Jonathan Frid wasn't even supposed to be a star. When he first shuffled onto the set of Dark Shadows in 1967, he was a middle-aged Canadian stage actor who figured the gig would last maybe a few weeks. He was just a guest star, a plot device to shake up a struggling daytime soap opera that was teetering on the edge of cancellation. Then he bit someone.
Suddenly, everything changed.
If you're asking who played Barnabas Collins, the answer starts and ends with Frid, but the history of the character is actually a bit more crowded than you might think. From the campy big-budget reboots to the obscure Canadian stage revivals, several men have donned the Inverness cape and the silver wolf's head cane. It's a role that requires a very specific, weirdly difficult balance: you have to be terrifying, but you also have to be someone the audience wants to hug.
The Man Who Started It All: Jonathan Frid
The 1960s were a strange time for television. Soap operas were usually about hospital dramas or secret pregnancies, not 175-year-old vampires trapped in a coffin by their jealous witch ex-girlfriends. When Dan Curtis created Dark Shadows, it was a slow-burn gothic romance that was actually failing in the ratings.
Enter Jonathan Frid.
Frid played Barnabas as a reluctant monster. He wasn't a "cool" vampire like the ones we see in The Vampire Diaries or Twilight. He was twitchy. He was nervous. He forgot his lines constantly—partially because the show was filmed live-to-tape on a shoestring budget and they didn't have time for second takes. You can actually see him looking at teleprompters in some of the most famous scenes.
Honestly, that's what made him work. That vulnerability.
Frid brought a Shakespearean weight to the role. He had studied at the Yale School of Drama and spent years in the theater, and he treated the dialogue of a low-budget soap like it was Hamlet. Because he felt so guilty about his bloodlust, the audience fell in love with him. He became the first "sympathetic vampire" in pop culture history. Without Jonathan Frid’s specific, neurotic performance, we probably wouldn't have Louis from Interview with the Vampire or Angel from Buffy.
He played the role from 1967 until the show ended in 1971, and he even returned for the first feature film, House of Dark Shadows (1970). By the time the film came out, Frid-mania was real. He was getting thousands of fan letters a week, mostly from teenagers who found his lonely, tortured soul routine incredibly relatable.
✨ Don't miss: Austin & Ally Maddie Ziegler Episode: What Really Happened in Homework & Hidden Talents
The 1991 Revival: Ben Cross
Fast forward twenty years. NBC decided it was time to bring the Collins family back to primetime. This was a big deal. The budget was higher, the sets were gloomier, and the special effects didn't involve visible fishing lines holding up plastic bats.
Ben Cross took over the role.
You might know Cross as the star of Chariots of Fire. He was a powerhouse actor, but his Barnabas was a very different beast. Where Frid was twitchy and tragic, Cross was sleek and dangerous. He leaned into the "predator" aspect of the character.
The 1991 series is actually really good, though it’s often overlooked because it got caught in the crossfire of the Gulf War news coverage. NBC kept preempting the episodes for war updates, and the show lost its momentum. Cross played Barnabas as a man with a shorter fuse. He was regal. He felt like an aristocrat who could rip your throat out if you used the wrong fork at dinner.
While Cross only got one season to play with the character, he’s still the favorite for a certain subset of fans who prefer their vampires a little more "classic horror" and a little less "misunderstood stage actor."
The Tim Burton Era: Johnny Depp
We have to talk about the 2012 movie. It’s polarizing. It’s colorful. It’s... weird.
Johnny Depp had been a lifelong fan of Dark Shadows. He supposedly used to run home from school to watch Jonathan Frid. So, when he teamed up with Tim Burton to bring the character to the big screen, he went all in.
But here’s the thing: Depp played Barnabas Collins as a "fish out of water" comedy lead.
🔗 Read more: Kiss My Eyes and Lay Me to Sleep: The Dark Folklore of a Viral Lullaby
The 2012 film shifted the tone from gothic melodrama to quirky horror-comedy. Depp’s Barnabas was obsessed with the 1970s—marveling at lava lamps and "trolls" (Alice Cooper). While Depp nailed the physical look—the pale skin, the pointed fingers, the heavy rings—the performance felt more like an eccentric caricature than the tortured soul Frid created.
It’s a fun performance, sure. But for the "Shadows" purists? It was a bit of a shock to the system.
Interestingly, Jonathan Frid actually made a cameo in this movie. He appears during a party scene at Collinwood, along with other original cast members Lara Parker, Kathryn Leigh Scott, and David Selby. It was Frid’s final film appearance before he passed away in 2012. It felt like a torch-passing moment, even if the movie itself was more about laughs than scares.
The One You Might Have Missed: Alec Newman
In 2004, there was another attempt to bring Dark Shadows back to TV. A pilot was filmed for The WB (now The CW), and it featured Alec Newman as Barnabas.
Newman is a solid Scottish actor who played Paul Atreides in the Dune miniseries. His version of Barnabas was supposed to be a return to the darker, more serious roots of the show. The pilot featured a younger, more "CW-friendly" cast, including a young Jessica Chastain as Carolyn Stoddard.
The pilot never aired.
Well, it never aired officially. It has since leaked online and made the rounds at conventions. Newman’s Barnabas was moody and intense, but because the show wasn't picked up, we never got to see him really sink his teeth into the role. It remains one of the great "what ifs" of the franchise.
Beyond the Screen: Audio and Stage
Barnabas Collins didn't die when the cameras stopped rolling. In the world of audio dramas, the character has lived on for decades.
💡 You might also like: Kate Moss Family Guy: What Most People Get Wrong About That Cutaway
Big Finish Productions has released a massive library of Dark Shadows audio plays. For a long time, Andrew Collins (no relation to the fictional family) provided the voice for Barnabas in these productions. These aren't just cheap knock-offs; they feature many of the original cast members and continue the complex storylines of the 1700s and 1960s.
Wait, there’s even more. In the late 60s, a stage play titled Shadows of the 18th Century toured with various actors taking on the mantle. It’s a messy history because the character became a brand. Everyone wanted a piece of the vampire who saved the soap opera.
Why the Actor Matters: The Core of the Curse
The reason we care about who played Barnabas Collins isn't just about trivia. It's about how the character changed what we expect from monsters.
Before 1967, vampires in movies were mostly monsters. You had Dracula, who was suave but clearly evil. You had Nosferatu, who was a literal rat-man. Then came Jonathan Frid. He looked like your eccentric uncle, but he had this crushing weight of loneliness on his shoulders.
Every actor who has followed has had to deal with that legacy.
- Physicality: The "Barnabas Hand." Frid used his hands a lot—partially to show off the rings, partially because he was an expressive stage actor. Depp copied this almost exactly.
- The Voice: Barnabas has to sound like he’s from another century. He uses words like "propriety" and "countenance." Cross nailed the regal tone, while Frid nailed the desperation.
- The Conflict: If Barnabas is just a killer, the story is boring. If he's just a hero, he's not a vampire. The best actors in the role are the ones who make you forget for a second that he's a murderer, right before he proves it again.
Where to Start Watching
If you're new to the world of Collinsport, don't start with the 2012 movie. It's not a fair representation of why people have stayed obsessed with this character for 60 years.
Instead, look for the "Barnabas Premiere" episodes of the original 1960s series. They are usually collected on streaming services or DVDs as the point where the show "gets good." You’ll see Jonathan Frid’s first appearance—climbing out of a coffin in the secret room of the mausoleum.
It’s slow. It’s black and white. The sets wobble when someone closes a door. But the moment Frid looks at the camera with those sad, sunken eyes, you'll get it. You'll see why no one has ever quite matched his version of the character.
How to Explore the Dark Shadows Legacy
If you've caught the bug and want to dig deeper into the history of these performers, here is the most effective way to do it:
- Watch the 1991 Revival: It's only 12 episodes. It’s a perfect "cliff notes" version of the Barnabas origin story with Ben Cross giving a powerhouse performance.
- Listen to Big Finish Audio: If you want more Barnabas but don't want to watch 1,200 episodes of a soap opera, the audio dramas are a great way to experience the character's depth.
- The Documentary "Dark Shadows: The First Resurrection": This gives a great look at how the cast felt about the sudden fame and how Frid handled becoming a reluctant sex symbol in his late 40s.
- Visit Lyndhurst Mansion: Located in Tarrytown, NY, this served as "Collinwood" in the films. Walking the grounds gives you a real sense of the gothic atmosphere that these actors had to inhabit.
Barnabas Collins is more than just a character; he’s a template. Whether it’s the nervous energy of Frid, the intensity of Cross, or the eccentricity of Depp, the "man in the cape" remains one of the most significant figures in the history of televised horror. He proved that even a monster can have a heart—even if that heart stopped beating two centuries ago.