Thanks -- I did notice that thread after posting my comments here. Frid doesn't shrink from speaking his mind, does he? I admire his integrity and his resistance to "selling" himself. It must take strength to do that. What the world deems as success in the end may be only dross.
It also depends on if you have a family to feed. Sometimes you have to make professional choices that are more lucrative but less satisfying to fulfill those obligations. Frid admits he didn't have that issue so he could be more particular about what he would and would not do. I don't find it surprising that he would prefer to not act at all as opposed do doing material he did not like. Very early in the 1980s Frid outlined plans to do a lecture tour and other more academic things since his original goal was to be a drama professor. The one-man shows provided him with the perfect solution to his professional dilemma: he wanted to work but under his own terms.
To me, that's success. I'm sure many of us would love to be able to do that.
Nancy