Virginia Brissac (June 11, 1883 – July 26, 1979) was an American stage actress who headlined theatre companies from Vancouver to San Diego during the heyday of West Coast Stock in the early 1900s. An ingénue and leading lady known for her natural style and charm on stage, Brissac played with equal success in both comedies and dramas and went on to have a long second career as a character actress in film and television.
In addition to playing mothers, grandmothers, and confidants to film stars such as Bette Davis (in The Little Foxes and Dark Victory), Tyrone Power (in Captain from Castile), and John Wayne (in Operation Pacific), Brissac was cast as farm women and rancher's wives (Jesse James, The Daltons Ride Again, State Fair), aristocrats and society women (The Phantom of the Rue Morgue, Old Los Angeles, Executive Suite), and various nurses, seamstresses, and landladies. She is probably best remembered for her role as the grandmother of Jim Stark, the troubled teenager played by James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.
Early life Born in San Jose, California, and later raised in San Francisco,The Pacific Monthly, July, 1905, p. 586 accessed May 3, 2013.Doyle, Billy H. The Ultimate Directory of Silent and Sound Era Performers: A Necrology of Actors and Actresses, 1999, p. 70 Brissac was the daughter of the prominent Bay Area insurance executive and humanitarian, B. F. Brisac and his wife Alice (née Hain). She was introduced to the theatre as a young girl by her aunt and uncle, New York actress Mary Shaw and husband Norline Brissac, who was the stage manager for Sarah Bernhardt on her early tours in San Francisco and other American cities."Virginia Brissac Granted Divorce". San Francisco Call, May 7, 1912, p. 1"Playhouse Paragraphs". Evening Star (Washington D. C.), July 22, 1906, Page 7,
As Brissac's interest in theatre grew, so did her collection of autographs, which eventually included signed daguerreotypes, not only of Bernardt, but of Eleonora Duse, Richard Mansfield, Henry Irving, and many other popular actors of the day. She was also a fan of author and poet Rudyard Kipling, and when she wrote asking for his signature, Kipling's secretary wrote back informing her that the writer would grant her request if she would be willing to donate $2.50 to a certain London charity. In her reply some weeks later, Brissac wrote:Enclosed is the $2.50 for your Fresh Air Fund. I suppose you thought that when I saw $2.50 I’d give up the idea of your autograph, but I didn’t. You see I have had to save for soldiers here, for we have wars of our own once in a while, and as I’m only a little school girl with an income of 50 cents a week, you can see it has taken me some time to get the $2.50 together. But here it is and I am waiting for your autograph.
In India at the time, Kipling eventually obliged her with his autograph and, acknowledging her letter in his reply, included these lines from his poem In the Neolithic Age: But my Totem saw the shame; from his ridgepole-shrine he came, And he told me in a vision of the night: – 'There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, And every single one of them is right!'"Has Many Autographs". The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Washington), January 07, 1904, Amusements.
Stage career Brissac's acting career was launched through the efforts of Reginald Travers (c. 1879–1952), a San Francisco Bay area stage actor and little theatre impresario."Will Give Benefit". The San Francisco Call, September 25, 1902, p. 10"Amusements". The San Francisco Call, October 23, 1902, p. 7"Reginald Travers". The New York Times, January 6, 1952, p. 92 Active in civic affairs and a friend of B.F. Brissac, Travers saw talent in Virginia and convinced her father to let him give her lessons in elocution. In 1902, the two performed at a church benefit in a specialty act billed as 'Reginald and Virginia Brissac Travers' (a publicity ruse to suggest a brother-and-sister act to attract family-oriented churchgoers),Virginia Brissac family history and estate records (courtesy of Stefani Warren). and a month later they starred together at San Francisco's Fischer's Theatre in a hit farce entitled A Pair of Lunatics. She was a hit in both and eventually Travers convinced Brissac's parents to let her act professionally.
By 1903, Brissac was performing with Ralph Stuart's company playing Constance in a stage adaptation of The Three Musketeers at the Theatre Republic in San Francisco, and later that year she appeared with Florence Roberts at the Alcazar Theatre performing ingénue roles in Welcome Home and Gabriele d'Annunzio's La Gioconda."Ralph Stuart". The San Francisco Call, February 19, 1903, p. 14"Florence Roberts". The San Francisco Call, September 1, 1903, p. 4"Gioconda Given Warm Reception". The San Francisco Call, September 11, 1903, p. 4 After touring with Roberts' company, Brissac returned to the Alcazar, appearing in June 1904 with actor White Whittlesey in Soldier of Fortune, and again that August in Clyde Fitch's Nathan Hale."Whittlesey is Welcome". The San Francisco Call, June 28, 1904 p. 16"Alcazar Company". The San Francisco Call, August 30, 1904 p. 14
In 1905, her growing fame spread to Southern California where she played Caroline Mitford in the William Gillette play Secret Service and the title role in Leo Ditrichstein's Vivian's Pappas, both staged at the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles."Secret Service Fills Belasco Theatre", The Los Angeles Herald, October 31, 1905, p. 6"Sees Road to Quick Success". The Los Angeles Herald, December 11, 1905, p. 3 The following February, she was declared a hit by The Los Angeles Herald for her portrayal of Tweeny in Paul Kester's Sweet Nell of Old Drury at the Mason Opera House,"Refreshing is Nell of Drury". The Los Angeles Herald, February 27, 1906, p. 8 certifying her as a darling of the West Coast Stock circuit at the age of twenty-two.
1906–1911 In July 1906, aged 23, Brissac married Eugene D. Mockbee, an actor she had met while working with the Belasco players in Los Angeles. In the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake and fire, a return to San Francisco theatres was not possible and they moved to Spokane, Washington, where Brissac rejoined Florence Roberts’ company, touring Denver, St. Louis and cities in the Pacific Northwest in The Strength of the Weak, a play written by Alice M. Smith and Charlotte Thompson."Amusements". The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Washington), November 28, 1906, p. 4"Columbia - Florence Roberts - The Strength of the Weak". The Washington Times (Washington D. C.), September 23, 1906, Woman's Magazine Section, p. 7
Early in 1907, Brissac became pregnant and, awaiting the birth of her child, joined the Jessie Shirley Company, a local troupe in residence at the Auditorium Theatre in Spokane, appearing in productions of Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Bachelor’s Housekeeper, A Man of Her Choice, The Two Orphans and The Triumph of Betty."Auditorium". The Spokane Press. May 25, 1907, p. 3; May 27, 1907, p. 3; June 29, 1907, p. 3; July 15, 1907, p. 3.
Mockbee's career had been less successful and, after the arrival of their daughter, Ardel, in October 1907, Brissac continued working in Spokane for a second season. That December, she joined the Curtiss Comedy Company at Spokane's Columbia Theatre, playing leading roles in The Life of an Actress, In the Palace of the King, The Transgressors, By Right of Sword, Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, Deadwood Dick's Last Shot, The Banker, the Thief and the Girl, Old Heidelberg and The Land of Cotton."Columbia Theatre". The Spokane Press, December 28, 1907, p. 3; January 2, 1908, p. 3; January 6, 1908, p. 3; January 14, 1908, p. 3; January 30, 1908, p. 3; February 1, 1908, p. 3; February 8, 1908, p. 3; February 15, 1908, p. 3; February 22, 1908, p. 3; March 2, 1908, p. 3. She appeared with Grant Churchill in a vaudeville act titled The Billionaire at the Pantages Theatre,"Pantages Theatre". The Spokane Press, May 2, 1908, p. 3 and in May 1908 she and Mockbee opened Spokane's new Natatorium Park theatre. Billed as 'Miss Virginia Brissac and Summer Stock Company', they would play together for the last time there, finishing the Natatorium's 1907/08 season in productions of Sweet Clover, Troubles, Where Men are Game, School Days, Kathleen of Erin and Home Sweet Home."Natatorium". The Spokane Press, May 11, 1908 p. 3; May 19, 1908 p. 3; May 28, 1908, p. 3; June 3, 1908, p. 3; June 15, 1908, p. 3.
Her success in Spokane led Brissac to a year long run in Vancouver, Canada, and then back to Northern California, where she opened theatres in San Jose and Santa Clara, finally returning home to San Francisco in March 1911. Now separated from Mockbee, she left her daughter in the care of her parents and, after a brief appearance back at the Alcazar supporting Max Figman in Mary Jane's Pa,"Mary Jane Finds Pa at the Alcazar". The San Francisco Call, March 19, 1911, p. 60 she returned to Washington in June 1911 to star in the Hal Reid play Human Hearts at the Seattle Theatre,"Seattle Theatre". The Seattle Star, June 17, 1911, Amusements p. 7 and later opened in nearby Tacoma, starring in A Yankee Doodle Boy with the Pringle Stock Company at the Tacoma Theatre."The Playhouses". The Tacoma Times, July 10, 1911, p. 8
1912–1917
Late in 1911, Brissac began a tour of Southern California theatres, appearing in productions at The Burbank Theatre in Los Angeles, the Boston Theatre in Long Beach and headlining for the opening of the Savoy and Grand Theatres in San Diego. Playing tragic heroines such as Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and the title role in Sapho, Brissac filled seats and captured the hearts of San Diego audiences. In 1912, she obtained a divorce from Mockbee on grounds of failure to provide and was awarded custody of their daughter, who remained in the care of Brissac's parents in San Francisco."Virginia Brissac Granted Divorce". The San Francisco Call, May 7, 1912, p. 1"Notices". The San Francisco Call, April 26, 1912, p. 26
At the end of her run at the Grand Theatre, she joined the World's Fair Stock Company in San Diego and toured in the Hawaiian Islands for a year. She opened at Honolulu's Bijou Theatre in Brewster's Millions on December 21, 1912, and closed with a final performance in Honolulu on October 21, 1913 at the Grand Opera House."Big Stock Company Coming Here". Honolulu Star-Bulletin, December 10, 1912, p. 5
When the tour ended, Brissac made two short silent films for Carl Laemmle (The Shark God and Hawaiian Love) with future MGM film director John Griffith Wray, a lead actor and stage director with the World's Fair Stock Company who had a side contract with Laemmle to make the films. Playing a native girl and a tribal chief's daughter, Brissac paddled canoes and danced with Hawaiian natives throughout November and December before finally sailing home to San Francisco on January 28, 1914 aboard the steamship Wilhelmina.Honolulu Star-Bulletin, "Great Interest in Opening of Stock Season", December 20, 1912, p. 7; "Promises for the Playhouses", October 20, 1913, p. 5; "Passengers Departed", January 28, 1914, p. 2
On June 29, 1915, Brissac and Wray were married in Santa Ana, California"California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K8DJ-J4L : accessed 25 Jan 2014), "John Wray and Virginia Brissac, 1915" and then returned to San Diego where they continued to live and work for the next six years. Before opening her own stock company at San Diego's Strand Theatre, with Wray as managing director, Brissac returned to the Bay area on August 5, 1917 to give a "Farewell" performance as The Eternal Magdalene at the Bishop Playhouse in Oakland, then took the 'Brissac World's Fair Stock Company' on a tour in Australia.
1918–1934