Jonathan Frid is an actor from Canada who is best known for his role in the 1967 television show Dark Shadows. He is considered one of the best horror actors of our centaury and many characters have been based on his acting skills.
Early Life:
John Herbert Frid was born on the 2nd of December 1924 in Ontario Canada. From an early age he showed a great interest in theater and entertainment and as soon as he got the chance to study drama he took it. This chance came after he graduated from McMaster University; following his graduation he headed straight to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. After moving from one school to another he finally graduated from Yale School of Drama with a Master's in Directing. This was only the beginning of his great life, and later on he would use the skills he learned at Drama school to become one of the greatest horror/thriller actors of all time.
TV Career:
Unlike others actors Jonathan does not have a real huge line up of shows; during his acting career he stared in a few shows but he did such a great job on them that people remembered him forever. Jonathan's career kicked off with his first major role as Barnabas Collins in the 1976 show Dark Shadows. Barnabas was the son of a very wealthy business man but because of some unfortunate events he was bitten by a vampire bat from hell, this resulted in him turning into a vampire and from then on the story begins. Most people remember the character Barnabas as scary, but Jonathan Frid said that he found the teeth and costumes quite funny and he was not sure how anybody took the show seriously. But nonetheless the public loved the show and by the time it was done Jonathan had stared in more than 590 episodes of it. After leaving Dark Shadows behind Jonathan went on to star in The Devil's Daughter a show about a child whose soul had been sold to the devil and in retune she had to marry a demon.
Other achievements:
Though he was a great actor he did not receive that many awards; the only real records of anything close to an award are the 1971 nominations he received from Golden Laurel for Star of Tomorrow Male. He was nominated for this because of the role he played in his signature show House of Dark Shadows. Overall I think Jonathan was a pretty decent actor, he was not one of the greatest of our time because true acting ability is seen when an actor is able to play more than one kind of character. But we still cannot dismiss his achievements as nothing; 590 episodes is still a pretty great number, especially considering the fact that most actors never come close to that. If you would like to checkout any of his work you can find them online or on DVD release, sometimes the best horror shows are the classics.
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