All language subtitles for Dark Shadows and Beyond - The Jonathan Frid Story

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[knocking]

- Yes?

- I'd like to see Mrs. Stoddard,
if you'd be so kind.

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

- Mrs. Stoddard.

- This is Collinwood, isn't it?

- Yes.

- And the mistress here is
Mrs. Elizabeth Collins Stoddard,

is she not?

- Yes.

- Then perhaps you'd do me
the courtesy

to inform Mrs. Stoddard
that her cousin is calling

and wishes to pay his respects.

- Her... her cousin?

- Yes, her cousin from England.

- From England.
Oh, please come in.

- I'd be delighted, thank you.

[doors click shut]

- Oh, would you like to wait
in the drawing room?

- Here will be fine, thank you.

Oh, madam...

if you would,
you may tell her that it's

Barnabas Collins.

[eerie music]
♪♪

[uptempo stringed music]
♪♪

Go.

You also allowed
your friend Jason

to follow you to the cemetery.

♪♪

You're were cold.
- No.

No!
- You deserve to die!

[woman screaming]

- No!

[woman screaming]

[light piano music]
♪♪

- [V/O] Actors never know
what role

might make them famous.

One of the great ironies
of 20th century pop culture

is that a classically trained
Canadian actor

took America by storm,

with his portrayal of
a 175 year old vampire.

The show was Dark Shadows.

Saved from cancellation in 1967

when it introduced Shakespearean
actor Jonathan Frid

into the story line
as Barnabas Collins.

Multimedia's first
sympathetic vampire.

The iconic image of Frid
as Barnabas Collins,

adorned comic books
and paperback gothic novels,

bubble gun cards
and even a board game

complete with coffin.

- He plays Barnabas Collins.
Here's Jonathan Frid.

[audience applause]

- [V/O] He appeared on
Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas,

Dick Cavett
and The Tonight Show.

No television show seemed safe
from the vampire's shadow.

[audience cheering]

- And might I remind you,
it's one question at a time.

I'll give you two minutes to
try and establish the identity

of our mystery guest.

[audience cheering]

And we're begging the
questioning with Arlene Francis.

- I never heard
such a happy audience.

Uh... and it sounded like
a lot of young voices.

Are you particularly appealing
to the young?

- Yes.

[audience cheers]

- [V/O] Overnight,
Frid became rock star famous

with screaming teenagers
thronging

to his personal appearances
like he was one of the Beatles.

Today, five decades after
Dark Shadows went off the air,

in April 1971,

the show is still a pop culture
touchstone.

But what was the appeal
of Barnabas Collins,

and who's the man
behind the vampire's cloak?

- Night is drawing nearer
and nearer to Collinwood.

And the man who disappeared
into another night

has not been found.

But out of the falling dusk
another man has come.

A stranger
who is not a stranger.

A man with a face
who is long familiar

to those who live at Collinwood.

A man who has come
a great distance.

But who still bears
deep within him

a soul shaped by the far country
from country from which he came.

- Where's your home, Jonathan?
Originally?

- I'm from Hamilton,
Ontario Canada.

[audience applauds]

I didn't know
you had so many Canadian's.

- [V/O] John Herbert Frid
was born on December 2nd, 1924.

The third and youngest son
of Flora McGregor

and Herbert Percival Frid.

The family owned and operated
Frid Construction.

One of the leading construction
firms in Hamilton.

The Frid family also supported
the development of parks

and green spaces
throughout the city

and neighboring communities.

- I knew H.P. a little bit

as he passed away when
I was about seven years old,

but I do remember him.

Very quiet, laid-back,
very gentle man.

- My grandfather
and then my father

who took over the
construction company,

were the business men,

and my grandmother
was the P.R. person.

She would entertain
all of the clients.

She was the life of the party.

The belle of the ball.

- [V/O] Jonathan and his
brothers spent summers

at his maternal grandparent's
sprawling estate in Waterdale.

It was called the Clunes.

Named after his grandmother's
childhood home in Scotland.

The property included a pond,
and seven cottages.

While his mother Flora
hosted garden parties,

Jonathan enjoyed recreational
time with his cousins,

away from his rigorous studies
at school.

- The first time I was ever
nervous of acting

was simply getting up
in the aisle in school

and having to recite
a poem in class,

and I would shake with...
shiver, fear.

- [V/O] Jonathan's early
education took place at

Hillfield School.

An all boys preparatory school.

Jonathan struggled
academically at Hillfield,

which caused lingering feelings
of low self esteem.

Both Jonathan and his brother
Ken suffered from dyslexia,

which was not properly
understood at the time.

- I was sixteen.

I begged to be in
the senior play,

because usually the only people
that were in it

were drafted into it.

Because they were in the top six
smart students in the class.

The top-- The top two classes.

And of course,
I was never in the top six.

However, they tested me
and gave me the roll

as Sir Anthony Absolute
in Sheridan's The Rivals.

We used to rehearse those things
for six to eight weeks.

And I don't think I did any
studying at all for those weeks.

All I did was to perfect--

To get that roll down
to such perfection.

- [V/O] Jonathan spent so much
time working on The Rivals,

he failed two subjects.

Which meant he would have
to repeat his Junior year

at Hillfield.

Instead, he moved to
Westdale Collegiate

for his Senior year
of high school.

There he was cast as
King Charles II

in a comedy entitled, So To Bed,

but he also began to look
for other opportunities

to be on stage.

- We're at The Players' Guild
of Hamilton.

And I, at this point in time,
run the costume department

in this theater.

Jonathan enjoyed
a wonderful few years here.

He was seventeen years old
when he first came to the Guild.

Gladys Gillian was the director
that really caught

Jonathan Frid's imagination,
and helped him

to further hone his abilities
on the stage.

She was an American.

Her stories about New York
probably planted the seeds

for Jonathan's decision
a little later in life

to go to the States.

Jonathan went to
McMaster University.

He belonged to the drama club,
of course.

He decided to call Gladys,

because he had such a good
experience with her

at The Players' Guild.

And he invited her to direct
a couple of plays at McMaster.

The Royal Family and
The Barrett's of Wimpole Street.

- [V/O] Jonathan's years
at McMaster were interrupted

by World War II.

All three Frid brothers
entered the armed forces.

Jonathan insisted
in the Royal Canadian Navy 1944,

where he was assigned
to the H.M.C.S Algonquin.

Fortunately, the Japanese
surrendered

before Jonathan
would see combat.

Jonathan returned to McMaster
where he would become

drama club president

and graduated
with the university's

Honor Society Award for drama.

- Then I went to England

and I studied
at the Royal Academy.

I didn't complete
my course there.

You know how people are
when they're young,

they can't wait
to start working.

And I went into repertoire
down in Kent,

and another repertoire
company in Cornwall.

And I finally did a national
tour of a West End success

called The Third Visitor,

in which I played
an American gangster.

- [V/O] While in England
following a performance of

Venus Observed in the West End,

Jonathan met the actor
he admired most,

Laurence Olivier.

Olivier counseled
the young actor to correct

any technical flaws
in his diction.

An essential accomplishment

for an actor serious
about the classics.

Jonathan took Olivier's advice
to heart.

Jonathan returned to Canada
and ventured to Toronto

looking to start his theatrical
career in earnest.

He made his Shakespearean debut
during the summer of 1951

at the Toronto
Shakespeare festival,

directed and produced
by Earl Gray.

Eager to enhance
his vocal strength

for the great Shakespearean
roles,

he attended voices classes
at Lorne Greene's

Academy of Radio Arts.

Practice sessions included
tongue twister poetry.

- The teeny tine woman
opened the teeny tiny gate,

and went into a teeny tiny
church yard,

and when this tiny tiny woman
had gotten into

the tiny tiny church yard

she saw a teeny tiny bone

on a teeny tiny grave.

There once were two cats
at Kilkenny.

Each thought there was one cat
too many,

so they fought, and they fit,
and thy scratched, and they bit,

till, excepting their nails,
and the tips of their tails,

instead of two cats,
there weren't any.

- Jonathan came back
to the area.

He was part of a production
called Asleep of Prisoners.

The production fascinated him
because it was held in a church.

Centenary United Church
right down town,

in the middle of all the hustle
and bustle of Hamilton.

1954 saw Jonathan involved
in the Dominion Drama Festival.

The Dominion Drama Festival
was actually an organization

made up of a number
of other smaller festivals.

The one that Hamilton
belonged in was

the Western Ontario
Drama League. WODL.

And he was in Rebecca

and they went to the WODL level,
and performed very well.

Were called "Best Play",

and Jonathan Frid
got a mention for his portrayal.

And they went from there
as the best of that festival

to the Dominion Drama Festival.

They found themselves
in a 2000 seat theater.

The Palace Theater
in downtown Hamilton.

It was unfortunate
in many respects

because a number of actors

finding themselves
in this huge house,

with this great expanse of stage

started shouting their lines.

The critics were not amused.

Jonathan was mortified that
Rebecca was not received better

after its performance
at the Palace Theater.

It's a shame because it's
probably one of the last

times that he actually
performed up here

before he made the decision
to go to the States.

- I wanted to be a director
at one point in my life,

so I went down
to the Yale drama school

and took directing there.

And uh...

But I've never directed yet
professionally,

but I want to do it someday.

- I met Jonathan Frid
at the Yale School of Drama,

where we were all students
there together.

And he was kinda awesome
in the sense of a presence

that he had.

It was like meeting an actor

from the Royal Shakespeare
Company in terms

of the kind of quality he had
of dignity and class, basically.

- When I was at Yale
there was a guy

whose name I'd heard
before I ever met him.

Uh, John Frid.

And actors...
some of them had funny stories

about him and...

I think everybody liked
John Frid.

And Jonathan was kind of
a classical actor, really,

when I first knew him.

He would be in Shakespeare
and so on.

Excellent, versatile actor.

- You had to act.

If you were going to be
a director, you have to know

what the emotional
and psychological process

of an actor is.

To be able to communicate
with them and help them.

- [V/O] After completing
the first year

of his Masters program,

Jonathan was chosen
to be a leading actor

for the inaugural season

of the Williamstown
Theatre Festival,

in Williamstown Massachusetts.

Jonathan would appear in eight
of the ten plays,

presented in just ten weeks.

It was a grueling schedule,

but he never the less
found it exhilarating.

When the summer season ended,

he headed back to New Haven
for his second year at Yale.

- Directors had to cover
all fields

from acting to knowing
the physics of lighting.

And we had to do ground plans,
elevations for stage design,

we had to do all these things.

And so it was really kinda of
a marvelous three years for me.

And I'll always be grateful
for Yale.

- [V/O] After receiving high
praise for his portrayal

of Tulus Ophedius
in Shakespeare's Coriolanus

at Yale.

Jonathan was invited to join
the acting company

of the American
Shakespeare Festival

at Stratford Connecticut.

For two consecutive
summer seasons,

Jonathan was thrilled to have
the opportunity to work

with a number
of distinguished actors,

such as Alfred Drake
and Katharine Hepburn.

- I was in a production
of Othello with him

at the Stratford Connecticut
Shakespeare festival,

and Jonathan came on
as a vigorous soldier,

sword at his side,

got to the center of the stage,

and delivered
the first three lines

from The Merchant of Venice.

He realized he was in
the wrong play,

made a sharp right,
stumbled a little,

went to the edge of the stage
to leave.

And the set in those days,
if you can picture this,

was called the Venetian Blinds,

they went all the way up
to the ceiling.

Jonathan in his turn
to exit, crashed [laughing]

into the nearest Venetian blind
and tried to get away from it,

but his sword
had gone in between

the two close together
slats there,

and he couldn't jerk it loose.

So I think he finally let it
pull out and hang there,

and went off stage.

Somehow, they got on
with the rest of the play.

[laughing] Later he said,
"I just don't know what happens

with me."

- [V/O] Jonathan joined Hepburn
and other members

of the American
Shakespeare Festival

following his graduation
from Yale.

On a national tour
of Much Ado About Nothing.

When the tour concluded,
Jonathan settled into

an apartment near
Washington Square Park

in New York City.

Despite his interest
in directing and teaching,

Jonathan's passion was to act.

- George Rufhogan and I
co-produced The Goal

in which Jonathan Frid was in.

It was our first show
off Broadway.

Jonathan played the antagonist,
though he had that

esthetic weight.

He had a gravitas, you know.

Which was electrifying on stage.

He drew you in.

- "Dear Mother and Dad,

"while the press have been
most favorable

"for Moon in the Yellow River,

"the public response has not.

"In fact, it has gone from bad
to worse.

"Last week our closing notice
went up.

"And so the unemployment
situation throughout

the nation will be worsened
come next Sunday.?"

"Dear Mother and Dad,

"last week I was called to read
for the roll of Ronny

"in the Broadway production
of A Passage to India.

"While the audition
went brilliantly,

"I think I gave the most
flawless reading of my career.

"The producers showed
great interest in me

"after it was over.

"I answered their questions
precisely

and for once in my life,
I didn't talk too much."

"Today the readings
were transferred to

"the Winter Garden Theatre.

"What a difference
this always makes

"from the comfortable
circumstances of a private room.

"Each of us read very briefly.

"One is cut off all too soon.

"No chance to get going,

"only sound quality
they want to see.

"And so you walk offstage,

"the half smile
to the stage manager.

"And a feeble, 'Thank you'.

"And then a stupid,
insincere, 'Good luck',

"to the others you would
rather see dead

"as you grab your coat
and loose yourself

in the crowded street."

"Well the roll in
Passage to India

"finally went to well known
actor about town

"called Louis Edmonds.

"It was a sad miss.

I think the biggest
disappointment to date."

- Why did he become an actor?
Why did he become a director?

It's obviously something
that dare possess

to share with the world.

Why would you put up
with all the stuff

that you have to put up with?

Unless there's something
that obsess you,

that you want to say and share

and that you have to do.

And uh...

You know, being an actor,

you have to share your soul.

- "I took my first Broadway bow
last Thursday night

"after going on for an actor
I was covering.

"After four performances
I feel like a veteran.

"By then I was getting solid
laughs precisely timed.

"As I came off the stage
Saturday night,

"Betsy Palmer said,

"'You were just plain
brilliant tonight. '

"Naturally, I felt glorious.

A moment in which a life long
dream was achieved."

"Dear Mother and Dad,

"after a month or two,

"which seem to be
stage hard times,

"I'm back in business
with contracts signed

"for what could be
a comfortably long stay

"at the Phoenix Theatre
in Henry iv, Part 2,

"which I am now rehearsing.

"I've only two scenes,
but they are good ones.

"I'm playing Scroop,
Archbishop of York.

"Also, in May I will be
taking over the roll

"of the Earl of Worcester,
in Henry IV, Part 1.

"A somewhat larger part,
Worcester is the leader

of the apposing forces
to the king."

[horn music]
♪♪

- Oh no, my nephew
must not know Sir Richard

the liberal and kind
author of the king.

- For best you did!
- Then have we all undone?

It is not possible.
It cannot be that king

should keep his word
in loving us.

He will suspect us still.

And find a time to punish
his offense and other folds.

Therefore, good cousin,

let knot Harry know in any case
the offer of the king.

- Deliver what you will,
I will take the fall.

- My uncle has returned.
Uncle, what news?

- The king will big you
battle presently.

- Defy him!
- There's no seeming mercy
in the king.

- Did you beg, God forbid.

- The Prince of Wales
stepped forth before the king,

and nephew, challenged you
to single fight.

- Oh, what the quarrel
lay upon our heads,

and that no man might draw
short breath today.

But I and Harry Monmouth.

- [V/O] Following the broadcast
of Henry IV, Part 1,

Jonathan took
his agent's advice,

and changed his stage name
from simple John Frid,

to the more imposing
Jonathan Frid.

- "Dear Mother and Dad,

"good news this morning,
I was called to appear

"on a couple of installments
on As The World Turns.

"A soap opera.

"I'm to play a psychiatrist.

"The heroine is apparently
in a bad way.

"Not unusual, I guess.

I hope she gets worse,
and needs me often."

- Now, I was sitting at home
while I was watching this.

I'd never been on a soap
before at this point.

The wife has been very ill,
and the husband said to her,

"Look, I've called this doctor
to come and see you,

he's a psychiatrist."

"I don't want to see
any psychiatrist!"

So, he said, "Oh, but he's on
his way over here right now."

Good God, I'm supposed to be
down at the studio!

He's coming right now.

That's how naive I was.
[chuckles]

So finally,
when I got that settled,

I think I called them
and they said,

"You're not on for a while.
Relax."

- We're on the verge
of this period,

going into the Kennedy
administration,

where culture was like
the hula hoop

for a moment of the times.

And the Ford Foundation,
and the Rockefeller Foundation,

and the National Endowment
for the Arts.

Then eventually state government
started funding

non-profit theaters
throughout the country,

so that cities would have
their own theater companies

doing the great works instead
of just getting Broadway shows

that were touring in
or out of New York.

That changed things
in the American theater.

- They gave audiences
around the country

a chance to come and see
professional actors

doing these plays

and that helped spread theater
around the country.

- The regional theaters
began to pick me up,

and ask me to come out,
and offer me nice spots.

Out there in the field
I had a wonderful time

playing things out there.

- I met Jonathan in the 60s,

and he was an actor that
had been brought in

to play the roll of
Oberon Tiresias,

and I played Philostrate Puck.

So my major scenes
were with Jonathan.

The production
was Front Street Theater

which was a regional theater
in the day,

and it was in Memphis.

- So I'm a young actor.

I was about 28, I think.
In Philadelphia.

I did two years at Arena Stage
in Washington D. C.

Anyway, this company
that we assembled,

there was this guy
with a great voice,

and he can handle
classical material.

He can handle words.

So we did a play by Allen Wi
called Poor Bitos,

and he was also in the Sheridan
that we did, The Critic.

- [V/O] March, 1965.

"Dear Mother and Dad,

"I'm getting more
convinced than ever

"that I'll probably make my mark
in this kind of theater.

"Regional theater, Universities,

"rather than in commercial
television.

"I feel that I have a flare
for one and not the other.

"The encouraging thing is,

that there is so very much work
around the country these days."

- The summer before that I had
played Coriolanus in San Diego.

So they wanted me to come back,
and I thought that was great.

I just said to John, "Do you
want to go to San Diego?"

"Why not?
Who wouldn't want to?"

So I called him, I said,

"There's a guy here
you gotta see."

"You gotta get him.
He's good.

Get him before someone else
gets him."

Jonathan Frid.

So we did Romeo and Juliet.

And then we went into rehearsal
for The Tempest.

They had offered me Caliban.

We had a read through,
and I pulled Jonathan aside,

I said, "Jonathan,
you want to play Caliban?"

He just lit up.
He said, "Yeah!"

And so I told the head
of the theater,

Craig Knoll at the time,

I said, you know,
"I don't want to do Caliban,

but I'll do Jonathan's Part,
and let Jonathan do Caliban."

So everyone was okay with that.

- I was a young actor,
want to be actor in San Diego,

and I went to see a production
of The Tempest,

and I was taken
by this character.

By Caliban.

This guy was passionate,
and just very theatrical,

and you can understand him.

And I still remember to this day
the performance.

- He had a wonderful season
cuz he played Caliban,

and he played the hell
out of him.

So then, they asked me
to come back and do Iago.

Which I definitely wanted to do,

and I thought I'd see Jonathan
there, and that's it.

"What happened?"
"Where's Jonathan?"

They said, "Oh, he's doing
this TV thing."

I said, "Jonathan gave up
Shakespeare

to do some piece of TV?"

"You gotta be kidding."

And it was something called
Dark Shadows.

And then the rest is history.

- The plan was to cast a guy
that we were going to kill off

in a very short period of time,

but just try and make it
as scary as possible.

- And I had just arrived home
from a national tour

of Hostile Witness
with Ray Moran.

I hadn't even dropped my bags
when the phone rang,

and my agent said,
"They're looking for a vampire

for a soap opera called
Dark Shadows."

And I thought,
"Well that's one for the books."

We'll go and read for it
and see what happens.

- I was going to London
and I left it up to my people

to send me pictures
of actors that came in to read

for the character of Barnabas.

And there was one photograph.

There was a guy on a stage,
he was wearing a cape.

And so [laughing] even though

I could barely see
what he looked like,

I called my casting guy,

a guy by the name of Allen Shane,

and I said, "Who is this guy?"

And he said, "His name is
Jonathan Frid,

he's a very fine
Shakespearean actor."

"He's a Canadian."

And I said, "He can really act,
right?"

And he says,
"Oh, yes. He's wonderful."

And I said,
"Alright, cast him."

- And one day,
this coffin was opened

by Willie Loomis,

who turned into a grave robber,

and he found the secret tomb
quite by accident.

He was fascinated by the fact
that he saw this coffin

with chains around it.

When he opened the coffin,
a hand lunged out,

and got him by the throat.

A day or two later,
I made my first real appearance.

- This is no way
to great a relative.

Welcome to Collinwood.

- Thank you, cousin.

[eerie music]
♪♪

- And when we put
the vampire on,

forget it.

I mean, the ratings went
through the roof.

I have never seen anything
like this in my life.

- What brought the audience
was Jonathan Frid,

who played the vampire Barnabas.

He chose to play him
not like a monster,

but like a romantic hero

who has been cursed
to have to be someone

who drinks blood to stay alive.

He was always tortured when
he had to look for a victim.

You go through the throws of
just heart wrenching desolation.

- Well then he became
a tragic figure.

And then the women.
He--

It just got crazier and crazier.

We had to put on special people
to process the mail

that used to come in
gigantic truck loads.

- Meanwhile, I wasn't
at all satisfied

with what I was doing
on the show.

I was very nervous at first,
but...

...somehow that played
into the roll.

[eerie music]
♪♪

I was a Collins.

Why didn't you protect me?

Where were you when I was
turned into something

that even my own father loathed.

If his ghost is here with yours,
tell him I've come home.

I claim this house as mine.

And whatever power you
or he may have is ended.

I'm free now and alive.

Chains with which he bound me
are broken,

and I've returned to live
the life I never had.

Whatever that may
turn out to be.

[eerie music]
♪♪

Then, when we went back
into the past,

I played my pre-vampire days
when I was a hero.

A good guy.

- Is the price too high?

- No price is too high
for Sara's life.

- Then, if she lives
you will marry me.

You will make me your wife.

- I told you,
I'd do anything for you

as long as you cure Sara.

I've had many, many situations,
and many emotions,

and many moods,
and many compulsions to play.

- I'm right where
I very much want to be,

in your arms.

- I love you, Josette.
- And I love you,

very much.

- What we felt for each other,
we could not fight.

- Then you will fight me.

- No.

- No!

- You have your choice
of weapon.

- You will not fight.

- The course has made you
one of the living dead.

- Then according to the curse,
you must die!

- Barnabas, please!

- Yes, my dear, Angelique.
- No! No!

- All your powers of witchcraft
will not save you now.

Sara, no.

No.

I mean, I played everything.

In this one roll.
I've played a dozen rolls.

I mean, it's been
a marvelous thing,

because he has
so many facets to it.

- Jonathan Frid had the kind
of personality

that you don't find in actors,

and that is he was concerned
with the other person.

Actors out of necessity
are concerned about themselves.

You know, they have to be.

But when you meet someone
like Jonathan,

who's just good.

Which is a terrible thing to say
about a vampire, [laughing]

but he was.

It's a pleasure.

- You are under my influence.
You cannot resist me.

Do you understand?

- I understand.

- And you will never tell
anyone about me.

- I will tell no one.

I will never fail you.

Never.

- I think a decade went by
and I suddenly realized,

John Frid, Dark Shadows,

he's the king vampire
of the show.

Somebody said, "Wouldn't you
have John on your show?'

That was my morning show,
and I was fairly new to it all.

He came on the show,

and I was looking forward
to seeing him again,

but I was out there,
in front of the audience,

and he came on with a surprise.

He was fully dressed
as Barnabas Collins the vampire,

And his fans went crazy.

Jonathan, I think you've
created a monster.

This is Jonathan Frid.

I know you don't want
to believe that,

because you want to think
it's Barnabas.

Jonathan, welcome.
- Thank you, Dick.

- What's the latest development
now in Barnabas' life?

- Well...
- I know you can speak for him.

- Well all I know at this point
really, I'm not a vampire.

- It could be temporary though,
couldn't it?

I mean, the spell isn't
necessarily, totally--

- Well you see, it all depends
on the monster Adam.

As long as he lives,
I will be alive.

Somehow or another,
don't ask me why,

or how it happens,
but some of my life force

is in him, and I think this show

has more medical quackery
than any other soap opera.

[audience laughs]

- The first roll I played
on Dark Shadows,

I played three different
characters,

I played Eve, the most evil lady
who ever lived,

and I was created on the
operating table by Barnabas,

and Doctor Hoffman.

And the first thing I realized,
when I worked with them,

and I was silent,
because I was not yet alive,

but I could see them,

was that I was with really
talented people.

These were really great actors.

The second thing was,

I noticed Jonathan's
cheek bones.

I loved them.
They were so high.

I'd never seen cheek bones
so high.

And then the third thing,

which was the best part
of Jonathan Frid,

the voice.

He had a marvelous voice,
and it was fitting.

He was a Shakespearean actor.

- I used my background
in Shakespeare.

You know, I've played Macbeth,
played Richard III,

who indeed has
a conscious himself at the end,

and all these things fed
into Barnabas.

Barnabas turned out to be
really a very rich,

and satisfying experience.

The only thing I felt frustrated
about doing it

was the format of soap opera
in those days.

When you did a show every day
without stopping.

There were no retakes.

- You need ice water in your
veins to do a soap opera,

because you have
so little rehearsal.

- I mean, I could learn a script
just by reading through it.

And I'd go...

And I knew it.

Some of the veteran actors
had more difficulty.

- It was a tough going for me
for a long while,

because anything I'd done before
that was on the stage,

you have lots of time
to learn plays.

And beginning way back
when I was a kind in school,

but some of those kids in school
where very smart.

They'd know there lines
in a week or two weeks,

before I knew mine.

I had a very definite
problem with it.

I remember Joan Bennet,
that she had trouble

with lines too,

because she was used to having
six months instead of a week

to learn that amount of dialog.

I was always looking for someone
to help me with my lines,

and she was doing
the same thing.

- When we got into
the supernatural

and when back into
the various periods,

the technical people
had a field day.

It was like making a MGM
movie every day.

And the only drawback
about that was,

that very often we actors
felt that we were being slighted

with rehearsal time.

The technical aspect
got first priority.

- Oh, we had a camera blocking
around 10 o'clock,

and that was after
doing the blocking

up in the rehearsal room.

And then we had what we call
a "stumble through",

and then we had
a dress rehearsal.

- Jonathan would finish a long,
long endless speech,

you know, dress rehearsal,
and then he would say,

"Or words to that effect."
[laughing]

I mean,
I knew exactly what he meant.

- So I started off,
I was just a nervous wreck,

but I finally got into
the rhythm of doing this.

And I was looking at scenes,
and it's amazing how

cool I was later on.

I was able to manage
those scenes.

- There was never a time, never.

He never made light
of what he was going to do.

- Played it completely for real,

and invested in
every single moment.

A complete sense
of believability,

and we did not
camp it up at all.

- You must leave
Collinwood tonight.

Please.

You've got to leave Collinwood
before it's too late.

Before you get caught.
Before...

Before something happens to you.

- No, Quentin,

nothing will make me leave
Collinwood now.

Nothing.

You're very kind
to worry about me, Quentin.

Well don't.

I'll take care of myself.

- He approached that
as if he was doing King Lear.

And that set the tone, I think,

for the company as a whole.

[eerie music]
♪♪

- [grunting] [thud]

- [groaning]

[screaming in agony]

[dramatic music]
♪♪

- [V/O] While some
viewers cried,

and others rushed
to call ABC TV,

Jonathan was spending his
four week hiatus

Playing the roll of Tony Wendice

in the crime mystery play
Dial M for Murder.

The production ran for two weeks
to sold out crowds

at The Little Theater
On The Square

in Sullivan, Illinois.

- He came back
and he did say to me,

"Thank you for carrying the load
here while I was gone."

[laughing]

But of course I was,
I was delighted

to be able to do that.

[coffin creaking]

[ominous music]
♪♪

- It's him.

- Oh God, what's going on here?

What's going on?!

- We welcome to our microphones

Jonathan Frid,
ladies and gentlemen.

Have you worked with Olivier?
- No.

I wish I had, but no, I haven't.

I mean, he has been my idol
all my life.

- What was it like to work
with Kate Hepburn?

- I've worked with many stars,

but Hepburn stands out,
of course.

She's fabulous off-stage
and on-stage.

And I was like any other fan
of anybody else.

I mean, I know what
a fan feels like

because I had been a fan myself.

- One day I remember going out
the front door of the studio,

and there was some
school kids there.

A week later
it was double the size,

and then quadruple the size,

and suddenly we had
a whole street full of kids

who had come to the studio
after school to see us.

- So I got to go to the studio,

and on April 17, 1969,
I got to meet him,

and my little red scrap book
was the catalyst,

because he was fascinated that I
had all these magazine articles,

and he wanted to see it.

- I like to say that I am
a first generation

Dark Shadows fan,

having discovered it
in it's initial run,

and becoming completely obsessed
with the show

as a fourth grader.

- It was biggest with kids.

I remember that at one point
we moved the show

from 4 o'clock to 3:30.

We got reams of mail saying,
"No, no.

My kid can't get home
from school to watch it."

And we went back to 4 o'clock.

- My fan loyalty was definitely
divided between

Jonathan Frid as Barnabas.

He carried so much tragedy
with that character,

and history,
and there were so many layers.

And even as a kid,
I was just riveted by that.

My other favorite character
is the inevitable Grayson Hall

as Doctor Julia Hoffman.

And the two of them together,
as the kind of paranormal

ghost busters that they were,

Working together,
and time traveling,

and all the adventures
that they had.

With the unrequited love angle,
I was just completely hooked.

- She won't always be angry,
Barnabas,

if you listen to her,

if you don't want
what you shouldn't.

- And what is that?

- You think I'm jealous
of Vicky, don't you?

Well I'm not.
Not at all.

- Jonathan would ask
Valerie and I to do

a variety of different things.

We'd go to Grand Central
and we would pick out

all the magazines
that came out that week,

so he could look at them,

and see what they wrote
about him.

- Is your fan mail
still unusual?

- Yes, some of it.

Uh, as a matter of fact,
I've been very bad

about answering it lately,

so I got a little club together
about two weekends ago,

in a studio, and we took
over the rehearsal hall

during the weekend,
and it was like the post office

during Christmas time.

- And when we walked into
that rehearsal hall,

You couldn't even believe
what you saw.

There were boxes A to Z,

and then mail bags
that were piled high

about five feet in the air.

We never thought that we would
get through this mail, ever.

- Jonathan, someone handed me
the Grand Rapids Times.

The headline is,
"TV Vampire Causes

Grand Rapids Airport Riot."

What-- What have you done?

[audience laughter]

- I took a ten city tour
in five days.

Which was kind of rough going.

But the thing about it was,
no one really expected

a turnout that we would get
in all these airports,

and shopping centers,
and things like that.

So there was no kind of
organized control of crowds.

We were late getting into
Grand Rapids,

and they had a crowd
where our plane landed,

and everything got so out of
hand that we got kinda nervous.

There was so much
uncontrolled chaos,

and so we got the hearse.

My line was getting on top
of this hearse.

I was rather... if you pardon
the expression, mortified.

[audience laughs]

And, uh...

So anyway, instead of circling
around in front of these

thousands of teenagers
and so forth,

and a regular
commercial airliner

was unloading at that point,

and I was trying to think
of their point of view.

Here they were,
these thousands of kids,

and this idiot on top
of this hearse, with fangs.

[audience laughs]

And what was going on, you know?

What has happened to America?

- And they asked us
to come in to this studio,

and record an album.

It was Bob Cobert's music.

- We went over to the studio,

there was never more
than two takes.

Most were down to one take.

[eerie music]
♪♪

Midnight,

a hush falls through the
melancholy halls of Collinwood.

A solemn moon cast dark shadows
over the placid stillness

of the old mansion.

- And the album went on
to be a big seller.

It was a hit.

- [V/O] Jonathan was invited
by Trisha Nixon

to be the special guest at the
White House Halloween Party

for local underprivileged
children on Halloween in 1969.

Jonathan always made himself
available to support charities,

including the United Cerebral
Palsy telethon

in Oklahoma City,
Birmingham, Alabama,

and Monroe, Louisiana.

He also appeared on
the Jerry Lewis Labor Day

Muscular Dystrophy Telethon.

For Jonathan, it was always
about helping the children,

and making them smile.

- When you went to the West
Coast, he was at Marine Land,

and appeared with all these
different animals.

I don't know why a vampire
would be appearing with animals,

but they did that.

And then the pièce de résistance

was him crowning
Miss American Vampire

at Palisades Amusement Park.

That was the most hilarious
thing you ever saw.

He was there-- It must have
been 100 degrees out,

and he's wearing a suit,

and he has to crown this girl
that's dressed like Elvira.

That's what she looked like.

- I decided I would try and make
a Dark Shadows movie.

I mean, no one's ever
done that before.

Lets see if that's gonna work.

Sam Hall and Gordon Russell
and myself sat down,

and worked out an outline

where we could do
whatever we wanted to do

We did have to worry about
perpetuating him,

we could make him
a real marauder,

because we could kill him.

- The movie,
I thought were too violent,

and did have the charm
or the never-never world

of the television show.

- Julia, do you believe in
the existence of vampires?

- You're not really serious.

- But he is, Julia.

[man yelling]

- I command you to come to me!

- Barnabas Collins, vampire.

- [V/O] MGM offered Dan Curtis
the opportunity

to do a second Dark Shadows film

following the success
of House of Dark Shadows.

However, Jonathan was not happy
with the depiction

of the character
in the first film,

and feared being type-cast.

An insistent Curtis
informed his star

that if he had no interest in
portraying Barnabas in the film,

he no longer had to play
Barnabas on television.

In December 1970,

Jonathan was notified that his
contract would be cancelled

at the end of the next
production cycle.

Ironically, a few weeks later,
ABC cancelled the series.

- There was an ABC executive,
very well know Brandon Stoddard,

and I remember
he told me years later

that when the show
was cancelled,

he asked the guard at ABC
to find him an alternate route

out of the building
because Dark Shadows fans

came and beseeched him
to put it back on the air.

- It's hard to describe
the success of that show,

isn't it, John?

- I've really never been
able to figure it out

but I'm enjoying it immensely,

but never been able
to figure it out.

- I find it a little
irritating sometimes

when people talk about
Ann Rice creating

the vampire with a conscious.

That is not true.

It was definitely the
combination of the writing

of the character
of Barnabas Collins,

and Jonathan Frid's absolutely
inevitable performance

of that character.

That-- I think that when
we thing of monsters,

we think of them as monsters.

That's what we're trained
to think of them as,

but Dark Shadows had a human
side to the monster.

You got to see
what made the monster tick.

And it had been explored
in movies before,

like Frankenstein and so forth,

but you really never got
to indulge the story telling

the way you do in the format
of an on-going daytime serial,

where they're telling five half
hour plays a week,

for five years.

Just the way the show blended
all of those elements.

Bring in The Turn of the Screw

and Wuthering Heights,
and Jane Eyre.

The gothic romance
and the gothic horror,

it was an incredible alchemy

that has not been duplicate
since, as far as I concerned.

- They brought a very gothic,
romantic quality to this roll.

That I guess, will live forever.

- How can I destroy you?

- I am destroyed already.

What you will do is save me.

Free me from this
endless torment.

- I can't do it.

- If you are my friend,
- I am.

- Then do it.
- No.

- Free me.

Give me peace, at last.

Let me return to those at rest.

Do not condemn me to wonder
forever in endless agony.

End my torment.

Please, I beg you.

I beg you.

Let me hear you say the words.

"Yes."

Say the words.

- Yes.
- Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

[ominous music]
♪♪

- [V/O] As Dark Shadows
drew to a close

in early spring of 1971,

Jonathan was ready
for a new artistic adventure.

He found it on the stage
portraying Thomas Becket

in TS Elliot's
Murder in the Cathedral.

It was a sold out,
limited engagement

at the Central
Presbyterian Church

on Manhattan's upper East Side.

Jonathan was delighted
that several of his

Dark Shadows co-stars
attended the show.

Including Joan Bennett,
and Louis Edmonds.

New York critics praised
his forceful, insightful,

and splendid performance.

He next took on the roll
of pathological killer

Harry Roat Jr.
in Wait Until Dark

at the Windmill Dinner Theater
in Texas.

When Jonathan returned
to New York City,

he signed a contract
with a management group

that convinced him they
could find him quality rolls

in prime time television,
and movies.

- And then I did a picture
in Hollywood

an ABC movie of the week
with Shelly Winters,

The Devil's Daughter.

And I was in Oliver Stone's
very first picture.

A group of friends come
to this house for the weekend,

and three strangers appear.

I don't know who they are
or where they come from,

but they're frightening.

- My first impression
of Jonathan was,

"What a lucky thing
he's playing my husband",

because he was so gentle
and kind,

and good to work with.

He presented himself as a person
who you knew you could trust.

You wouldn't let anything
happen to Jason.

- No, darling.

Never.

- Oliver decided to have
all of us stay in the house

that we were using.

- We were using our own bedrooms
for the bedrooms of the movie.

And I got up in the morning,
I was to stay in bed

until the cameras came in...
[laughing]

I did that one time.
Of course, we were all laughing.

But I hadn't--
There was no time for breakfast

or anything anyway so...

The cameras came into my bedroom
and started shooting.

[chuckles]

- When we filmed at night

I just remember it being very
cold and it was sort of weird.

- [V/O] You'll never run
from it.

You can never hide from it.

The breath stopping panic of...

Seizure.

- I think physical horror
is boring.

It just bores me to death.

I don't get scared ever.
I just get bored.

When I was a kid,
I was bored of it.

Horror is people lying
to each other.

This inner evil.

Somebody telling a lie
to me is more villainous

than anything I can think of.

More horrific.

- [V/O] With the filming
of Seizure completed.

Jonathan returned home
to New York

when he received
an unexpected call.

Dark Shadows, which had been
dubbed in Spanish

was now a tremendous success
in Latin America.

Jonathan was asked to do
a promotional tour in Paraguay.

- And I said, "Well now look,

I will do down there
just as an actor."

"I will not go down there,
and do any Barnabas numbers."

Because people were always
asking me to do that.

And he said, "It's okay."

He hesitated at first, "Well
we won't worry about that."

So I went down there,

and I think it was sponsored
by the dictator himself.

As a matter of fact,
his wife was a great fan of it.

She had a reception for me
and everything else

when I got down there.

It was the biggest show
in Paraguay.

They even moved football
schedules around

to accommodate the Dark Shadows.

They're absolutely
crazy about it.

Down there it's Barrrnabas.

And everything was that
kind of heavy,

kind of strong,
melodramatic thing.

Which sometimes is a good thing.

[actors speaking Spanish]

They did it with such pizazz
and strength.

[voice over in Spanish]
- Sombras Tenebrosas.

The title has a grander...

Las Sombras Tenebrosas.

- [V/O] Jonathan with his
interpreter Eduardo

attended press conferences,
receptions

and judged a fashion show.

The last stop each night
was a night club

where he found himself waiting
for extended periods in the car.

- I'd be sitting in the car

waiting for them to come
and get me to come in.

And it'd take forever.

And I finally got mad
at them all, and I said,

"What's going on here?"

And he said
that they are furious

that you're not here with your
costume and everything.

Not only costume,
but Barnabas wasn't here.

They said, "Well where's
Barnabas?"

And they said,
"Well there he is, right there."

"That's not Barnabas."

- [V/O] Whatever the objections,

Jonathan was invited
to return to South America

for a press tour in Panama.

This time,
he wore the signet ring

and carried the famous wolf's
head cane of Barnabas Collins.

By the end of his second
South American tour,

Jonathan had become
very enamored

with the Spanish language,
and wanted to learn it.

He came up with a plan
uniquely his own.

- I was for a whole year
in Mexico.

Learning the language
and going to towns

that guaranteed me there'd be no
Americans or Canadians

or travelers.

So I wanted no English,
to hear any English.

I had friends
that later on said,

"Why didn't you tell us you were
gonna be down there?"

"We were down there.
We couldn't said hello."

I said, "That's precisely
what I didn't want."

I didn't want to hear
any English.

It's a fascinating language,
and I love the sound of it.

And I love speaking it.

- [V/O] By spring of 1977,

Jonathan, frustrated
by his agencies inability

to obtain quality and the type
of work he wanted,

chose not to renew his contract.

He was on his own.

The choice most likely had a
negative impact on his finances.

But he was firm in his
convictions to pursue

his profession on his own
artistic terms.

He accepted an invitation
to appear on a production

of The Royal Family
at Penn State,

University Park, Pennsylvania.

He was delighted
to return to the theater

where in July 1965,
he had played the title roll

in Shakespeare's Richard III.

- Well my greatest
artistic success,

without a doubt was Richard III.

I didn't want to play it
as the obvious villain.

I wanted to plumb various
character traits

that might not be seen in
a casual reading of the script.

It was digging deep
into the character

that made it
so fascinating for me.

- [V/O] Jonathan joyfully
celebrated

the start of a new decade
with family and friends.

On that New Years Eve however,
what he could not foresee

was a looming health crisis
that would nearly kill him.

For 35 years,
Jonathan was a heavy smoker.

As a result, in 1980
he underwent an angioplasty.

Then, a relatively new procedure
to prevent a major heart attack.

Following the surgery,
he quit smoking, cold turkey.

During his recuperation at home,

he began to contemplate his past
and future career.

- Oh, Dark Shadows has certainly
helped my career.

Its made it, uh, in a sense.

I had a career long before
Dark Shadows,

but it made me a celebrity.

It made a "star out of me."

And I thought that would fade,

but I remember
someone telling me

that came from the coast
years ago, during Dark Shadows,

he said, "Your life will never
be the same again."

I said, "Nuts."

"After this is over,
there will be other heroes,

there will be other people"
so forth and so on.

"Time moves on."

But he was right.

And for a while I did want
to shake the image.

I mean, as much as I enjoyed it,
I'm an actor and human being.

I love attention, who doesn't?

But it got to be a little much.

I'm a private sort of person.

There's some actors who love,
quit honestly love

to go to restaurants,
and go to openings,

and be recognized, and be seen,

and all power to them.

Its... You have to be on
all the-- 24 hours a day.

I'm too tired.

Uh, I like to act,

and when the curtain comes down,
or the cameras turn off,

and most actors
have that situation,

they go out of the studio
and no one cares about them,

even thought they've done
a good job,

but they're not in that
celebrity status.

They're just good actors.

Good acting
and being a celebrity,

have nothing in common.

I mean, they don't go
together necessarily.

Uh, sometimes they do.
Quit a lot they don't.

Anyway, I want to resurrect
myself as it were,

and continue a career.

It started off when I was
finally induced to go to these

Dark Shadows fan conventions.

It was a thing called ShadowCon.
Out on the West Coast.

And after going to one
or two of them,

where I would simply
answer questions

about Dark Shadows,
and sign autographs,

I thought I would do
some readings.

Give them something new.

To see me as something other
than Barnabas Collins.

- So, Dark Shadows had a big
relaunch in syndication

in 1982.

I was just about to start an
all-boys Catholic high school,

that I was dreading.

And in Dark Shadows
I found an escape,

and I immediately fell in love
with the show.

I became part of the fan
community, joined a fan group.

Began contributing to a fanzine.

And that group decided to stage

the first ever
East Coast convention,

and Jonathan became part
of our planning committee.

- The Dark Shadows
conventions started,

and then Jonathan always liked
to do dramatic readings,

this is before
his one-man shows,

and he asked me
to do scenes with him.

And one of the most memorable
was Macbeth,

and Lady Macbeth, of course.

- I met Jonathan in 1983.

Very quickly it became clear
to him that I wanted to work.

And Jonathan loved people
who wanted to work,

and were going to bring their
passion and enthusiasm

to working with him.

- I did a whole show.

The first part was the rolls
I had played in the past,

that might have influenced me
in my playing of Barnabas.

And then, the second part,
was material written by fans,

and a lot of it was very good.

There was a vampire named Frid,

[audience chuckles]

Went into his coffin he hid,

he couldn't get out
and began to shout,

"Will someone please
oil the lid."

[audience laughs]

From ghoulies and ghosties,

and long leggedy beasties,

and things that go boop
in the night,

good Lord deliver us.

Thank you very much.
[audience applauds]

- So then, not long after that,

they did a special
on New Jersey Network,

where Jonathan was live
in the studio,

and I happened to be
one of the fans on the phones.

- Enough of Barnabas.
What about you personally?

What about your career paths
for the future?

Where are you headed?

- I'm going to develop
this one-man show

I've been doing
at Dark Shadows festivals.

It's called The Genesis of Evil.

And I'm going to take it away
from emphasis on Dark Shadows,

and make it more universal
for a universal audience.

- He had the energy for it.
He had the material for it.

He had all the ideas for it.

There was just one element
that was missing.

He needed someone
to organize it,

manage it, produce it, sell it.

And he had no idea
who this individual might be,

but ultimately,
he found that person.

- I watched the special
on New Jersey Network,

and Jonathan performed
Edgar Allan Poe's

The Tell-Tale Heart,

and a soliloquy
from Richard III,

and it was mesmerizing.

- I wrote Jonathan
this letter...

This is the actual letter.

And so I was fifteen years old
and I basically said,

uh, "You are a very
talented performer

and I hope that this
experience",

meaning the special,

"gets you back into some
serious acting.

You are too good to waste."

- After I watched the special,

I decided to write
Jonathan a letter.

- He had these two letters
on his desk at the same time,

and he was like,
"Maybe this is synchronicity."

On April 1st, 1985,
Jonathan Frid had Mary O'Leary

who at that point was in
the production office

at Guiding Light,

and me over to his apartment
for a meeting.

- When Jonathan explained that
he had been reading to fans

at Dark Shadows conventions,

I said, "You could do a similar
style with your show."

"It could be readers theater."

And he hadn't heard that term.

I said,
"It's what you've been doing.

"Take your script,
stand at a podium,

"and tell a story.

"But it's with your expressions,
and your voice

"that you create
all these characters.

A whole world for this audience
to enter into."

- My job was to basically
troll my local library

after school and on weekends,

and find short stories,
poems, pieces of verse.

Um, you know, anything
work for the creative

concept of the show.

And I found this story called
"The Cask of Amontillado."

Jonathan really liked it,

and it ended up becoming
like, a signature piece.

It really captured
what fascinated Jonathan

about the nature of evil.

Here's a guy who thinks
somebody's his friend,

and then, spoiler alert,
kills him.

[water dripping]

- It was now midnight,

and my task
was drawing to a close.

I completed the eighth,
the ninth, and the tenth tier.

I could finish the portion
of the last and the eleventh;

there remained but a single
stone to be fitted

and plastered in.

I called aloud,

"Fortunato."

No answer.

I hasten to make an end
to my labor.

I forced the last stone
into position,

I plastered it up.

Against the new masonry

I re-erected the old rampart
of bones.

For the half of the century
no mortal has disturbed them.

[water dripping]

In pace requiescat!

[water dripping]

- Jonathan from time to time

would invite the fans
to come to his apartment,

where he would rehearse
his one-man shows.

And he wanted
constructive feedback

about what we liked
and what we didn't like.

- And he asked, you know,
"If you have pieces

"that you're interested
in seeing me do,

I would be very interested."

And I remember after
one of these rehearsals,

I did send him a copy
of that page

out of Appointment and Sumera.

Just saying that I would love
to see you do this.

I never expected it
to be in the show.

- There was a merchant
in Baghdad

who sent his servant to market
to buy provisions.

And in a little while
the servant came back

white and trembling, and said,

"Master, just now when
I was at the market place.

"I was jostled by a woman
in the crowd

"and when I turned I saw

that it was Death
that jostled me."

- The first time I met Jonathan

was at a Dark Shadows festival.

And he was doing the performance
of a show he was developing.

I wrote for several publications
and I wrote a review.

Then we wanted me
to come meet him and Mary.

They asked me to, uh,
if I would work for them

as a writer.

I would work with Mary primarily
to write promotional material

to the schools and colleges.

And I worked with Jonathan,
assisting him with narration

in-between the stories.

- I tried two or three different
ideas which didn't work.

And so I finally evolved
this simple collection

of stories and poetry.

I started my own
production company

called Clunes and Associates

and Mary O'Leary
is my co-producer

and she's general manager.

- He was a man of integrity.

Honesty was the most
important thing.

Jonathan said, "If we're going
to be business partners,

"I have to know that you will
always be honest,

"even if there's something
difficult you want to tell me.

Don't be afraid, tell me."

- Here I am,
not only running a new business,

which I've never done
in my life,

but I'm a story teller,

which is not quit
the same as acting.

There's a lot
of resemblance to it.

But where as I'm-- do not have
people on the stage with me,

I play to the audience.

And so my audience
is my feedback,

and they're almost
the other actors.

It's quit different
and absolutely thrilling.

- Jonathan would get a story

and he would read it over
and over again,

looking for the emotional truth
of ever single character

in that story.

He really worked very hard
on these shows.

[telephone ringing]

- Hello?

Hello, Frank.

Who's this?

You know me.
It's Len.

Oh, Len Styres.

Cold, deep and intense.

Receiver dead cold metal
in my hand.

Leonard Styles died
four weeks ago.

For weeks, three days, two hours

and 27 minutes to be exact.

This is a damn poor joke.

No joke, Frank.

You're there alive
and I'm here dead.

You know something, old buddy.

I'm really glad I did it.

Did what?

Killed myself.

- Mary booked Jonathan
at a college

up in Newport, Rhode Island,

where the house that was used
as the exterior of Collinwood

for five years
happen to be adorn.

So when he did
his first performance,

it was Barnabas Collins
back at Collinwood.

- I must say,
my first engagement

up at Salve Regina College
in Newport, Rhode Island,

got a fantastic review up there.

Certainly, it was like
a press release.

- To see his enthusiasm
and excitement

that now we are heading into
this entire period of his life,

where he was going to tour,

was just something
that was so wonderful.

- I have to say,
as somebody who wrote

Jonathan a letter saying,

"You're too talented to waste."

Being there to see that moment,

felt like a success story.

It felt like we set out to do
something and we succeeded.

- I got a call from an agent
named Bob Waters,

who said, "Would Jonathan Frid,
who you ware working with,

"be interested in doing
Arsenic and Old Lace?

We'll go on a national tour
with Gene Stapleton."

Jonathan was perfect
for Jonathan Brewster.

- And all of a sudden he was now
a Broadway actor again,

and you'd walk on 46th street

and there's
Jonathan Frid's picture

on the 46th Street Theater.

- I was a nervous wreck
for two weeks in New York,

like I used to be
in Dark Shadows,

because I wasn't ready.

When I got to Washington
after a week in Louisville,

and a week in New Haven,
I really began to enjoy it.

Now I'm just having a ball.

- I went to see Jonathan Frid
in Arsenic and Old Lace.

He was so letter perfect.

He was so sure.

He amazed me.

- In all the comedies
I've been in,

I've never seen waives
of laughter all night long.

When the audience
doesn't laugh at a joke,

it's because they're exhausted.

- But we got a hot stiff
on our hands.

- Forget Mr. Spenalzo.

- But, you can't leave
a dead body in the rumble seat.

[audience laughing]

You shouldn't have killed him,
Johnny.

He's a nice fellow.

He gives us a lift
and what happened.

- He said I look like
Boris Karloff.

That's your work, doctor.
You did that to me.
- Easy, easy, Johnny.

- We were on tour.

Toured all the major cities

and stayed two weeks.

Always there would be
this bunch of people,

and they'd be waiting
to see Jonathan,

and to have him
all to themselves.

They weren't interested
in us at all.

These people had not been to see
Arsenic and Old Lace,

they came to see Jonathan Frid.

- I do my calisthenics
backstage every night

before I go on.

And it either revs me up
or calms me down.

Depending on what I want
at the particular moment.

I look idiotic back there.

I mean, I don't have sneakers

and I look like some kind of
a scare crow back there.

You know, doing my exercises.

- He looked like
a black vulture walking.

He's very tall,
very angular, you know.

He would be on, I'd think,
"Oh wow, there he goes."

[laughing]

- Arsenic and Old Lace,

the starriest show in town.

- We play the Brewster sisters.

- We give comfort
to lonely old men.

- Everyone needs a hobby.

- But then their handsome nephew
drops in. That's me.

- And their other nephew,
the black sheep.

That is I.

- Not to mention
Teddy Roosevelt, the mad doctor,

and most of the police
department.

- For lost of laughs.
- For a little Arsenic
and Old Lace.

- Come on over to our house.

- Everyone is dying to see you.

- Uh...
[thud]

- I was able to get bookings
for his one-man show

on Monday night off.

So, he didn't have to stop
his one-man show.

- I think Arsenic and Old Lace

fueled the success
of his one-man shows.

- To really talk about the
present and the future,

for me, in addition to
Arsenic and Old Lace,

which has given me
a complete new lease on life.

It has also given me
an opportunity to develop

my one-man show called,

Jonathan Frid's Fools
and Fiends.

So, you see, I'm not getting
away from my reputation,

I'm carrying it with me
in this own-man show,

and I have a ball doing it.

And as far as live theater
is concerned,

that's as lively as I-- I forget

I play all the rolls.
I play everything.

That's what I love about it.

- He could scoop it up
one minute.

He could be funny.

He could shift back
and forth between comedy

and drama.

And it was really
a marvelous experience

to watch him perform.

- And I had a lunch
with this chap in New York

who wants to be my agent,
and he's a wonderful agent.

But I said, "Listen, Bob,
we've got other things to do,

"and I don't want to be
side tracked again.

I did it with Arsenic,
but not again."

I want to spend
the next three years

building a tour all over
the whole country,

and indeed we are.

We're getting more and more
engagements all the time.

We're going to colleges
and theaters.

Coast to coast.

- When he started
his one-man shows,

I began going to the ones
not only at the conventions,

but the libraries in New York.

After which he would have
a celebratory dinner.

With some of his fans and me,

and we just became
really close friends

from that point on.

- Now I'm putting on
a new one called,

Jonathan Frid in a Lighter Vein.

There's a little bit of a play
on a word.

But however,
it's going to be less ghoulish

than Fools and Fiends.

It won't be ghoulish at all.

There will be evil people in it,
but there always are.

You can't write a story
without an evil element.

Or a play without
an evil element.

So then the next--
Also next year

I plan to have ready
Shakespeare's Fools and Fiends.

In which I will be dealing
with some of the fools,

Shakespeare writes
in upper case fools,

and also some foolish people
from Shakespeare.

And then my last part
of the show will be

the rise and fall of a fiend,

or the rise and fall
of a tyrant.

Meaning, a kind of observation,
a study

of the rise an fall
of Richard III.

- Perjury.
Perjury in the highest degree.

Murder, stern murder
in the direst degree.

All several sins,
all used in each degree.

Throng to the bar, crying all.

"Guilty! Guilty!"

I shall despair.

There is no creature loves me.

And if I die
no soul shall pity me.

- Jonathan and Mary developed
these three one-man shows.

He would get booked at theaters,
and conferences,

corporate events,
private parties,

universities, and colleges,
and even on a cruise ship.

- Jonathan's Evil Eye,
which has been commissioned

by the Norwegian Cruise Lines
for their S.S. Norway cruise

this fall.

So I'm going to be cruising
through the Caribbean

doing Evil Eye.

And that, of course,
that is a quote

from The Tell-Tale Heart.

I was never kinder
to the old man

than during the whole week
before I killed him.

And every night, about midnight,

I turned the latch of his door,
and opened it,

oh, so gently.

And then,
when I had made an opening

sufficient for my head,

I put in a dark lantern.
All close, close,

so that no light shown out.

And then, I thrusted my head.

When my head was
well in the room,

I undid the lantern
cautiously-oh,

so cautiously.

Cautiously for the
hinges creaked.

And I undid it just so much
that a single thin ray

fell upon the vulture eye.

And this I did
for seven long nights.

Every night, just at midnight,

but I found the eye
always closed;

and so it was impossible
to do the work;

for it was not the old man
who vexed me,

but his Evil Eye.

- The nice thing about
having three shows

was that he could be booked
at a particular college

one year and he could
come back the next year,

or two years later,
and do a different show.

- In January of 1991,

Jonathan was doing
his one-man show in Atlanta,

I believe it was
Fools and Fiends,

and I took my mother to see it
for her birthday.

And the show was great,
and Jonathan was wonderful,

and he was very, very gracious,
and personable

in the meet and greets
in the lobby after the show.

I was the director of theater

in Georgia College
and State University,

and the next week
we booked Jonathan.

And three weeks later he was
doing Fridiculousness at school.

It was very well received.
He was great with the students.

He did workshops

where he worked on text
from Richard III with them.

And I think he liked our town.

He liked living in the old
governor's mansion.

And we brought him back to do
Shakespearean Odyssey.

We had Thornton Wilder
play Our Town

scheduled for the next season.

And I said, "Jonathan, why don't
you come and play the narrator."

And he said,
"I'm not interested in that,

but I might like to direct."

So I said, "Sure.
What do you want to direct?"

And he came up with
The Lion in Winter.

- Jonathan had called me
and said,

"I'd love you to play Eleanor,
the fabulous roll."

- [chuckles]

- That was all I needed to know
and I said, "Oh, yes."

Even though this was really his,
"debut", as he always called it,

Jonathan was a wonderful
director in this way.

He told us in the beginning
exactly what he wanted.

An overall picture.
He spend quit a bit of time

on that first rehearsal
telling us that.

And then once we started
working, he gave us free reign,

so that he didn't interfere.

And as long as you knew what
you were doing, this was great.

If you didn't, then he would
guide one of the kids in a way,

and it worked very smoothly.

And so many fans
from Dark Shadows came,

and we would have talks
afterwards.

It was wonderful.

- [V/O] The Clunes Associates
partnership was dissolved

in 1994.

Jonathan, who retained
his Canadian citizenship

throughout his forty years
in the United States,

retired to his homeland.

- Got a phone call that Uncle
Jonathan was going to be

moving back to Canada.

As he had turned 70

and wanted to slow the pace
down in his life.

And um, basically spend his
remaining years among family,

and familiar surroundings.
His home town.

And my wife and I rented a truck

and we drive down to Manhattan
and parked the truck.

He had movers there waiting
to fill the truck,

and we made our way
back up to Canada.

He had never really owned
a house before,

and was very excited
at the prospect of having

a house he could
put his own stamp on.

And a garden he could take from
his mind and make it a reality.

I was aware that he had a small
garden, rooftop garden

in one of his apartments
in New York.

So he always had kind of
a green thumb in that regard.

- Jonathan started meeting
his old friends from school

that he kept in touch with.

Every Tuesday they would meet
up there at a pub.

- He actually kept
the ball rolling in that

he was performing
his one-man show,

which were basically
for charity.

He was always very
critical of himself,

and he would practice
in the living room.

- Here we are my dear,
said the better

of the white MacIntosh
coming in through the window.

Fairly muddy,
but most of it's dry.

Say, who's that chap that bolted
out the doors as we came up?

A most extraordinary man.

A Mr. Nuttel,
said Mrs. Sappleton,

could only talk about
his illnesses,

and dashed off without a word
of good-bye or apology

when you arrived.

One would think
he had seen a ghost.

- Jonathan asked me
if he could hire me

to come into his house
and help him

sort through these archives

that he had brought back
with him from New York.

My first impression of Jonathan
was that he was very,

he was a very cordial man,
he was very...

He had a sort of an old
eloquence about him

that was very charming.

And...
And, um, very proper.

We started to chat
because he knew

that I was budding actor,

and he started opening up
about his career,

and we became friends.

- I did Sir Anthony Absolute
with Sheridan's The Rivals

in the final year
in prep-school,

and that was the great
moment of my life.

When I discovered that I
really wanted to be an actor.

And I felt that I had talent.

Um, it was a great breakthrough
in my life,

because up to that point,

I didn't know
what I wanted to do.

And nothing was very meaningful
until I got that roll.

- John never gave up
his love for theater.

Making theater
was very important.

There is that soul commitment
to that art,

which is different than film
and TV

It's an empathic art
with the audience,

where you are making a personal
connection every night

with a blind date,

and having to win them over,
you know.

- To an actor on stage,
it's immediate.

You get the reaction right now,

or you don't get the reaction.
[chuckles]

- But that live connection
is what really---

That's-- That's what it's about.

That's really what fulfills you.

- When they applaud,
we're happy.

We know we've made--
We've touched them.

- I think all of us look at it
too much as a money game,

and I got to do movies
and this to be successful.

Johnny was happy
to be on the stage

and, you know, doing his thing.

- First place,
the theater company is a family.

And even if they've just
come together to do one play,

but you grow to love each other,
because depend on each other.

And that's a family,
that's the theater.

Companies get together,

but then everybody
goes their ways.

The magic of an actor is,

there's a piece of paper
with words on it,

they're just words,
all they are is ink.

An actor can go and pick up
the piece of paper,

look at it, think about it,

and create a person.

Who says that the words
that were on the paper

were simple.

But it is a miracle
and Tennessee Williams

can't act Stanley.

Tennessee Williams
can't play Blanche,

but he can create them
on the page.

Always on the page.

It takes the actor
to lift them off.

William Shakespeare
couldn't play Hamlet,

but an actor can.

- So somehow along the way,

Jonathan and I got talking
about the fact that

wouldn't it be fun to do
something together.

And so, I proposed the show
Mass Appeal,

and it's a rather delightful
two-man show.

We hired a local director,
hired s stage manager.

Jonathan wanted to make sure
it was done properly,

and that we had ample
rehearsal time.

And unfortunately,
on that opening night,

Jonathan really became confused,
and um, lost his place.

And was really struggling
to kind of finish the show.

I knew the script well enough
that I just tied up the show,

got him off the stage,
we took our bows.

And I remember him backstage,
and he was saying,

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
I said, "Jonathan, it's okay."

"Don't worry about it."

"You know what,
you're fine, we're good."

Um, but it was something
that bothered him a lot,

and uh...
So then, we had to make...

We had to make a decision
on how to proceed.

So we did get the idea
of using like, an earpiece,

and so we rented this piece.

And so that's actually how
we moved forward with the run,

was that, if need be,

the assistant stage manager
who then stayed on script,

could always feed
a line to Jonathan.

To just prompt him
in varying degrees,

depending on the day.

And when he was on, he was on.

And he...
he did a great job

of that roll of Father Farley.

It had it's bumpy moments
for sure.

But I was thrilled that I got
to spend that time with him.

I was very, very happy for John

that it went out
on a real high note,

because he did
a really great job,

and he had some really
fabulous performances.

- I, at that point owned,
and still own a property

in Niagara on the lake.

Which is not far from Lancaster,

where John was living
at the time.

We had a small group which
we called the Project Team.

And it began with work
mostly on the website,

and on the Evil Incarnate.

Which was basically four scenes
from Shakespeare's Richard III.

- Plots have I laid,

inductions dangerous.

By drunken prophecies,
libels and dreams,

to set my brother Clarence

and the king in deadly hate
the one against the other.

- When the opportunity
in 2007 came,

uh, to go to one
of the festivals,

he started to look
forward to it.

And we started to divide
the time between

what he was working on
with the website,

and planning for his return
to the Dark Shadows festivals.

- In 2007,
it was the 40th anniversary

of my uncle starting
Dark Shadows.

He was getting up there in age,

and so I thought I'll come down
and be of support.

When I arrived there was
a lot of anticipation.

We had to take him around
back behind the stage,

and I was delighted
to opening the door.

[audience applause]

- Thank you.

[applause continues]

Upside down.

Thank you.

- It was so surreal for me
to finally see

how much he meant
to these people.

He hadn't been in front
of his fans for so many years,

and they were just so happy
to see him.

- [V/O] In July 2010,
the annual Dark Shadows

festival kicked off with a very
special opening event.

Jonathan putting his hand print
and initials in the courtyard

of the historic Vista
movie theater in Los Angles.

It was 90 degrees and Jonathan's
back was hurting him,

but he did it to please
the crowd of fans.

- Then I thought, "Well at
the Dark Shadows festival,

"wouldn't it be wonderful
if Jonathan and I

could do something together."

- There were several scenes
from Mass Appeal.

- Your servant sucks.

[audience laughter]

- You haven't heard the rest.

- The rest could be the
Sermon on the Mount,

but after two minutes of this,
they just turn you off.

- I can't believe that.

- It's not a question of faith,
it's the cold hard facts

of the pulpit.

- What are you suggesting I do?

- I'm not suggesting,
I'm telling you,

don't kick ass.

[audience applause]

- That was the final performance
that we had

from Jonathan.

Um...

So that is a particular
moment in time

that I cherish.

- Johnny and I
were very good friends,

and it was a surprise.

A big surprise that it happened.

Jonathan is a reserved
human being, you know.

A lot of class.

The thing about Jonathan Frid
and myself,

we are two poles apart
as human beings,

and we became great friends
on that show.

I mean, great friends.

I look to this day Jonathan
is probably one of the five

or six best friends I've ever
had in my life, you know.

I remember when I was moving
into a new apartment, you know,

I was just married and he gave
me all this furniture and stuff.

We used to go up
to his apartment,

this lovely, beautiful apartment

overlooking the
Queensboro bridge.

Having a nice steak dinner out,
you know,

with this beautiful bridge
before you.

Johnny was a good friend.

A deeply, good, good, good,
good friend,

- You know what was fun?

Jonathan liked to cook
and I loved to cook,

so often I cooked at his place,
he cooked at my place.

We even went to the picnics
at Central Park,

the Philharmonic concerts,

and that was a wonderful time.

- John was at my wedding,

and when my first two
children were born

he was at the house,
and he was holding them.

And he was at our shindigs,

and we had so many
lunches together.

He was a nice friend to have,

and I'm really, really grateful
for the time we had together.

- In those days,
it was illegal to be gay.

And this played on his mind,

and so he was never overtly gay.

I talked to my friends
who are now in their 80s,

and they did the same thing.

We were embarrassed about it.

We never really talked about it.

- He never really had
a significant other.

And I did find this...

I think, a little bit
interesting about him,

but he always seemed
very content.

He seemed very, very content

to just live his life,
on his own, as he liked.

And he got to do exactly
what he wanted to do.

- He took pleasure
in the simple things,

such as sitting at his favorite
restaurant Sammy Joe's.

Invariably at the same seat,

and he would look out
on this tall pine tree,

and he was just amazed
at the size of it,

and the perfection of it.

He would come to my house
and always sit in the same seat,

looking out at the garden.

He just loved
that vantage point.

You know, basically, a man
of simple pleasures, really.

- He became more of
a father figure for me

as my dad passed away
when I was 25,

so I looked up to him

as a person I could trust
and talk to.

And he was always there
for support.

- Working with Jonathan
was incredibly validating,

because I had a voice
at the table.

I was always heard.

He taught me by his behavior.

He taught me by the way
he regarded me,

the way he regarded the fans.

- Jonathan Frid was one of
the most compassionate men

that I ever met.

I lost a sister to cancer
in 1988.

From the day she was diagnosed,
she was terminal.

After my sister passed away,
he was doing his one-man show,

you know, around the country,

and he literally had one night
stands everywhere.

And he called me up
and let me pour my heart

out to him
because I was devastated.

The things that this man said
to me, I'll never forget it.

- The AIDS epidemic
tragically took the lives

of some of Jonathan's
Dark Shadows co-stars,

as well as some
of his closest friends

whom I've had the pleasure
of meeting.

Jonathan showed strength
and courage through it all

at a time when people
were scared to be near

an AIDS patient.

Jonathan would sit
by a dying friends bedside

to talk, to listen,
or to just hold his hand.

- When he got into his 80s,
um, he had some mobility issues.

He had taken a couple of falls.

His house had different levels,

and that was part of the reason
he moved to a one floor condo.

His memory was starting
to fail him,

as it fails all of us.

But he always stayed on track
as far as what he wanted to do.

His desire to do things
was strong,

but his abilities to do them
was starting to diminish

as he got older.

- One day I just picked up
the phone and called him.

I said,

"Is it possible we could
get together?"

He said, "Oh David,
I don't leave my place anymore."

He says, "In fact,
I'm in my robe."

[laughing]

I must say, we had a laugh
about that over the phone.

- [V/O] In the summer of 2011,

production began on a feature
film of Dark Shadows,

directed by Tim Burton,

and starring Johnny Depp
as Barnabas Collins.

On short notice, David Selby,
Catherine Lee Scott,

Lara Park, and Jonathan,

were requested to fly to London
for one day of filming.

At age 86, Jonathan no longer
had the stamina

for what turned out to be
20 hours of travel.

He arrived completely worn out.

- I knew at that time

that I was going to be
watchful for John,

and to make sure
if we stepped off a curb

I had my hand there to help
to get down.

But anyway,
we end up over there,

meeting Tim and Johnny

and they couldn't
have been nicer.

The only experience
that was difficult was

no one was communicating exactly
what it was we were doing there.

[chuckles]

Why we were there.

Besides sitting around
in a dressing room,

um, and observing.

- [V/O] They finally filmed
a\ scene in which Barnabas

greets the quartet
arriving as party guests

in the doorway of Collinwood.

After three takes Jonathan
was exhausted

and had to rest
in his dressing room.

Later, he caught the next flight
back to Toronto.

- I heard rumors that there was
a movie in 2012,

that was made by Tim Burton,

who I've admired as a filmmaker.

They say Johnny Depp
was in it as Barnabas Collins,

but it doesn't really exist
in my world.

- The character of Barnabas

just did not work.

And you could not put that
character into a lid

with Jonathan Frid

doing Barnabas.

- I saw John
a week before he died.

Um, he had a fall.

It appeared to me that he had
a pretty serious concussion.

But we chatted and we talked
and talked about

the festival coming up,

and the plans.

Um, and...

I knew at that point

that I was not going
to see him alive again.

- Uncle John never wanted
to have a fuss made over him

alive and certainly
after he passed.

He would not want a fuss
made over him either.

So we got together at one
of his favorite restaurants

In Lancaster.

We didn't involve
a lot of people.

Only the inner circle
of family and friends.

- When Jonathan passed away
in April of 2012,

his family was rather surprised
to learn in the will

that he had left the bulk
of his estate

to the Hamilton Community
Foundation.

- We are the oldest and largest
of the community foundations

in Ontario.

Among the founding directors
was H.P. Frid

and our foundation really was
the vision of a group

of old industrialists in Hamilton,
including Mr. Frid

to leave a legacy.

That they knew
that they had done

remarkably well here
financially.

They had a deep sense
of commitment

to the place that had
given them their start.

And Mrs. Frid, in fact,
was a director,

and active board member
in the 1960s.

John had a wide range
of interests,

and causes that he supported,

and through his legacy,
continues to support.

Beginning with Hillfield
the school which he attended,

with his passion for the arts.

But he also was deeply
dedicated to eduction,

to poverty, to the environment.

And so if you look at the range
of causes that he supported,

it is extraordinarily wide
and deep,

and he was very thoughtful
about the difference

he wanted to make.

- And I thought he was a very
charming, gentle man.

- And a great thing
about Jonathan was,

he was fearless,
he would do anything.

He just loved the theater.

- You couldn't work
with the better person,

and a kinder person.

- He never played the star.
Nothing like that.

He was the most down to earth,
and lovable, funny guy.

Very dedicated,
very professional.

He was super to work with.

- I really enjoyed Jonathan.

I enjoyed him very much,

because he was a kind soul.

And also,
he was a very hard worker.

Um, Shakespeare
didn't intimidate him.

He was at home with Shakespeare,

and he enjoyed playing it,

and he enjoyed acting in it.

And I can tell you,
I was very lucky in my lifetime

to have worked with a person
as knowledgeable,

and as loving, and caring
as Jonathan.

So that's it.

- Jonathan told me
to believe in myself,

and that I could do anything
that I wanted to do.

And I believed him.

And in believing him,
I believed in myself.

And the only thing I can say is,
thank you, Jonathan,

and I miss you.

- We respected each other,

we collaborated,

and when the work was done,
it was done.

And I'll never forget him.

You know, I'll never
be able to thank him,

and Mary for, you know,
what they did for me.

Um, and I'm just...
very lucky.

- He was somebody that had
a quiet dignity about him.

And I think he had learned
through his upbringing.

He treated everybody
with respect and kindness.

I felt lucky to know him.

He was truly an extraordinary
human being.

- There was not
a single instant ever,

in our relationship that was
anything but "How are you,

dear friend?"

We got along from
the very first moment,

and we never let go of that.

Never.

And I was always
thankful for him,

that he welcomed me
with open arms.

And we continued
that friendship,

right straight through.

- You know, he was a class act.

God.

- Our revels now are ended.

These are actors,
as I foretold you,

were all spirits,
and are melted into air,

into thin air.

And like the baseless fabric
of this vision,

the cloud-capped towers,
the gorgeous palaces,

the solemn temples,
the great globe itself,

yea, all which inherit,
shall dissolve.

And like this insubstantial
pageant faded,

leave not a rack behind.

We are such stuff
as dreams are made on,

and are little life
is rounded with a sleep.

[dramatic stringed music]
♪♪

- Um, what was your very first
Dark Shadows audition like?

- I went into this room
and there were a whole

bunch of people,
all kind of creepy looking,

[audience laughing]

And I thought, "Oh, I don't
have a chance here."

Ho, ho. ho.

But apparently to them,

I was the creepiest
of the bunch.

[audience laughing]

[dramatic music]
♪♪

- John was always very,
very funny about the irony

of this man who sent out to be
perhaps an American Olivier,

and became a bat.

[dramatic music continues]
♪♪