Post-DS careers

[Countess]

Which actors/actresses do you feel deserved Hollywood stardom after DS?

Countess

[PennyDreadful]

 Jonathan Frid.

 If he had allowed it to happen, JF would have surely inherited the mantle of horror movie greats like Lugosi, Karloff, Price etc.  IMO he could have been the next (and maybe last) horror icon of the silver screen.

 However, I don't think he wanted that kind of life.  Its understandable.  Many great stage actors don't care for that kind of Hollywood lifestyle.  From what I've read, Jonathan was/is a relatively private person, didn't particularly want to get typecast as a horror actor, and wasn't entirely comfortable in front of a Hollywood movie camera. 

  Still, he definitely deserved superstardom IMO, and I think he would have attained that kind of fame in the movies if he had wanted it.

~Penny Dreadful~

[dvlvan26]

Hello to All Cousins!
I know that I might sound crazy, but I feel that AMI deserved Hollywood career. She seems like the girl next door type. Despite being reduced to a bumbling idiot, I think that AMI should have played more roles in TV and movies as girlfriends, older/younger sisters, mothers, teachers, counselors,etc.

Sometimes, when I see "Vicki Winters", I imagine her as the older sister/mentor that I never had.

Thank For this Topic,

LOve dvlvan26

[stefan]

I don't think Jonathan Frid was a "Hollywood" type star. That's why we are all so lucky to have been able to see him on DS. It just appears that he was more of a theater type guy and I definately wished he had done more of that.

[dom]

Considering the times, I think Karlen could have been a star in Hollywood, and deserved to be (regardless of the times).

[Raineypark]

I still think going to Hollywood was a mistake on Karlen's part.  If he'd only held on for a bit longer, he'd have been in New York when the SilverCup Studios opened and he would have had multiple options: series television, Broadway, and films. I've said this before: he could have had as varied a career as Jerry Orbach.

[Gothick]

Grayson could have become a fixture in supporting roles in Seventies H'wood films, but by the time 1971 rolled around and DS was finished, she'd already had it with all the Hollywood bullshit.  I think the fate of Night of Dark Shadows was the last straw for her--a film she'd done a couple of years previous to that had had what she regarded as her best scenes left on the cutting-room linoleum.

I think the same thing goes for Frid.  He did not have the temperament to deal with the inflated egos and PNP (play-and-party) culture in H'wood.  I do think that his roles in Seizure and The Devil's Daughter show he could have done stellar work onscreen--regardless of what one thinks of the films themselves, his work in them is very good.

The actress I think should have done more in film is Nancy Barrett.  I think for personal reasons she chose to remain in NYC and do soaps.  Thayer David *did* have a very busy career in film and television in his few remaining years, and had he not died when he did, Nero Wolfe could well have been picked up as a regular series with TD in the starring role he so richly deserved.  I'm really sorry Clarice Blackburn chose to go more into writing in the Seventies as I think she was so wonderful--really one of the best, most subtle actresses on the series.

As for Karlen, I thought it was very revealing that he recently commented that he often had more to do, as an actor practicing his craft, on a given episode of DS than he did in all his years on Cagney and Lacey.   He was not very well treated on the West Coast and I've wondered whether his agent might have been partly to blame for that.  who knows.

G. 

[Charles_Ellis]

The real tragedy here is Thayer David.  He was on the brink of major stardom when he suddenly died of a heart attack in 1978.  Things were looking up as he had just done a Nero Wolfe pilot and from all indications it would've been picked up as a series, giving him lasting stardom.  Playing the urbane detective would've done for his career what playing Perry Mason did for Raymond Burr.

In his personal life, her and his ex-wife, actress Valerie French were planning to remarry.  If he had lived, he would have finally found true happiness in both in his career and love life.  So close, so close.......

[stefan]

Most of the good ones from DS should have made movie careers and TV. The only actor I see as strictly theater was Jonathan Frid.
KLS, Thayer David, John Karlen, Dennis Patrick, Louis Edmonds, Clarice Blackburn (all very solid character actors and some exceptional)...probably it was just luck of the draw as is with most actors, it seems. As has been already discussed in this thread, many did have solid acting careers, of sorts. John Karlen, Thayer Daivd, Dennis Patrick, Kate Jackson, Jerry Lacey (didn't he do Broadway as Bogart?) were working actors who probably made a good income with it....all of the DS group had potential to some extent. Though - I wonder, as Lara Parker was so amazing as Angelique, if she was a bit typecast. I think Lara Parker is good but not so much as JF who could have broke his typecasting with sheer talent, if the theater projects had come his way. I'm annoyed with myself for missing opportunities of his one man shows. I wasn't even aware of him at that point, and now I think he's totally retired. My loss.

[Gerard]

Nancy Barrett.  She was so incredibly versatile that I can picture her as another Bette Davis.

Gerard

[Patti Feinberg]

David Selby has done well in post DS.

Jerry Lacy...he coulda/shoulda done...something...

Patti

[PennyDreadful]

 Just a couple of quotes I tracked down to support my earlier remark that Jonathan Frid would have/could have become the next big horror icon of the silver screen.  These are from some of Nancy's posted transcripts of interviews and Q&A's...

  Jonathan Frid from a November 1971 TV By Day interview: Ive been offered roles, but I wont do Barnabas or anything remotely related to him.  No vampires, no monsters, no necrophiliacs! 

  From the same interview:   As for movies, well, to be very honest, its a very different
thing from television or the stage.  There is so much waiting around, so much boredom.  You have to stand there while they arrange lights and things, and it takes forever.

  John Karlen from 1977 ShadowCon interview: Between you and me, I feel he (Jonathan Frid) made a great mistake by not doing the second movie, because he was right on the verge of becoming one of the greatest horror film characters in this country. That was totally his prerogative. I think he had it at the moment with that kind of thing as an actor, but to me, if he would have continued on with it, he could have branched out into just about anything. It just didn't work out that way.

   In retrospect, I suspect Jonathan Frid made the right choice for himself.  It sounds like he didn't enjoy the film experience very much.  It's understandable.  Film work can be tedious and very technical.  Plus, it sounds like Mr. Frid was really tired of the horror/fantasy material.  It's too bad in a way, just because I'm sure many would have loved classic-style horror films starring Jonathan Frid.

~Penny Dreadful~

[Patti Feinberg]

Last night, watching the last installment of "Broadway" on PBS...there's Donna McKennie. I don't remember what play she was speaking about.

Patti

[Midnite]

Last night, watching the last installment of "Broadway" on PBS...there's Donna McKennie. I don't remember what play she was speaking about.

Chorus Line.    More here:

... the 5th hour of the PBS mini about Broadway, and there's a nice brief interview with Donna McKechnie in the show, as well as clips of her and the OBC of CHORUS LINE. ...

[Brian]

Based on my experience in theater and as an Actors' Equity rep, many actors finally have their fill of the "business" and turn to other things, especially if they settle down and start a family.  Those who "can't do anything else" (as Lauren Bacall once put it) continue in the "biz" and very often succeed.  But many DS actors (and many daytime actors in today's world) often say "enough" and try other things.  It's the nature of the beast--and life!