Sam Evans was a painter who lived in Collinsport, Maine. He lived in a small cottage with his daughter Maggie.
Background
In the mid-1930s, Sam struck up a long-lasting friendship with Bill Malloy (40).
Marriage
According to Bill Malloy, Sam's wife was very proud of him (40). She was the one who had proposed marriage to him (35). She died at some point prior to 1957, and he kept a portrait around that he'd once sketched of her (12, 22). They had a daughter Maggie together (5). Maggie was very young when her mother died and Sam served as both mother and father to her, giving her a happy, carefree childhood (43).
Burke Devlin
Sam was good friends with Burke Devlin, who often posed for him as a kid (19). A portrait of Burke in 1957 would remained unfinished when Burke was tried and sent to prison for manslaughter that year after an automobile accident (7, 17). Sam was somehow involved in the case, but only he and Roger Collins knew what had really happened (22). In order to keep Sam quiet, Roger paid him $15,000 under the pretense of buying some paintings (19, 39). Sam blew this money very quickly, forcing Maggie to get a job waitressing at the Collinsport Inn (43).
After the trial, Sam started drinking heavily, much to the dismay of his daughter. It was a habit he was never able to break (7). Burke wrote several letters to him from prison, but the guilt prevented Sam from ever responding (22).
Burke returned to Collinwood in 1967, causing great panic and fear in both Sam and Roger, a fact which didn't go unnoticed by Maggie (12). Burke visited Sam at home and commissioned him to paint his portrait for $1,000 (22). Sam tried to dissuade Burke, telling him he hadn't done a portrait in years, but Burke upped the price to $1,500 and Sam reluctantly agreed (35). When Roger got wind of the commission, he threatened Sam. Fearing for his life, Sam decided to write a full confession, which he sealed and gave to Maggie with explicit instructions to put in a safe place and open only if something happened to him (37).
Bill Malloy was quick to realize that something was up between Roger and Sam. Finding the two men arguing at Sam's house, Bill later got Sam drunk and extracted the confession that Sam was the only thing standing between Roger Collins and a prison sentence. Rather than watch Burke destroy the Collins family, Bill set out to prove Burke's innocent to protect Elizabeth (39, 40).
Sam went to Collinwood to confess his story to Elizabeth, but chickened out and left (42).
Angelique
One night, Barnabas Collins appeared with the portrait of Angelique, which he paid Sam $500 to perform some unusual work on. Sam's instructions were to age the woman in the portrait until she appeared to be about 200 years old using a hard bristle brush. He also instructed Sam to ask no questions about the work and not to begin until 10:15 PM. Sam began to follow these instructions (498), which led Angelique straight to his door. She begged and pleaded for him to stop the work, but he refused. She acknowledged that he had never personally done anything to her, and she did not wish to harm him, but if he refused to help her she would have no choice. He dismissed her. Fighting for her very survival, Angelique blinded the once talented painter. His life was forever changed.
Miscellaneous
Sam spoke to Elizabeth Collins Stoddard a few times in his life before she became a recluse, even visiting Collinwood once, though he was never in the drawing room (36, 39, 42). Paul Stoddard once asked Sam to do his portrait in the style and size of Jeremiah's portrait. Sam did some preliminary sketches, but the painting was never begun (42)
Sam was left-handed (37).
Appearances
5, 7, 11, 12, 19, 20, 22, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 222, 224, 225/226, 227, 229, 230, 231