to her, she left instructions with a friend to reveal everything she knows about Barnabas. Barnabas suspected that Julia was bluffing, but allowed her to live nonetheless.

In time, Julia believed that she could actually cure Barnabas' affliction. Barnabas scoffed at the notion, reminding her that his condition was the result of a curse, not some rare blood disorder. Regardless, Julia pressed on and developed a serum that temporarily abated Barnabas' need for blood. The process was a long and arduous one, requiring multiple injections of the serum over the span of many nights. Barnabas eventually grew impatient with Julia and urged her to complete the process. By this time, Julia had begun to fall in love with Barnabas, though she never expressed these feelings to him or anyone else. Barnabas announced that once he was cured, he would propose to another woman who lived at the estate of Collinwood named Victoria Winters. Julia grew immensely jealous and refused to let such a union take place. She deliberately increased the dosage on the injections, which instantly aged Barnabas into an old man. To save himself, he was forced to drink human blood once again. The consumption of blood reversed the effect and his appearance returned to normal.