It is with great sadness that I pass this onto everyone on my favorite web site of the passing of Jonathan Frid,the 60's star of the daytime show "Dark Shadows", who played the 200 year old vampire Barnabas Collins.
In just three weeks time his character will be resurrected on the big screen by Johnny Depp in the new Dark Shadows movie in which Jonathan does play a cameo role.
I will always remember running home from school each day back in the late sixties so I don't miss an episode of my favorite vampire on television.
Long live the memory of the original Barnabas Collins-Jonathan Frid.

I am delighted to hear that Jonathan Frid was involved in the new film.

I have seen the trailer, however, and I can say with some certainty that Johnny Depp's Barnabas Collins is but a pale shadow compared to the original portrayed by Jonathan Frid. He was the ultimate - soulful, tragic, mysterious, sympathetic - but a vampire to the core. So who knows - maybe he isn't actually dead.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-04-20 09:27 by Bliss.

I remember watching this soap opera after school when I was young, too young to really understand it, but it really scared the hell out of me then !




John Herbert Frid (December 2, 1924 – April 14, 2012) was a Canadian theater, television, and film actor, best known for having played the role of vampire Barnabas Collins on the gothic television soap opera Dark Shadows.

Born of Scottish and English ancestry[citation needed] in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Frid was the son of Herbert Percival "H.P." Frid,[1] a construction company executive, and the former Isabella Flora McGregor, a homemaker. He had two brothers, named Douglas and David (Kenneth), Ken followed their father into the construction business, while Douglas ran a ski lodge.

Frid served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. He graduated from McMaster University in 1948, and the following year was accepted at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.[2] He moved to the United States in 1954, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Directing from the Yale School of Drama in 1957. He began using the stage name Jonathan Frid in 1962.

As a student at Yale, Frid starred in the premiere of William Snyder's play A True And Special Friend.[4] Classically trained, Frid spent thirty years in live theater, starring in the first productions at the Williamstown Theater and stage productions in Canada, England and the United States, though occasionally working in television.

Frid is best known for the role of vampire Barnabas Collins on the original gothic cult television serial Dark Shadows, which ran from 1966 to 1971.[6] He also starred in the movie House of Dark Shadows. Frid had made plans to move to the West Coast to pursue a career as an acting teacher when he won the role that ultimately made him a household name. Frid explained on his website that he had just barely entered his apartment as the phone call from his agent came informing him that he won the role as Barnabas Collins. Frid agreed to accept the role after being told it was a short-term one that would provide him with extra cash while he prepared to move. As the character's popularity soared, Frid scrapped those plans.
Frid starred in Dial M For Murder while the television series was still appearing. After Dark Shadows ended, he starred as Thomas Becket in Murder in the Cathedral, and in Wait Until Dark. Frid had previously played the role of a psychiatrist on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns.

In 1973, Frid appeared in the TV movie The Devil's Daughter starring Shelley Winters, and the following year starred in Oliver Stone's directorial debut, Seizure (aka Queen of Evil). He took time off from acting and returned to Canada, reviving his stage career in 1978.

Frid began performing readings at Dark Shadows fan conventions in the 1980s, and while developing ideas for what would be three critically acclaimed one-man shows, Frid took on the role of Jonathan Brewster in the Broadway revival of Arsenic and Old Lace. The play went on a national tour breaking box-office records, which gave Frid the opportunity to appear on radio and talk shows to tell about his theater shows and long stage career.

In 1994, having spent 40 years based in New York City, Frid retired and returned again to Canada. He continued to do one-man shows for charities in both Canada and the United States. In 2000, he co-starred in Mass Appeal which enjoyed a successful, limited run in Hamilton and at the Stirling Theater Festival in Canada.

Frid attended Dark Shadows conventions in New York in August 2007, Burbank, California, in July 2008, and Elizabeth, New Jersey, in August 2009. In 2010, he returned to the role of Barnabas for the first time in 39 years in a Dark Shadows audio drama, The Night Whispers.[7] Along with former Dark Shadows castmates Lara Parker, David Selby and Kathryn Leigh Scott, Frid spent three days at Pinewood Studios in June 2011 filming a cameo appearance for the upcoming Tim Burton film.

Frid died of natural causes on April 14, 2012, at Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario.

[en.wikipedia.org]

RIP----Loved when they played Dark Shadows on tv...I ran home from school to watch it..
Sadly i was too young to have seen many of the shows before it was canceled...

Funny, a few years ago i saw it ran again and wondered why i loved it so...haha...Not as good as i remembered it
to be!
But he was a good actor and he looked great as Barnabas.

Dark Shadows just opened today in France and I saw it. As predicted, not a patch on the original, but still entertaining, with brilliant special effects. Sadly, Johnny Depp is still in his Willie Wonka-Captain Jack Sparrow comedy mode.

If you go to see it, Frid and David Selby can be seen in the ball/happening scene; Frid right at the beginning where he thanks the hosts for having invited him.

Also in the film is Alice Cooper performing, looking as if he has hardly aged since 1972.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-05-10 01:26 by Bliss.

Quote
Bliss
Dark Shadows just opened today in France and I saw it. As predicted, not a patch on the original, but still entertaining, with brilliant special effects. Sadly, Johnny Depp is still in his Willie Wonka-Captain Jack Sparrow comedy mode.

Thanks for the review.

I'll be sure to miss it.

It's ironic how people end up dying after getting one last experience, like Yauch of the Beastie Boys - he died right after they got elected to the hall of fame. Frid worked on the movie and finished it, and he died. It's almost like they're at peace, and they just give up. It's nice they lived to see these things.