The ABCs of What It Takes to be a Vampire Leading Man on TV
January 12, 2010 by Nicole C
Filed under Feature, Television, feature overlay
Tall, check. Mysterious, check. Broody, check. Tortured, check. What does it take to be a male leading vampire in a television series? The commonality between all of them seems to scream an anguished creature bent on using their supernatural powers for good as they struggle with their animalistic natures. I’ve seen a good number of these tortured souls trying to atone for their sins of feasting on human blood.
Who are some of television’s past and present vampire leading men? Probably the most well known would be Angel of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Created by Joss Whedon and played by David Boreanaz, the character fits all the categories. He’s tall, mysterious, broody, and tortured. He also opens his own detective agency to investigate supernatural cases. Whedon’s vampires are soulless creatures who are bloodthirsty and lacking of a moral compass. Angel becomes cursed and receives his soul back and thus regains his human emotions to feel remorse for his actions.
The first vampire television show I remember watching was called Forever Knight, featuring an eight-hundred-year-old Nick Knight who worked the night shift as a police detective in Toronto. Nick was a vampire seeking atonement for his years of killing by solving crimes and catching bad guys. The series also put him at odds with his maker Lucien LaCroix, who sought to make our leading man accept and indulge in his vampiristic nature.
A short-lived series called Kindred: The Embraced focused on leading vampire Julian Luna. The show is based on a role playing game called Vampire: The Masquerade where the undead creatures are organized into different clans and each city is governed by a prince that enforces the laws and keeps the peace between the vampire groups. Julian is the prince of San Francisco and enforcer of the masquerade, where vamps pretend to be humans to blend in. He is also tall, mysterious, and broody. While he may not be tortured in the typical vampire sense, as his feelings develop for human reporter Caitlin Byrne we see him struggling with his romantic emotions versus his responsibility as a leader.
In 2007, CBS aired Moonlight with leading vampire male Mick St. John. Mick is another one of our tall, dark, broody and mysterious blood drinkers who works as a private investigator. Oh and he’s tortured too, as he struggles with his attraction to reporter Beth Turner (whom he saved as a child from his vampire bride) as well as his refusal to kill for human blood. He also uses his gifts of strength and speed to investigate cases and catch criminals.
Probably the most popular vampire in current television today is Bill Compton, played by Stephen Moyer, of HBO’s True Blood. Bill too fits the role of dark, mysterious, brooding vampire who falls for the human Sookie Stackhouse. He works as an investigator of sorts, being sent to Bon Temps under the orders of the Louisiana vampire queen to find out more about Sookie’s psychic powers. Bill is our formulaic bloodsucker leading man as he saves his lady love from the perils of the supernatural world, continually risking his own life in the process.
All these leading men vampires experience an inner struggle of their human side (good) versus their vampire side (bad). They are often looking to atone for their bloodthirsty ways and seek to do good with their abilities. All of them also develop romantic feelings for human women who bring out their protective and at times possessive instincts. But our vamp leading men are also often weary of trusting others (both human and vampires alike) because of their mysterious checkered pasts, leading them to be incredibly self-reliant. But that makes their eventual love for the human female all the more fulfilling as he learns to trust and open up after hundreds of years of isolation! The vampire with a conscience is what makes for a leading man in television, but above all they must be tall and broody with a side of conflicted.
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Photographs courtesy of CBS, 20th Century Fox, HBO, and IMDbPro.
Barely adequate television actors seem somewhat akin to modern-day vampires, in that they’re often pretending to be high schoolers well into their thirties on soaps catering to the teen demographic.
anon – you are completely right, thanks for catching that!!!!
That was a good read. Being familiar with the above mentioned leading vamp men, I enjoyed it very much. The only one I wasn’t familiar with was Kindred the Embraced. Not sure how I missed that one.
They should never have canceled Moonlight, it is much better than True Blood.
Total props for mentioning FK. It needs some love
Although Eric is a little something different–tall, definitely, but not so much the broody conflicted sort. What he’s got is an acceptance of his vampire nature but conflict about his human emotions. He’s my favourite vampire to date, though I did like Angel and Spike back in the day.
CBS will ALWAYS be remembered as the network that let the Best Vamp get away…….Mick St John from Moonlight. They were leading the way for the surge in vampire popularity. A wonderful story-line, fantastic actors with great chemistry, mystery, action, un-requited love…..doesn’t get much better than that……oh, yes it does……..ALEX O’LOUGHLIN was the star! At least CBS was smart enough to KEEP Alex on their payroll…..now if they can just get him a show that will inspire the same passion that Moonlight did for Mick St John! Bite me PLEASE!
It is Bill Compton played by Stephen Moyer