Jonathan Frid (December 2, 1924 – April 14, 2012)[1] was a Canadian actor, best known for his role as vampire Barnabas Collins on the gothic television soap opera Dark Shadows.

[3] His watershed portrayal has been cited as a key influence on contemporary genre film and television series such as Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.

[11] Frid's first years of study at McMaster University in Hamilton were interrupted when in 1944 he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II, and served on the destroyer HMCS Algonquin (R17).

[19] After two terms, Frid left and became a leading actor in repertory in Cornwall and Kent for two seasons and toured the country in the West End thriller, The Third Visitor.

[26] He applied his training to radio spots[27] and a few appearances on television for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,[19] including an unusual role as a native in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

For two consecutive summer seasons, under the direction of John Houseman, Frid performed with such distinguished actors as Alfred Drake, Earle Hyman, Fritz Weaver, Sada Thompson, and Katharine Hepburn.

[41][42][43] His most celebrated Shakespearean performance was the title role of Richard III at the 1965 Summer Festival of Professional Theatre at Pennsylvania State University.

[44][45] Frid made his Broadway debut as an understudy, and appeared, in the 1964 play Roar Like a Dove, directed by Cyril Ritchard and starring Betsy Palmer.

In early March 1967 Frid was arriving at his Manhattan apartment following the completion of a National Tour of Hostile Witness with Ray Milland when he received the phone call from his agent that would change his life: a request to audition for a 13-week role as a vampire.

[55][56] Before taping began the producers asked the actor and the writers, including Ron Sproat, a fellow Yale alumnus, to discuss the character's development.

[64] The iconic image of Frid as Barnabas Collins adorned comic books, paperback gothic novels, bubble gum cards and even a board game, complete with coffin.

Frid made his American feature film debut portraying his famous television character in MGM's House of Dark Shadows.

In 1969 he took a four-week hiatus from the show to star in the Frederick Knott play Dial M for Murder at the legendary The Little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan, Illinois.

[10] In 1977 he accepted an invitation from Penn State College to appear in the role of Tony Cavendish in the comedy The Royal Family for their Professional Summer Series Festival.

[84][85][86] In 1985 Frid was invited to do a fundraising television special by the New Jersey Network during which he performed Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart and a soliloquy from Richard III.

[1] He was a regular visitor at the Royal Botanical Gardens (Ontario), became a member of the Richard III Society of Canada,[96] and in 1997 was the Narrator in a production of Peter and the Wolf at the Central Presbyterian Church of Hamilton.

[102] In 2010 he returned to the role of Barnabas for the first time in thirty-nine years in Big Finish Productions' Dark Shadows audio drama The Night Whispers.

The film's star Johnny Depp told the Los Angeles Times “Jonathan Frid was the reason I used to run home to watch Dark Shadows.

When I had the honor to finally meet him…he was elegant and magical as I had always imagined.”[105][106] At his 1998 induction as a McMaster University Alumni Honoree, Frid said he wanted to be remembered for "creating illusion through body language and the spoken word".

[113][114] Film critic Dann Gire of the Daily Herald-Chicago wrote, "Dark Shadows and Beyond – The Jonathan Frid Story is directed with economy and panache by Mary O'Leary...Her biography of the popular actor evolves into a love letter for the performing arts, exemplified by a man whose devotion to his craft became the driving force in his life".