To reiterate my point--easily missed in the above convoluted passages--the opportunities he had in the mid 80's as a result of minor theatrical success were nowhere close to the opportunities he had in 1971, when he was still a "young" man. As an older gentleman in the mid 1980's, one man show's had a great deal of more appeal.
Of course nobody should take any of what I postulate here too seriously. It's just a sort of revisionist what-if approach to his career. I would be deeply interested, Nancy, in seeing the Q & A you mentioned some time at your leisure.
You will be happy to know as a fan that none of what you feared to be the case with JFrid turned out to be the case, LOL. Frid wanted to do things away and apart from the supernatural roles such as having a talk show and that just wasn't going to happen in 1971. He hoped it would, but he found it otherwise. What would producers call the show? "Jivving with Barney?" No casting agent or producer would go for it so the issue was play what was being offered, produce and star in your own TV series, etc. Here is an exerpt from the Q&A which is on a yahoogroups discussion list on JFrid.
Q&A following a charity performance in New York of his one-man show. When asked about his one-man show, why not pursue (or have pursued) film and television work he responded:
JF: Now, a couple of other things I'd like to touch on too . . oh yes. I had some experience with, let me put it this way . .. 1987 was probably the happiest year of my life in the theatre. I did two things that year. I was formulating and formalizing this Readers Theater thing, which I found the happiest part of my life really.
And also my biggest professionally in the sense of big business apart from "Dark Shadows". This was on the stage, in a Broadway touring production of "Arsenic and Old Lace". Of course, I was playing Jonathan Brewster. And I began, I was you might say always stuck in these type castings; I was playing a gruesome killer, which I was. But in the course of the year, touching
on two things at once here, one about villains...It was a wonderful role because even though it was supposed to be an evil son of a gun. I remember the director who wanted me to do it, too.
I said "But it's a comedy". He said "We have enough comics in this show. You play, go after the
aunties". If you know the "Arsenic and Old Lace" story. And he goes after them. He said "Give
it to them". And I had those two ladies breaking down in tears a couple of times. I get so evil. [Laughter] Of course, they deserved it. [Laughter]
So he [the director] was very happy with that. But the thing was, there were also scenes that he has with this Dr. Einstein, the quack doctor. We were just a couple of crackpots in this thing, and had funny scenes. And there are two or three very funny scenes, that famous scene where they try to get the body through the window and put into the windowseat, if it's done right, is one of the funniest things I can recall in all the plays I've ever seen in my life. Although I never quite conquered that one totally, but I did my best. But I mean there are other scenes I had. But anyway, to make a long story short, the last night I played it was after a whole year, I finally got that role so that it was one of the most pleasurable
experiences of my life. Even though he was a nasty, nasty man, he was in a comedy, in a farce at
that. And he does have scenes where he is funny. And to be able to get laughs seconds after I just scared everybody on stage, it was a wonderful feeling, being mercurial, I think that's the greatest joy of an actor; it's when you feel that you
I can go from one thing to another almost instantaneously and become something else all of a
sudden. And it's the mercurial thing that keeps me buoyant as an actor. And that's what I did
in "Arsenic and Old Lace". It was a simply wonderful experience to be able to play comic... The
director let me do this once he knew I was doing my job humiliating these aunts at the right
moment. There were just times where you had to, that it was just so automatically comedy, that
I did play it for both values. So it was just this mercurial going back and forth
And all the farce, comedy, melodrama, and most tragic
It was a great lesson for me. Now the other thing about "Arsenic", it was the best role I've ever
had in the longest run that I've ever had. Sometimes I've had long runs just playing small walk-
ons or something, or I've had great roles like Richard III and only had three weeks to play it
But this played for a year. And I'm a slow study, as possibly you've all discovered just by watching "Dark Shadows" [laughter]. I really had a terrible, terrible time with that show for the first six months to a year. I was talking about that this afternoon in another context. But in this particular context, speaking about how wonderful it was to have "Arsenic" and be able to do that for a whole year and have all that time to perfect it, while other actors, some of the other actors, were bored stiff. And a lot of actors, very good actors, better actors than I am in a way, in some respects anyway, they play a role -- and they admit it -- they play a role for three or four weeks and then they have nowhere else to go, they're just bored. I'm forever, ever, exploring - I mean I'm so slow. (Laughter) And I keep looking and looking and looking. Tonight and this afternoon, there were two or three stories read quite differently in my head, I don't know who has been here twice today, but I read quite differently from this afternoon. One little revelation that hits you in the brain will trigger all kinds of little things all through the rest of the story, so it's like really playing a new story. I'm not a very organized person, but I let my imagination fly. So that's one of the joys I get, but it doesn't always leave me in good stead in the professional business. So that's why I get called a dilettante kind of actor instead of a money-making actor.
To tell you the truth, I love my acting profession, but I refuse to bow to being shaped into a business property. I wouldn't do that; I got out of all that. That was quite deliberate. I had no interest in that at all, even if I missed making millions, I didn't care. I just had no interest in that sort of thing. I was just wasn't going to be a toy to these guys. I just have my own way of acting. I loved being flexible and private, and I had this great way of doing it with these One Man Shows. This is why they are my very favorite part of my career. And by
the way, people say, isn't there some part you've always wanted to play and never, and every
actor's been asked, and most actors say yes, they do have a part that I haven't played yet and
I'd love to do. I don't have that problem; I just put them in my Readers Theater and do it.
[laughter and applause].
End of excerpt:
Ironically enough, Frid took on the role of Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace on Broadway in 1986 and went on the very high profile tour of the production across the country. At the time, the show was the most financially successful tour according to Variety magazine. As Frid said in interviews at the time, he took on what he expected to be a high profile tour in order to let the industry know he wasn't dead so he could generate some publicity for his one-man shows. The exposure was enormous - radio, TV and print interviews all over the place. When came back from the tour (which lasted over a year) he turned down the many film and TV offers that came in (some of them for films that were highly successful when released) because he only wanted to do theater. That's all that has ever really interested him. It's what he's best at too.
There is a marvelous book out on Jonathan Frid's career written by Malia Howard you can check out at
www.curiousjourney.com and also his own website at
www.jonathanfrid.comNancy