Jason McGuire

Jason McGuire was a fictional character and a central antagonist in the 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. He was played by actor Dennis Patrick and appeared in forty-six episodes of the series.

Biography
Jason McGuire was an unscrupulous con-man who was close friends with a man named Paul Stoddard, and by extension, Paul's wife Elizabeth. In 1948, Elizabeth and Paul engaged in a massive quarrel in the drawing room at Collinwood, which resulted in Liz striking him across the back of the head. Believing that she had killed him, Liz fled the room in fear. When Jason went into the drawing room to inspect the body, he saw Paul rising off the floor. Jason and Paul conspired with one another to fake his death and leave Collinwood. After helping him sneak away from the house unseen, Jason took a bunch of Paul's belongings and stowed them away in a trunk in a storage closet in the basement. He let Liz believe that he had buried Paul's body in the trunk. Terrified that her secret might one day become known, Liz became a recluse, refusing to leave the house.

Jason and she parted company shortly after this, and Jason began working as a first mate on a ship. He spent the next eighteen years at sea, visiting various ports of call like Hong Kong, Naples and Madagascar. During this time, he met and befriended a young ship hand named Willie Loomis. Jason and Willie grew close and they both had dreams of making more for themselves than what life on the sea could provide.

In 1967, Jason returned to Collinsport. After hearing that Elizabeth had spent the past eighteen years living as a recluse, he took it upon himself to learn as much as he could about her. He arrived at Collinwood and though he managed to charm the likes of Elizabeth's daughter Carolyn and her companion Victoria Winters, his presence came as a great shock to Liz. Jason knew that she had lived with the thought that she had murdered Paul Stoddard and so he used this knowledge to blackmail Liz into getting anything he wanted. The first thing he demanded was his own room at Collinwood. Once he knew that he could control her, he contacted Willie Loomis and arranged to have him come to the great house as well.

Jason continued to blackmail Elizabeth and extorted vast sums of money from her. He also forced her into getting him into the family business, selling him Collins-owned property, and even a proposal of marriage. By this point, the rest of the Collins family knew that Jason had some kind of hold over Elizabeth, but Liz refused to entertain the notion. She was willing to do whatever Jason wanted, so long as he never revealed her grave secret.

This changed however on the day of their proposed wedding. Elizabeth, unable to continue with this lifestyle any longer, openly confessed to killing Paul Stoddard. Jason then revealed that she never actually killed Paul. He showed them the trunk in the basement that allegedly contained Paul’s remains. It was empty.

Elizabeth's brother, Roger Collins, incensed by the entire calamity, contacted the authorities. Jason fled from Collinwood, with the intention of leaving town for good, but he wasn't going to leave empty-handed. He broke into the Old House hoping to find the same Collins family jewels that Willie Loomis had coveted so many months ago. He went into the cellar of the Old House and discovered the coffin of vampire Barnabas Collins. Jason opened the coffin, but Barnabas rose from within and strangled Jason. Barnabas later had Willie transfer Jason's remains to the secret room in the Collins family mausoleum.

Notes & Trivia

 * Actor Dennis Patrick later returned to the series to play the role of Jason's close friend Paul Stoddard.