From the obit I just sent out to our clients:
Damn. One of my favorite actors. Here’s hoping you don’t come back in two hundred years. RIP.
I loved Dark Shadows, it scared the shit out of me. I used to hide behind a chair in the living room and watch it from there. I was only 9 years old when it came on the air, it was followed by American Banstand. So 2 of my childhood favorites are now gone.
glad he got to film that cameo in the new film. He was definitely one of the big reasons the original show was successful
Actually, other sources say Frid died on Friday the 13th cue spooky music
His last words were “Levon Helm still lives”. Or maybe I’m thinking of Thomas Jefferson. Either way, RIP.
A supposedly true story about him, or one often told in any case:
I used to live in a small college city called Milledgeville, Georgia, which was the capitol of the state from the early 19th century until it was moved to Atlanta during Reconstruction. Consequently they are home to the old Georgia Governor’s Mansion. Today it’s a beautifully restored historical/tourist attraction- picture- but that’s after several years and millions and millions of dollars. The focal point of the house’s interior is a center room with a dome and a wrap around balcony- here’s a picture, but imagine it without the Christmas tree.
In the 1980s it was stately but run down, and it was used as basically a Bed & Breakfast for the local university. Jonathan Frid was a special visiting guest lecturer/artist in residence/whatever the title of the university for a few weeks in the early 1980s where he directed and starred (as King Henry) in a production of The Lion in Winter, and while there he stayed in rooms in the old mansion. You can probably see the basis of where this is going.
One night a professor who was visiting for an interview was scheduled to stay in the old mansion. Milledgeville is almost exactly 100 miles from Atlanta and you have to go through a lot of Georgia backwoods to get from the one to the other- not an easy trek- and this professor’s plane was very late due to a storm and the person who was supposed to pick them up had decided to just leave a message to “rent a car, here are the directions, here’s where you’ll find the key, see you tomorrow”, which the professor did. She showed up in the middle of the night to a spooky old house, where she walked up a spooky staircase to a spooky domed landing in the dark, and came face to face with “Barnabus Collins”, who had gotten up to go to the kitchen.
And her screams woke up Flannery O’Connor in her grave a few blocks away.
By all accounts, the professor was a Dark Shadows fan who totally recognized Barnabus, but wasn’t expecting Jonathan, which heightened the shock and terror (it’d be like somebody in their 30s/40s today seeing Robert England). By all accounts both thought it was absolutely hysterically funny once it was sorted out and Frid added it to his collection of similar experiences, but all the moreso because of the old mansion/old dome aspect. And true or not it appeared in the local newspaper when it supposedly happened (which I know because I’ve seen the article).
My fiance was all broken up about it this morning.
Oh, how I loved Dark Shadows, we loved Barnabas Collins (much in the way we loved Mr. Spock on Star Trek). I’m glad he lived to make the cameo in the movie. RIP, Mr. Frid. You had the kind of Shakespeare-quoting class you don’t see much any more.
He was the most inexplicably sexy vampire. I had such a crush on him as a kid. RIP.
On one of the DVD extras there was a cast member panel answering questions (Kate Jackson was there but not Jonathan Frid). One of the audiences members asked a question about whether it was hard to work with actors who constantly blew lines and couldn’t be edited out with the technology of the day. There was a bit a nervous laughter before Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans,etc) answered. She said there were times when she did scenes with Frid and would say to herself “can we please get through this scene without him goofing up anymore”? Then when she saw the finished product she was usually amazed by how Frid made the anxiety, the nervousness, the blown lines work for him and his character.
But he never should have tried branching out into playing Bramwell. The 1840 PT era was the weakest and it jumped the shark. Finally line was great when a woman showed up with a neck bite with two holes and instead of the usual suggestion of a wild animal, one character said it looked like a vampire. Then the announcer came in with “For the first time in Collinsport history, it actually was an animal bite”.
Does anybody know if Frid was gay and, if so, whether he had a partner?
According to an article I read Barnabas Collins is one of the three most influential Vampire characters of all time. Pretty weird considering the character was invented to capitalize on the popularity of the show after the previous season’s ghost story.
I don’t think he was ever identified as gay or not. I work with some one who was worked at a restaurant where Louis Edmonds (Roger Collins) would come in and his comment was “He was FLAMING gay”. But Frid apparently kept his personal life, whatever it was, out of the public.
Louis Edmonds commited my most fondly-remembered of the many flubs on Dark Shadows: “This is the tomb of my incestors. Did I say incestors? Of course, I meant ancestors.”
I remember seeing that as clear as day, so if it did not actually happen and I am imagining it, I do not want to know!
After school:
- Dark Shadows
- Lloyd Thaxton
3, Where The Action Is
I believe there were a few tunes released on 45’s (or even an album?)
Next to Christopher Lee, my favorite vampire.
Really rest in peace, Jonathan!
Q
Q
Evidently he was a very private guy. I asked the expert in the next room (seriously, what my fiance doesn’t know about Dark Shadows doesn’t fucking matter) and he said that he’s personally pretty sure he was, indeed, gay, but that officially Frid was never linked to anybody romantically, male or female. There’s plenty of citeless stories online from people claiming that he was, but nothing at all solid.
Of course, Louis Edmonds was gay and out, and there is a hilarious picture (you can see it here) of the two on a beach together. On the other hand, I am not gay at all and there are plenty of pictures of me attending a women’s college with enough lesbians to stock a whole rugby division, so I’m not sure what that’s supposed to prove.
So verdict - probably, but celluloid closet style.
Sorry, everyone. I know that vid wasn’t about Barnabas, but it was a hit in 69 and one of the 45’s I mentioned. Didn’t mean to mislead anyone.
My girlfiend Lynn and I used to love that song.
Q
How well I remember running home from school as fast as I could everyday so I wouldn’t miss a minute of Dark Shadows. Barnabas was my first true love when I was in second grade. Davy Jones was my second and now they are both gone within weeks of each other. RIP peace Jonathan Frid you brought happiness and a lot of scares to a lot of people.
Curses crime crud and destruction! Rats! DAMMIT!!! There goes my childhood!