Those old enough might remember rushing home from school or work in time enough to get comfortably seated in front of the television for another cliff-hanging episode of the first and only Supernatural Gothic Soap Opera ever to air, ABC’s Dark Shadows, which ran from 1966-71.
Set on the windswept, rocky coast of Maine, the brooding melodrama actually began in black and white. Dark Shadows featured one of TV’s great tragic characters, the vampire we all loved Barnabas Collins. Played by an obscure, classically trained Shakespearian stage actor named Jonathan Frid, Barnabas tugged at our hearts as he strove mightily to resist his urge for blood and to overcome his centuries old curse.
It was not long after Barnabas arrived at Collinwood, pretending to be a modern day descendant of his namesake, that a true cult classic was born.
But it almost did not turn out that way.
Jonathan Frid was on his way to California in 1967 to pursue a career as a professor of drama. HIs bags might as well have been packed. Outside the door of his New York apartment, Frid heard his phone ringing. Little did he know, but on the other end it was his destiny calling.
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, on December 2, 1924, Frid first stepped on stage as a fifteen-year-old in a high school production of The Rivals. After a stint in the Canadian Navy during World War II, Frid attended The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. He would later complete a Master of Fine Arts at Yale in 1957.
Frid became quite an acomplished Shakespearian stage actor during the 1950’s and 60’s, listing Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Richard III among his credits. Nevertheless, he had made up his mind to head West in pursuit of a teaching career when the phone began to ring with the call that was to change his life. It was Frid’s agent, and he had information concerning a casting call for the role of a vampire on Dark Shadows.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Fame is fleeting, and Frid’s run as Barnabas lasted only until 1971 when Dark Shadows was cancelled. Thereafter, he faded back into obscurity for a time and he spent much of the decade of the 1970’s traveling and trying to outrun and avoid the fame that had literally been thrust upon him–almost like a stake in the heart of a vampire.
Ironically, Frid never really could escape his fame as Barnabas. His fans would not let him. By the early 1980’s, Dark Shadows Conventions had come into vogue and Trekkies now had some serious company. Frid jumped back on the Dark Shadows bandwagon, and kept busy in his own right as he approached sixty. He had started working on what he called “Reader’s Theatre”, and by 1986 he was touring with his own one-man show. In 1987 he starred in the Broadway play “Arsenic and Old Lace” which was ahuge hit and toured for ten months. In 1993, he directed a production of “A Lion in Winter.” Shortly thereafter he left New York and returned to Ontario.
In 1999, Frid began collaborating with author Malia Howard on a biography of his life entitled “Jonathan Frid: An Actor’s Curious Journey.” In 2000 he returned to the stage in :Mass Appeal,” and in 2001 his biography was published.
Now 82, Frid has announced plans to appear August 17-18, 2007 at the Dark Shadows Festival Convention being held at the Westchester Marriott Hotel in Tarrytown, New York. This will be Frid’s first appearance at a Dark Shadow’s Convention in more than ten years. It will also mark the fortieth anniversary of his first appearance as Barnabas, the role that made Frid famous, and the role he almost missed out on.
