Jonathan Frid, star of ‘Dark Shadows’, dies at age 87
Jonathan Frid, who played Barnabbas Collins on the cult vampire soap opera “Dark Shadows” dies at age 87.
This, just weeks before Johnny Depp steps into the period shoes of the bloodsucker in Tim Burton’s feature film version of the show, opening May 11.
Born in Ontario, Canada in 1924, Frid served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II before studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and then emigrating to the United States, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in directing from the Yale School of Drama in 1957. Originally intended to appear in a short story arc on Dark Shadows for just three or four weeks, Frid’s Barnabas ended up reinvigorating the struggling soap and propelled it into a cultural phenomenon, while the character of Barnabas Collins became so popular that Frid remained entrenched on the show until its cancelation in 1971.