Posted on 04/19/2012 12:54:35 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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.'"
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
ping
With him goes a large part of my childhood. He will be missed.
But, of course, he's not really dead.
Not dead dead.
Levon Helm died this morning as well. What is it with celebrities dying in 3’s..very sad..RIP
Robin Gibbs is in a coma. I imagine he will be the third.
As noted on the Howie Carr Show who is putting off the new Death Pool. dark Shadows was MUST watch after school viewing when I was in Jr. High. Also liked the 1990’s version. Angelique was such a naughty girl.
OH MAN THAT SUCKS Sci fi channel was showing reruns for while when that channel first came on the air
OH MAN THAT SUCKS Sci fi channel was showing reruns for while when that channel first came on the air
Dark Shadows - for an 8 year old stuck at grandma’s house waiting for mom to get off work the only bright spot in the wasteland of daytime soap operas.
One of my gay pals said he met Jonathan Frid at a bathhouse
once. hmmmmm...
Anyway,i had to sneak over to a neighbors house to watch Dark Shadows. My mom wouldn’t let me watch that OR Batman.
(the Adam West ones)
The entire “Dark Shadows” series is now availble on Netflix. I used to love this show as a kid. I would go to my cub scout meeting and we would always end up watching this show. Oh, the good ol’ days.
Actually wouldn’t he be the 4th..Dick Clark, Jonathan Frid, Levon Helm, and Robin Gibbs(If he does pass away)
Joan Fontaine
Olivia de Haviland
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Pete Seeger
It’s just a matter of time. Death comes for us all.
He was one creepy dude! Levon Helm, Dick Clar, and now this...that’s three, that’s enough.
Somehow my mind blanked on Dick Clark. I actually thought about “is Frid the third?” and I decided “no” — so I figured Robin would be the third. But as you say, if he does pass Gibbs would be 4th. I can’t imagine how I so quickly forgot about Dick Clark. I guess I never imagined he would pass at all.
One of my nieces loved that show. She was staying at my parents and was so engrossed in the show that she did not hear my mom come into the room. My mom said she jumped a foot when she said something to my niece.
Dick Clark’s death shocked me as well. Even though he did have a pretty bad stroke many years ago he still looked pretty good. I am wondering what kind of outpatient procedure he had that caused his massive heart attack. He was a wonderful man with a beautiful soul. He will be missed
I’ll tell Angelique.
Horribly & regretfully made a comedy.
I was 11 and it scared the bejesus out of me...my mom cut me off after a couple of nightmares!
RIP.
There is a fourth. Greg Ham from Men At Work passed away today at 58.
I guess you missed Dick Clark dying yesterday.

>>Ill tell Angelique.<<
Post of the day!
This is the truth, as God is my witness. There were bubblegum cards with the Dark Shadows cast. I was like five and my sisters and I would run up to our local Dairy Dell and buy them. On the back of each card was a part of a poster. Put them all together and you had a huge picture of Barnabas.
Now, my mom loved this show. She took the mouth card of the poster and stuck it into her Sunday Missal. Sometimes during a Catholic Mass, the priest says a list of Catholic saints. One of which is St. Barnabas.
That was her cue. She would take the card out of the missal, put it up in front of her mouth and look at us. We would pretend to cough and choke when actually we were dying of laughter.
People wonder why I’m messed up.....
Yes, he was gay, LOL.
I had the Dark Shadows (TV) record album as a kid.
Frid did a spoken word poem or similar on one track.
We would all rush home from grade school, for me 7th and 8th grades (walking over 8 long city blocks in Southwest Philadelphia) just to catch the only soap we would be interested as kids, at 4pm, never wanting to miss even one daily show. Whenever I see anything about it, it still reminds me of those days.
Cataract surgery.
Really? I hadnt heard that..well actually I heard nothing except it was a “Outpatient procedure”
I was the same age, and it got to me, too, for while there.
I’ve seen the trailer, and the movie is nothing like the series. More of a comedy. Kind of disappointing.
I was working when the series first aired, so I never got to see it. I also missed it when it was re-aired by the Sci-Fi Channel years ago. Finally got to watch the whole series, from beginning to end via Netflix discs. I see that they now have some of the series available via live streaming. The early years before Frid joined the show are available only on disc.
He died on Friday the 13th...how appropriate. I wonder why it took almost another week for the news to get out.
When people were talking about kids and the Twilight movies, I pointed out that those girls' mothers or grandmothers swooned over Dark Shadows. Nobody knew what I was talking about.
Ive seen the trailer, and the movie is nothing like the series. More of a comedy. Kind of disappointing.
Tim Burton is talented, but his adaptations (Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland) aren't usually improvements. Likewise, Johnny Depp is prodigiously talented, but his movies with Burton aren't his best work.
Thats a lot of money and discs!! Yikes, indeed!!!
Looks like an "Austin Powers" kind of thing (i.e. you didn't have to be that attractive to be a sex symbol in those days).
We're in the death zone now and everyone dying is around our age.........I refuse to read the obituaries like my parents and grand parents did.
Nah, I've never wondered - although this does give some insight. :-)
Well, at least Barnabas Collins didn't sparkle . . .
When people were talking about kids and the Twilight movies, I pointed out that those girls' mothers or grandmothers swooned over Dark Shadows. Nobody knew what I was talking about
He must have seen the Johnny Depp movie. RIP.
I met him once, at our family-owned restaurant, he was just stopping in for a bite.
PING!!!!!!
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