Victoria "Vicki" Winters is a fictional character from the television Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows and its remakes of the same name. The role was originated by Alexandra Moltke on the ABC series from 1966 to 1968. After Moltke left to raise a family in 1968, actresses Betsy Durkin and Carolyn Groves briefly replaced her for only a handful of episodes, before Victoria was written out completely. Jaclyn Smith, who was married to Dark Shadows actor Roger Davis at the time, was offered the role when Moltke left the show, but she declined.
In the 1991 Dark Shadows series, which aired on NBC, actress Joanna Going assumed the part. The character was subsequently portrayed by Marley Shelton in the 2004 series. In the Dark Shadows film, Victoria is played by Bella Heathcote. A good-natured governess with a mysterious past, she is the de facto female lead in the various incarnations of the story.
1966–1968
Arrival and early days
Victoria was the prominent character on Dark Shadows for its first year of existence. For that year, each episode's opening narration began with, "My name is Victoria Winters..."
She had been left at a foundling home in New York City, and thus, never knew her true parents—although monthly sums of money began to arrive mysteriously when she turned two. She received her surname from the season in which she arrived in New York. Evidently, Vicky attended some college before accepting the offer of a governess position in Collinsport, Maine. Upon her arrival in Collinsport, she met the brooding Burke Devlin (first played by Mitchell Ryan, later portrayed by Anthony George), with whom she would eventually become romantically involved. During the first episode, she also met a young waitress named Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott) at the Collinsport Inn. Although Maggie derided Victoria for accepting the job at the Collinwood estate, the two women eventually became very good friends.
Victoria quickly became indispensable to Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (played by Joan Bennett), both as governess to Elizabeth's troubled young nephew David Collins and companion to Elizabeth herself (although her initial quest to learn her true identity dismayed the family matriarch). For her own mysterious reasons, Elizabeth did not want Victoria to learn the truth. Victoria also became important as a family peacemaker, not to mention a stabilizing influence on Elizabeth's daughter, the rebellious Carolyn Stoddard (Nancy Barrett) and on the troubled David (David Henesy), son of Elizabeth's pompous and rather emotionally cold younger brother, Roger (Louis Edmonds). Slowly but surely, Victoria managed to form a bond with David. As she grew closer to Burke, she became embroiled in his old feud with the Collins family, all while she attempted to discover her origins. One early plotline involved Roger nearly dying in a car accident due to a bleed screw being removed from the hydraulic brake system of his car. Burke was a key suspect, but when Roger learned his own son David was the culprit, he dropped the investigation.
When fisherman Bill Malloy threatened to reveal Roger Collins's guilt in the manslaughter trial which led to Burke Devlin's wrongful conviction, he was murdered. Eventually, Victoria realized the killer was the disturbed caretaker Matthew Morgan (Thayer David). He kidnapped her and planned to kill her, but was frightened to death by the ghosts of Malloy, the Widows (women who had jumped from the cliffs after their husbands died), and Josette Collins. Josette would later become a key figure in Victoria's life, as well as Dark Shadows history.
Shortly after Morgan's death, David's presumed-dead mother, Laura (Diana Millay) arrived, wanting to reunite with her son. Roger was reluctant, but Laura worked her charm on David, who was overjoyed to have a mother again. With the help of Josette's ghost and others, a suspicious Victoria realized Laura was a phoenix who planned to take herself and David to fiery deaths. Vicky saved him just in time. David was safe, the threat was gone, and Burke had finally settled his vendetta against the Collins family. David truly loved and trusted Vicky now, where before he had been hostile and spiteful toward her. Things were better than they had been for Victoria in some time, but that was not to last.