Dark Shadows Star Dies

By: Bill McAllister

My last blog was about the death of Dick Clark and now I'm blogging about Jonathan Frid who died at the age of 87 in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. I'm not trying to be morbid but geez, celebrities from my childhood seem to be dropping like flies! (Hurry, someone check on Barry Williams). Some of you may be saying, "Jonathan who?" Mr. Frid was an actor on ABC-TV's Dark Shadows from 1966-71. The show was actually a soap opera revolving around a 175-year old vampire named Barnabas Collins played by Mr. Frid. His death comes just weeks before the movie version of Dark Shadows is to be released. The Tim Burton film stars Johnny Depp in the lead role made famous by Jonathan Frid (who actually has a cameo in the new movie). For whatever reason, they are making the film version a comedy. TRAVESTY! The beauty of the TV show was that it was basically a half-hour horror movie that aired five-days a week. The only comedy was the voluminous amount of bloopers the show provided.

Like many of my classmates at Parkwood Elementary in Warren, I would race home just in time to see Dark Shadows, which began at 3:30pm. We weren't alone, according to the L.A. Times, Depp said in a statement, "Jonathan Frid was the reason I used to run home from school to watch 'Dark Shadows. When I had the honor to finally meet him, as he so generously passed the torch of Barnabas to me, he was as elegant and magical as I had always imagined. My deepest condolences to his family and friends. The world has lost a true original."

At it's peak in the late 60's-early 70's, Dark Shadows had 20 million viewers per day and was a pop culture phenomenon.