Jonathan Frid

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jonathan Frid in the fall of 2001

Jonathan Frid , born as John Herbert Frid, (born December 2, 1924 in Hamilton, Ontario ; † April 13, 2012 ibid) was a Canadian theater, television and film actor.

Jonathan Frid played in the 50s and 60s initially under the name John Frid, since 1962 under the stage name Jonathan Frid primarily in the theater, where he appeared in comic and serious roles, including numerous plays by William Shakespeare .

He became known to a wide audience in his role as the vampire Barnabas Collins in the US Gothic soap opera " Dark Shadows ", in which he was seen in 594 episodes from 1967 to 1971.

Training and career start

According to a statement in an interview with Modern Screens magazine in 1966, Jonathan Frid was already enthusiastic about films as a child. At the age of 15, he had his first school appearance in the role of Sir Anthony Absolute in the comedy "The Rivals" by Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), which was also the beginning of his serious interest in acting been. He joined the Hamilton Players Guild in his hometown under the name John Frid and began his studies at the prestigious McMaster University , where he learned the basics of acting. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Canadian Navy . He returned to the university after the war ended and graduated in 1948.

In January 1949, Jonathan Frid was accepted as an acting student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In London he was a member of various theater groups and went on tour with the thriller "The Third Visitor" , among others . After two years he returned to Canada, where he played in several ensembles such as the "Earl Gray Players" in Toronto and studied at the "Lorne Greene's Academy of Radio Arts" . At this time Frid could also be heard in radio plays for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and was involved in the first television game productions of the television network CBC Television, which was founded in 1952 .

Jonathan Frid moved in 1954 to the United States and enrolled at the Yale University associated "Yale School of Drama" , where he also played theater. In the summer of 1956 he was with Katharine Hepburn in the plays The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing to see by Shakespeare , which were performed as part of the "American Shakespearean Festival" in Connecticut . In 1957, Frid graduated from Yale with a Master of Fine Arts in film directing.

Activity as a stage actor

From 1958 to 1966 Jonathan Frid appeared in a number of modern and classical theater plays: He showed his sense of comedy as Bill Starbuck in the play "The Rainmaker" by the American writer N. Richard Nash , as O'Bannion in "Auntie Mame " By the American playwright Jerome Lawrence , as Mr. Antrobus in Thornton Wilder's " We Got Away Again " (original title The Skin of Our Teeth ) and as Petruchio in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew . Serious roles in Shakespearean plays included Orlando in What You Want , Caliban in The Tempest , Lord Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and the title roles in Macbeth and Richard III.

Jonathan Frid also played theater during the runtime of the television series Dark Shadows from 1967 to 1971: He appeared in the productions "Dial M For Murder" and "Wait Until Dark" . In 1971, was terminated as the TV series, Jonathan Frid the Thomas Becket played in a stage version of TS Eliot's drama Murder in the Cathedral (AKA Murder in the Cathedral ).

Activity as a film and television actor

Jonathan Frid was quite some time looking for a theater professor and wanted in 1967 in California to accept a teaching position, as during his stay in New York by the television channel ABC for the role of vampire Barnabas Collins in the soap opera "Dark Shadows" was committed. Originally, Barnabas Collins was only supposed to give the show new momentum and Frid was only to be seen in this role for a few weeks. He'd never auditioned for the role and later admitted that he didn't really want her either. Within a short period of time, Jonathan Frid became so well known in this role that he became a real pop culture icon: he received thousands of fan letters every week, appeared regularly on TV shows, and was regarded as a leading sex symbol and has featured on the covers of countless teenage magazines. That annoyed him: " I always feel like an ass being a teenage idol in a teeny-bopper magazine."). But Jonathan Frid was so popular in the role of Barnabas Collins that he played her in 594 of a total of 1,225 series episodes for four years.

In 1970 he was also seen as Barnabas Collins in the first Dark Shadows feature film Das Schloß der Vampire (original title House of Dark Shadows ), played in 1973 in the television film "The Devil's Daughter" by director Jeannot Szwarc and in 1974 in Oliver Stone's directorial debut " The ruler of evil ” (original title Seizure ).

Activities since the 80s

After the end of the Dark Shadows series, Jonathan Frid withdrew from the public for a few years, traveled through Mexico and lived alternately in New York and Canada.

Since the 1980s he has given readings and gave seminars and theater workshops in New York. He appeared at various dark shadows conventions, where he read poems and short stories. In 1986, he appeared on Broadway in the stage adaptation of the film Arsenic and Old Lace (AKA Arsenic and Old Lace ) in the role of Jonathan Brewster and went with this production later on an America-wide tour. He founded his company Clunes Associates in 1986 with Mary O'Leary to go on a reading tour between 1988 and 1994 with the programs "Jonathan Frid's Fools and Fiends" , "Jonathan Frid's Fridiculousness" and "Jonathan Frid's Shakespearean Odyssey" .

Jonathan Frid has lived exclusively in Canada since 1994 and only appeared in public every now and then. But he continued to work on short programs that he had developed from his one-man shows . McMaster University honored Jonathan Frid for his dedication to acting with a 1998 induction into the McMaster University Alumni Gallery Hall of Fame . Frid returned to the stage in June 2000 as an actor in the comedy "Mass Appeal" by Bill C. Davis.

Since May 2012, Jonathan Frid can be seen together with his former Dark Shadows colleagues Lara Parker , David Selby and Kathryn Leigh Scott in a cameo in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows film adaptation.

death

Frid died of natural causes on April 13, 2012 , at Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton , Ontario .

Filmography

Television films and series

  • 1967–1971: Dark Shadows (TV series, 594 episodes)
  • 1973: The Devil's Daughter (TV movie)

Feature films

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Frid Dead: Original Barnabas Collins Dies at 87 One Month Before 'Dark Shadows' Movie Release
  2. ↑ David Ragan: Who's who in Hollywood: the largest cast of international film personalities ever assembled , Volume 1, New York, NY [u. a.] 1992, Lemma: Frid, Jonathan .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Jonathan Frid's biography on his own homepage ( Memento from March 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ a b c d e Rosemary Ellen Guiley: The Encyclopedia of Vampires and Werewolves , 2nd Edition New York 2011, Lemma: Frid, Jonathan , pp. 157-158.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Craig Hamrick: Barnabas & company: the cast of the TV classic Dark Shadows , New York 2003, pp. 56–58 Online on Google Books .
  6. ↑ Harry M. Benshoff: Dark Shadows , (= TV Milestones), Detroit, Michigan 2011, pp. 58–59.
  7. ↑ The last episode has the number 1,245, but only 1,225 episodes were produced and broadcast. The difference in the numbering is explained by the double and in one case triple numbering of some of the episodes.
  8. ↑ Jonathan Frid's biography on darkshadowsonline.com
  9. ^ San Diego Comic-Con 2011: Dark Shadows Panel Highlights; Original Cast Cameos Confirmed for Tim Burton's Dark Shadows Film ( September 11, 2011 memento on the Internet Archive ), accessed September 4, 2019
  10. ↑ Jonathan Frid
  11. ↑ Rest in Peace: Jonathan Frid

literature

biography

  • Malia Howard: Jonathan Frid: an actor's curious journey. o. O. 2001.

Secondary literature

  • David Ragan: Who's who in Hollywood: the largest cast of international film personalities ever assembled. Volume 1, New York, NY. 1992, Lemma: Frid, Jonathan , ISBN 0-8160-2009-4 .
  • Craig Hamrick: Barnabas & company: the cast of the TV classic Dark Shadows. New York 2003, pp. 56-58. Online on Google Books , ISBN 978-0-595-29029-1 .
  • Jeff Thompson: The television horrors of Dan Curtis. Dark shadows, The night stalker and other productions, 1966-2006. Jefferson, NC. 2009, ISBN 978-0-7864-3693-4 .
  • Harry M. Benshoff: Dark Shadows. (= TV Milestones), Detroit, Michigan 2011, ISBN 978-0-8143-3439-3 .
  • John Edgar Browning, Caroline Joan Picart: Dracula in visual media: film, television, comic book and electronic game appearances, 1921–2010. Jefferson, NC. 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3365-0 .
  • Rosemary Ellen Guiley: The Encyclopedia of Vampires and Werewolves. 2nd edition New York 2011, Lemma: Frid, Jonathan. Pp. 157-158, ISBN 978-0-8160-8180-6 .
  • Kathryn Leigh Scott, Jim Pierson, Jonathan Frid (preface): Dark Shadows: Return to Collinwood. Los Angeles 2012, ISBN 978-0-938817-66-6 .

Web links

Commons : Jonathan Frid  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Frid, Jonathan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frid, John Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian theater, television and film actor
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamilton , Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 2012
Place of death Hamilton , Ontario, Canada