Virginia Brissac was already a San Diego theater star when James Dean was still decades away from becoming a Hollywood icon.
In the late 1910s and early 1920s, Brissac drew San Diego audiences to the Strand Theatre, where her company presented a steady succession of plays. Her Brissac Players remained at the theater for more than three years, a run that the trade publication The Billboard reported was believed to be a world record for a continuous engagement by one star in stock in a city of fewer than 100,000 people.
But San Diego audiences knew Brissac before the Strand. By late 1911, she had begun appearing at San Diego theaters, including the Savoy and Grand, as her Southern California stage career continued to develop. The San Diego History Center’s Fulkerson Family/Savoy Theatre Collection includes photographs of Brissac among its portraits of Savoy Players and other performers.
Her San Diego career continued to grow. She became associated with the city’s World’s Fair Stock Co., then eventually returned to establish her own company at the Strand Theatre.
It became a remarkable run.
In February 1921, The Billboard reported that Brissac had entered her fourth year at the Strand on Feb. 16. The Brissac Players had presented 136 shows during 156 weeks, with interruptions for the influenza epidemic and summer vacations. The trade publication said the engagement was believed to be a world record for a continuous engagement by one star in stock in a city of fewer than 100,000 people.
The company had become an important part of San Diego’s theatrical life. Contemporary trade publications regularly reported on the productions and performers appearing with the Brissac Players.
Among those connected with the company was John Griffith Wray, who served as producer of the Strand plays and later became a film director. By 1921, Wray was working as a director at the Ince Studios in Los Angeles.
Brissac’s own San Diego run ended that spring. The Billboard reported in April 1921 that her three-year-and-three-month engagement at the Strand Theatre was ending April 23. Producer Wray and manager Lawrence Marsh were also ending their connections with the Brissac Players. Brissac planned to join her husband, Wray, in Los Angeles and take a much-needed rest from the stage.
Brissac then followed Hollywood’s growing pull.
There, she built a second career as a character actress, appearing in films including “Dark Victory”, “The Little Foxes” and “Executive Suite.” She also worked in television.
Then came the role that would make her recognizable to a new generation.
In 1955, at age 72, Brissac appeared in “Rebel Without a Cause”as Grandma Stark, the grandmother of Dean’s character, Jim Stark.
It was a very different kind of role from the leading ladies she had played on San Diego stages decades earlier.
But the actress who appeared alongside Dean had already spent years commanding her own audiences.
For San Diego, Brissac was never simply a Hollywood character actress. She was a star here first.
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Sources:
- San Diego History Center — Fulkerson Family/Savoy Theatre Collection
- The Billboard, Feb. 26, 1921 — Internet Archive.
- The Billboard, April 23, 1921 — World Radio History.
- Turner Classic Movies — Rebel Without a Cause.
