Jonathan Frid

Frid was born of Scottish[6] and English ancestry in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His birth name was John Herbert Frid.[2] He was the youngest son of Isabel Flora (née McGregor) and Herbert Percival "H.P." Frid, a construction executive.[1][7]

As a boy Frid had a natural shyness and struggled academically due to dyslexia, which was not properly understood at that time. [8] His passion for acting began at the age of 16 when he appeared in a production of Sheridan's The Rivals at Hillfield School.[9] The following year he joined the local community theatre, The Players' Guild of Hamilton.[10] The theatre's leading director, American actress Gladys Gillan recognized and encouraged the young man's talent.[11]

Frid's first years of study at McMaster University in Hamilton were interrupted when in 1944 he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II.[12] He was a radar specialist on a battleship. When the war ended, he returned to McMaster to complete his undergraduate degree.[13] [14] During the second half of his tenure he was President of the Drama Club, received accolades for his performances in The Royal Family and The Barretts of Wimpole Street,[15] [16] [17]and graduated in 1948 with the University's Honor Society Award for Drama.[18]

In 1949 Frid was accepted at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.[19] After two terms, Frid left and became a leading actor in repertory in Cornwall and Kent for two seasons and toured the country in the West End thriller, The Third Visitor.[20][21] Returning to Canada he ventured to Toronto where he became a featured player for three consecutive seasons in the Toronto Shakespeare Festival, produced and directed by Earle Grey.[22][23] He studied voice at the Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts,[24][25] and in 1952 appeared in Crime of Passion at the Jupiter Theatre founded by Greene.[26] He applied his training to radio spots[27] and a few appearances on television for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,[19] including an unusual role as a native in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.[28]

In the Fall of 1954 Frid became a graduate student at the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut. He would earn his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Directing,[19] however as one of the most experienced actors in the school, Frid was continually in demand for acting roles in mainstage and student productions including Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra, and starring in the premiere of William Snyder's play A True and Special Friend.[29][30][31]

In the summer of 1955 fresh from completing the first year of his Master's program, Frid was chosen by Director Nikos Psacharopoulos to play a pivotal role in the inaugural season of the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Frid performed leading roles in six of the ten productions including The Crucible, Time of the Cuckoo, Light up the Sky, and The Rainmaker opposite leading lady Cynthia Harris.[32][33]

After receiving high praise in his second year at Yale for his portrayal of Tullus Aufidius in Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Frid was invited to join the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. For two consecutive summer seasons, under the direction of John Houseman, Frid performed with such distinguished actors as Alfred Drake, Earle Hyman, Fritz Weaver, Sada Thompson, and Katharine Hepburn.[34][35][36]

Jonathan Frid promotional headshot, 1957

After earning his MFA in 1957, Frid joined Hepburn and other members of the American Shakespeare Festival on a national tour of Much Ado About Nothing.[37] When the tour concluded Frid moved to New York City, where he made his off-Broadway debut in The Golem directed by Robert Kalfin.[38] In 1961 he began using the stage name Jonathan Frid, first seen in the program for The Moon in The Yellow River.[39] He continued to appear in many off-Broadway productions and in regional theatres across the United States.[40] [41] Among them were Front Street Theater in Memphis; Pittsburgh Playhouse; and the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.[42][43][44] His most celebrated Shakespearean performance was the title role of Richard III at the 1965 Summer Festival of Professional Theatre at Pennsylvania State University.[45][46]

Frid made his Broadway debut as an understudy, and appeared, in the 1964 play Roar Like a Dove, directed by Cyril Ritchard and starring Betsy Palmer.[47][48][49][50][51]

Frid's United States television appearances began in 1960 with his role as the Earl of Worcester in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I as part of Play of the Week.[52] This was followed by an episode of CBS-TV's Look Up and Live, The Picture of Dorian Gray,[53] and several episodes as a psychiatrist on the CBS-TV soap opera As The World Turns.[54][55]

Frid as Barnabas Collins, 1968

Frid is widely known for the role of vampire Barnabas Collins in the original Gothic fiction|gothic serial Dark Shadows, which ran from 1966-71.

In early March 1967 Frid was arriving at his Manhattan apartment following the completion of a National Tour of Hostile Witness with Ray Milland when he received the phone call from his agent that would change his life: a request to audition for a 13-week role as a vampire. Although planning to move to the West Coast to pursue a teaching position at a Southern California university, Frid appeased his agent by auditioning for the role that, if he got the part, would help finance his move west. He won the role of Barnabas Collins, a vampire released from a chained coffin after 175 years, on the gothic daytime serial Dark Shadows.[56][57] Before taping began the producers asked the actor and the writers, including Ron Sproat, a fellow Yale alumnus, to discuss the character's development. Collaborating with the writers, Frid explained that when he played villains he invested them with an emotional life. [58][59][60] The result was a new interpretation of a vampire: a monster depending upon blood to survive yet fighting to regain his humanity.[61] Frid's compelling portrayal of the sympathetic vampire was so popular with audiences that his short-term contract stretched into four years and Frid scrapped his plans to move to the West Coast.[62][63]

Frid appeared on The Merv Griffin Show,[64] The Mike Douglas Show, The Dick Cavett Show, and The Tonight Show, and was even a special mystery guest on What's My Line?[65] The iconic image of Frid as Barnabas Collins adorned comic books, paperback gothic novels, bubble gum cards and even a board game, complete with coffin. Screaming teenagers thronged to his personal appearances like he was one of the Beatles.[66][67]

Frid in 10-city Dark Shadows promotional tour, Charleston, SC, May 1968

The Dark Shadows ABC Studios in Manhattan became inundated with fan mail for Frid, at its peak reaching upwards of 5,000 letters per week.[68]

In 1970 Dark Shadows became the first soap opera to be converted into a feature length movie. Frid made his American feature film debut portraying his famous television character in MGM's House of Dark Shadows. While the movie script kept the same characters as the TV series, it was a bloodier, more violent story.[69]

During the run of Dark Shadows, and particularly with the release of House of Dark Shadows, Frid was made aware of speculation he could be typecast.[70] Both during and immediately after Dark Shadows, he worked to broaden his acting identity with theatre roles very different from television's Barnabas Collins. In 1969 he took a four-week hiatus from the show to star in the Frederick Knott play Dial M for Murder at the legendary The Little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan, Illinois.[71]

With the announcement of the cancellation of Dark Shadows in March 1971, Frid returned to performing on stage with the role of Thomas Becket in the Off-Broadway play Murder in the Cathedral, followed by Harry Roat in Wait Until Dark at the Windmill Dinner Theaters in Fort Worth and Houston.[72] In 1973, Frid performed a supporting role in the TV movie The Devil's Daughter starring Shelley Winters, and in 1974 starred in Oliver Stone's directorial debut, Seizure.[73]

Frid found the role of Barnabas Collins to have many facets with a demanding range of emotions to play. Even so, the heavily promoted image of Barnabas baring his fangs left industry people, who may never have seen the show, with only a caricature of what he actually played.[74] Frid became very conflicted about the commercial career his talent agency was offering. He did not want to become the modern-day version of Bela Lugosi, so he stepped away.[75][76] For a few years he travelled, lived in Mexico for a while, and enjoyed quiet time out of the spotlight of fame.[77]