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Jonathan Frid (the original Barnabas Collins) is dead

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  • Jonathan Frid (the original Barnabas Collins) is dead

    With a dark shadows remake being released, isn't this ironic.

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/show...frid-dies.html

    Jonathan Frid, the man known to fans around the world as Barnabas Collins, the suave vampire from the cult hit soap opera "Dark Shadows" has died at age 87.

    The Hamilton Spectator, of Hamilton, Ontario, reports the Canadian actor died in his hometown of Hamilton at the Juravinski Hospital on Friday, April 13.

    Frid's final screen role was a cameo in "Dark Shadows," the soap opera's upcoming big-screen revamp directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas.

    Kathryn Leigh Scott, who co-starred with Frid on the original "Dark Shadows" and recently reunited with him to film her own cameo in the film, paid loving tribute to the actor on her website.

    "I am so grateful to have worked with Jonathan, and to have known him as the charismatic, entertaining, complex and plain-spoken man that he was," she wrote. "What fun we had working together! He was irascible, irreverent, funny, caring, lovable and thoroughly professional."

    Scott recalled the moment when Frid and Depp first met on the "Dark Shadows" set: "I won't ever forget the moment when the two Barnabas Collinses met, one in his late 80s and the other in his mid-40s, each with their wolf's head canes. Jonathan took his time scrutinizing his successor's appearance. 'I see you've done the hair,' Jonathan said to Johnny Depp, 'but a few more spikes.' Depp, entirely in character, replied, 'Yes, we're doing things a bit differently.'"

    Frid also starred in director Oliver Stone's feature directing debut, the horror movie "Seizure," in 1974.
    The soap opera ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. Originally conceived as a straightforward gothic soap opera by creator Dan Curtis, it languished in the ratings until Curtis began adding supernatural elements, first a ghost, and then Barnabas Collins. Frid joined the show in 1967 and it began to take off as a cult hit, especially with younger children, who rushed home from school to watch the show.

    Outside of the Barnabas role, Frid had an extensive stage career, including a Broadway and national tour of "Arsenic and Old Lace" in the mid-1980s.

    Frid began organizing staged readings of plays, poems and stories at "Dark Shadows" fan gatherings in the early 1980s. The "Readers Theater" became a replacement for the Q&As with fans, which Frid had grown bored with. The shows, which also included scenes from Shakespearean plays and Edgar Allan Poe short stories, was one of Frid's great passions in his later years.

    Frid also maintained his website up until just a few months before his death, posting regular updates and communicating with his fans.

  • #2
    It is extremely ironic...I suppose Dick Clark is currently getting all of the press.

    Rest in peace, Mr. Frid.

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    • #3
      And yet not a single person has replied to Tazzmission's thread.

      Spoilers: That's about to change.

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      • #4
        I've only watched two episodes of the show so far, but plan to see more. Still, quite a legacy. Oh, and I'd like that cane.



        Watching a couple more episodes now in memoriam.
        Space Cop
        The Dandy
        Last edited by Space Cop; 04-20-2012, 12:26 AM.

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        • #5
          So, I've been working my way through the streaming episodes (only 201-41 or something) and I may be hooked despite the fact that it really is a soap opera.


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          • #6
            I just saw the Depp movie today with my son and daughter. It was not very good. Not absolutely horrible, but really a rental at best. Not being a fan of the soap opera, I have no idea where these cameos were.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Space Cop View Post
              So, I've been working my way through the streaming episodes (only 201-41 or something) and I may be hooked despite the fact that it really is a soap opera.
              Have you seen House of Dark Shadows? It was made in 1970 while the tv show was still in production...same production team but not constrained by tv censorship of the time, so its a bit more "Hammer" like.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Big Daddy Dave View Post
                I just saw the Depp movie today with my son and daughter. It was not very good. Not absolutely horrible, but really a rental at best. Not being a fan of the soap opera, I have no idea where these cameos were.
                It was during the party scene. There's a group of about five people that walk in and an older man is in the front.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Abin Surly View Post
                  Have you seen House of Dark Shadows? It was made in 1970 while the tv show was still in production...same production team but not constrained by tv censorship of the time, so its a bit more "Hammer" like.
                  No, thanks. I'll give it a look see. I don't really intend to watch all 1200+ episodes anyway, but the streaming ones don't even get into color.

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                  • #10
                    Is it even possible to watch every episode of the original Dark Shadows?

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Mister.Weirdo View Post
                      Is it even possible to watch every episode of the original Dark Shadows?
                      I believe that all episodes exist except one that had to be reconstructed ala Browning's London After Midnight using the sound portion (was was intact), preview footage from the preceding episode and recap footage from the following episode...or so I've read.

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                      • #12
                        Thanks for that interesting bit of information.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Mister.Weirdo View Post
                          Thanks for that interesting bit of information.
                          TMI?

                          From what I've seen of them, the whole thing moves at an old-school soap-opera glacial pace, so be ready to watch at fast forward.

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                          • #14
                            It wasn't too much information, I just didn't know what to make of it.

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                            • #15
                              That's actually impressive that of all those episodes from the 60s and early 70s, only one is missing. And it was a daily soap opera, not weekly.

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