[At CBS.com – Jonathan Frid, actor in original “Dark Shadows,”dies at 87]
He was one of the greats, for certain!
Sadly, this makes three fixtures of my Montana childhood and adolescence departed during the past two days—Dick Clark, Levon Helm, and now Jonathan Frid.
Talk about leaving legacies!
By the by, I’m glad Jonathan Frid lived to see DARK SHADOWS reclaimed as the classic cultural achievement it always was!
Whether the Depp/Burton film is any good is irrelevant. The CONCEPTUAL breakthrough into the emotionally-conflicted, human-scale Supernatural that Frid, producer Dan Curtis, their excellent writers and directors, and the rest of that fine cast inaugurated 45 years ago now reigns supreme o’er the American Popular Culture, though nothing of its depth, range, scale, or longevity will likely supplant it!
Wish I’d sprung for the 131 dvd box (coffin!) set a few weeks ago when it was briefly offered, but I suppose I’ll have my chance in due course to re-experience the entire 1225 episodes, which brightened my late afternoons from 1999-2002 (thanks to the Sci Fi Network’s two episodes per day diet), much as it had when I was a child living on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation near Havre, Montana, from 1969-71.
I’m now even more pleased to have paid DS & Jonathan Frid homage last September via EAST PORTLAND BLOG:
https://www.eastportlandblog.com/2011/09/23/a-brief-appreciation-of-dark-shadows-by-tom-kipp/
For now, I must cue the immortal opening theme:
– Tom Kipp
Also in East Portland Blog:
The Day Jonathan Frid Invaded My Humanities Class, By Joe Mabel
