Ah, yes! Dark Shadows!
Here's another vote for Barnabas (Ah, Barnabas!) with his comb-over hair and silver, wolf's-head cane. He started out as more typically villainous, but as is common with soap operas, when a villain becomes popular, he's made more sympathetic and heroic so the show can keep him around and maintain fans.
He wasn't the first sexy vampire--that honor goes to Bela Legosi who had women fainting in the aisles when he appeared on screen as Dracula. And truth to tell, I *think* that there might have been one movie later on (Dracula/Wolfman/Frankenstein movie) where he *might* have wanted to be cured of his vampirism (I won't take bets on that, but perhaps). Bela's vampires, however, and those what followed him always surrendered to blood-lust with no remorse by the end of the movie. Barnabas was the first to bemoan it, regret it, be tormented by it and, yes, even fight it's pull. And the rest is history. A legacy of tormented vampires fighting to maintain and regain their humanity.
The vampire with a conscience might not have been part of the original gothic-horror tradition, but it's certainly been a tried and true staple for almost-fifty years now. And given what great vampire characters have come out of it, thanks be to Dark Shadows for that!