Ron Sproat, Librettist and Soap Writer, Dies at 77

By Kenneth Jones
17 Nov 2009

Ron Sproat, a television and stage writer who created the character of Barnabas Collins, the reluctant vampire, on ABC's "Dark Shadows," died of a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment on Nov. 6. He was 77.

He is a graduate of Hamilton College, the University of Michigan (where he was an Avery Hopwood Award winner) and The Yale School of Drama, where he studied with John Gassner. His classmates at Yale included playwrights A.R. Gurney, Romulus Linney and novelist Joseph Caldwell.

Mr. Sproat's TV career began at the tail end of the golden age of television when he wrote for the "United States Steel Hour" and "General Motors Presents." His early television plays included "Rachel's Summer" with Martha Scott and Patty MacCormack and "The Great Gold Mountain" with Polly Bergen and Ed Begley. Both were based on works by Charles L. Jackson, author of "The Lost Weekend," who was a mentor to Sproat. "Professor Cliffside," seen on the CBC, featured theatre matinee idol, Dennis King, in one of his final appearances.

In addition to "Dark Shadows," he wrote for "Love of Life," "The Secret Storm," "The Doctors," "Where the Heart Is," "Flame in the Wind," "Never Too Young," "Capitol" and "Strange Paradise." He was an uncredited writer for the film, "House of Dark Shadows," which he helped develop during his three years as head writer of the television series.

After joining the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, where he studied with Lehman Engel, he wrote librettos for the musicals Back Home, performed regionally and at the 2007 New York Musical Theatre Festival and Abie's Island Rose, seen at Jewish Repertory in 2000 and at the Hollywood Playhouse in Florida, where it was named one of the Best Ten Plays of the year by The Palm Beach Post columnist Hap Erstein. He also wrote the libretto for a Ravenswood, a musical à clef about a soap opera featuring a vampire as protagonist.

Ravenswood was performed at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and at the Greenwich House Theatre in New York , directed by Michael Rupert. His work was also seen at Paper Mill Playhouse, The New Hope Performing Arts Festival, The Spirit of Broadway Theatre in Norwich, CT , The York Theatre and Musical Mondays Theatre Lab.

He contributed articles to New York Magazine and Paris Match. Mr. Sproat is survived by Frank Evans, his frequent musical collaborator and partner of 40 years, his sister, author and illustrator Kay Chorao, three nephews, teacher Jamie Chorao , artist Peter Chorao, novelist Ian Chorao , two grandnephews and two grandnieces.