Actor Jonathan Frid passed away of natural causes at Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, last week — less than a month before Johnny Depp’s highly anticipated big-screen ressurection of the role he is best remembered for: Dark Shadows vampire Barnabas Collins. Sadly, yet somehow appropriately, Frid’s death occured on Friday the 13th. He was 87.
Many children my age had their imaginations sparked (or, in my case, terrified) by Dark Shadows. Mention the show now and you’ll likely get a blank stare from most anyone, but from 1966-71, kids all over the country (myself included) ran home from school to watch Dark Shadows on ABC. The biggest reason for the fascination with what in retrospect seems like a campy vampire show (which it was) was Barnabas Collins, the vampire played by Jonathan Frid. I loved Dark Shadows, but I was also terrified by it. I was so thoroughly frightened by Dark Shadows that, when I was a wee lad of 8 or 9, I thought Barnabas Collins lived in the basement (along with Ho Chi Minh, but that’s another story for another time) of our small house in Hibbing, MN. I dreaded those times when Mom would ask me to go down into the basement and fetch something for her. She had no idea of the terror I felt well up in the pit of my stomach. Or the courage it took for me to race down the stairs, grab what Mom sent me after, and fly back up the stairs…all before Barnabas Collins figured out that I was in his lair. My heart thumping like a kick drum, my senses at full throttle, the terror that propelled my into and out of the basement at warp speed was an adrenaline rush (thankfully) unlike anything I’d felt before or since.
For an entire generation of American children, Jonathan Frid was defined by his role as Barnabas Collins, in much the same way the cast of Star Trek was defined by their service on the Starship Enterprise. After Dark Shadows ended its run, I moved on to other silly, irrational fears (I’m still terrified of rats, f’rinstance), and I never gave much thought to Jonathan Frid, who had a long and successful career as an actor. When I would think of Dark Shadows and the role it played in my childhood, it’s one of the few things from youth that brings a smile to my face.
Ironically enough, Tim Burton’s take on Dark Shadows is set to hit theaters on May 11th with Johnny Depp cast as Barnabas Collins. The previews look hilarious, and while I’m certain it will be nothing like the series was for me, I’m looking forward to seeing it.
I can only hope that Jonathan Frid was aware of the impact he had on the millions of American children who ran home after school so they wouldn’t miss Dark Shadows. If the measure of the quality of a life lies in the lives affected, Jonathan Frid was among the best.
Yet another piece of my childhood is lost….
