This week saw the four year anniversary of the death of Jonathan Frid. (Four years already? Man, tempus fugit, alright.) Although it is frequently reported that Mr. Frid passed away, at age 87, on April 14th, his passing actually occurred on the 13th—which, appropriately enough, was a Friday. Jonathan Frid deserves to be listed alongside such revered names as Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, as he was that important to the Horror genre, and to the vampire subgenre in particular. His role as Barnabas Collins on the daytime soap opera DARK SHADOWS redefined the vampire for the modern age. Think that’s an exaggeration? Think again.
Anne Rice’s sympathetic vampires? Dracula as an antihero rather than a villain? Barnabas set that precedence. Before Frid, vampires were depicted as mostly if not completely evil. Barnabas Collins was the first to elicit more sympathy from viewers than did his victims. When introduced to the show, Frid’s character was intended to be a temporary addition. But the fans fell in love and the ratings went through the roof, and Barnabas became the star of the show, the locus of the entire DARK SHADOWS phenomenon. The series only ended after Frid’s contract expired and he chose to move on, tired of portraying the character with which he had become synonymous. Like Lugosi with Dracula, though, he would never escape Barnabas Collins. Other actors have tried to play the role (and some, like Johnny Depp, failed miserably at it), but there will never be another Barnabas.