Jonathan Frid - Barnabas Collins - speaks at the 2007 Dark Shadows Festival Banquet

I found this footage on my computer of Jonathan Frid speaking at the Dark Shadows banquet in 2007, I thought my subscribers would enjoy this. He speaks about a mishap with his fangs and thanks his fans.

[@dainagregory]

Omg Jonathan love you love you love you…..worried about denture falling out during on camera bite - I’d love to have met you - thanks for posting this wonderful video

[@FilPol-yu1es]

Mr. Frid was still sharp here. Such a talented, intelligent man. Too bad, he didn't do some Big Finish CD stories..while he was Still had his Beautifully Resonant Voice!

[@valjazz]

Thanks for posting this footage.

[@thejupiter2574]

I found this information posted in one of the larger Dark Shadows groups, from some people who knew Jonathan Frid and shared this with the fans >>>>>>>> "" Mr. Frid was a proud Canadian. When he retired he moved back to Ontario Canada where he had family and many friends. Jonathan Frid never married ( obviously ) and he never had any children. However, he was survived by his beloved cousins and his brother's children, and by his Grand niece and nephews who loved and adored him. They called him 'Uncle John'. He was dearly loved. Mr. Frid was not a religious man so there was no ceremony after he died. He never liked to be fussed over and he did not want a funeral nor a memorial. He preferred to be remembered alive and enjoying life. Mr. Frid did not want a final resting place in fear of the many obsessive fans he had who would seek out the grave of 'Barnabas Collins' and set up memorials and write graffiti about his character. He didn't want fans to put him up on a pedestal like a movie idol. He never wanted that kind of attention. Jonathan Frid said that many fans had trouble separating him, the actor from the character he had played. Fans would address him as Barnabas instead of his real name and they'd ask him a lot of 'vampire' related questions. He did not want those kinds of obsessive fans to bother his relatives . Mr. Frid would often say that he was nothing like his Barnabas character. He also stated several times that he would like to be remembered for more than just his work on Dark Shadows. He had twenty years of acting experience before he even appeared on the TV show and several years of doing dramatic readings in his reader's theater and in his one-man shows and his tour with the play, Arsenic and Old Lace with actors Marion Ross, Jean Stapleton and Larry Storch. Mr. Jonathan Frid was so much more than just his Barnabas character. R I P .""

[@dainagregory]

I thought this was probably the reason why he didn’t want a final resting place - bless him - the love and adoration he incited affected his decision about this always concerned about the effect on his family members……

[@theperkinsbrothers]

thank you for sharing. I wish Mr. Frid could have made it long enough to see the new movie but we will look forward to seeing his cameo moment.

[@amycrumedy6586]

Gracious Man.

[@thejupiter2574]

Mr. Frid is recalling a famous DS story that happened back in 1967 during the Blk n Wht episodes. On Dark Shadows the actors that played vampires like Mr. Frid and Donald Briscoe and Lara Parker, Roger Davis, they all had denture fangs made up and they had to hold them , their fangs hidden in their hand during the scenes and then slip them into their mouth while the camera is focused on their victim. In this episode that Mr. Frid is describing his hand had to be free to life and posed his wolfs' head cane into camera angle above the bed of his victim, Maggie Evans in her bedroom So to have his hands free he had his denture fangs already in his mouth ready for a close up when the camera zooms in he was suppose to have opened his mouth wide to reveal his fangs, ( Mr. Frid hated, hated doing those big dramatic fang exposure scenes, he wanted subtly and for it to have been more suggestive) so his fangs were already in his mouth but his tongue accidentally shifted them around til they were backwards and he couldn't re position them correctly for the full effect, so he only opened his mouth partially and the gleaming white color of the fangs stood out in the blk n wht episode without showing them completely, just enough to be suggestive and subtle which back then was still very scary, esp with the wind blowing and the dogs barking and howling outside Maggie's French Doors that Barnabas entered through

[@josetteandres]

Damn, such a shame he didn't live to see the movie. Meanwhile, I'll never get to meet him.

[@Meadowlark76]

Great video! Thanks so much for posting! Does someone know what he means when he is talking about a lady friend "within breathing distance" and being "in the next room"?

[@eleni1968]

DEar Scarolyn Thanks for posting. Hi Meadow lark. Good Question. With the distortion it sounds like "breeding distance" [LOL]. I caught that too. She could have been a girlfriend he also happily had a chance to work on the stage with -- because he then drops it. He says, "[OK]. That's enough" It gets too personal & according to those close to him, he was always a very private person. No joke. he was always a seriously handsome dude. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if he had a fellow actor/girlfriend waiting on him to go to their next gig on a stage in Georgia. I wonder if she was a redhead. He was always attracted to women who were actors like himself, if she was a redhead all the better. AS for the woman laughing, I don't think she was laughing at him but with him, and perhaps she might have been overjoyed to see him and to hear him once again. she was probably brimming with happiness. She couldn't hold it. THere are some people who are like that. Their senses become so overwhelmed because they're so happy.

[@mariannedinapoli1467]

I believe he was referring to Marie Wallace who he directed in The Lion in Winter down in Georgia. They were very good friends.

[@eleni1968]

Listen again. This is a recounting of a mishap with his false fangs on the set, and that happened in 1967 & he was in his very early 40's and really dangerously handsome.You can see this on KZbin it's like Ep.215 or 217. It's now even funnier after he explained what went went wrong. He is referring to an episode in the Season 2 of DS soon after Barnabas is added to the caste. He creeps into Maggie's room and is about to "zap her". As for Marie Wallace whom he directed for Lion In Winter, that didn't happen until 1990's and she was in her early 20's [this was a Theater MFA program?? or Community theater attached to a Theater program at a college in Georgia]- JF was well into his early 60's and enjoying his Directorial debut[??]. He went on to finally direct other theatrical productions and FINALLY apply his MFA in Directing [theater/stage] from Yale [whoopee for JF] He had confessed in interviews he wished he had gone into directing sooner than he did and that he was a frustrated college theater professor.

[@marilynwillett804]

marie wallace was almost his age, look at her as Eve in 1968, in her 30's. he was about 43, she was not early 20's.

[@mariannedinapoli1467]

Can't imagine how humiliating it must've been to be canned right after this event and then have to pack up and leave the hotel in total disgrace, right after giggling away like an unsuspecting dolt. How pathetic! And to have those final moments of employment perfectly preserved in this video for all to see. So sad... Good for Jonathan for doing the right thing!!

[@marilynwillett804]

Who are you talking about? the redhead with curly hair?

[@11redlions]

hes speaking from the heart in the end why is some woman laughing

[@TakersMissy]

It's possible she was laughing with joy at being able to see and hear Jonathan in person. :-) My heart still breaks knowing that's one privilege I never had and never will. RIP with love, Dear Mr. Frid.

[@FilPol-yu1es]

Fans..can be very creepy and inappropriate.

[@eleni1968]

After rewatching TP seasons 1-2 its too bad JF wasn't a character in this series. He fits the character profile of Lynch and Frost. He could have been Gordon Cole. I think JF would have been hilarious. Since he already understood the and used the polar opposites in characters as he did in Barnabas --a character conflict, that would have made him the ideal actor for this TP. Leland Palmer is very close to Barnabas Collins. But instead of being a vampire , Leland Palmer had BOB. I still believe that Dark Shadows and Twin Peaks were more related than DS was to any of its later incarnations. Although the early 1990's revisit of DS with Ben Cross is equally satisfying. We'll never know what could have become of that version of DS as the debut of TP knocked many shows off the air waves in ratings

[@FilPol-yu1es]

You think the 90's Remake was "equally satisfying"..? Ok..