Virginia Brissac

Virginia Brissac (June 11, 1883 – July 26, 1979) was a popular 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, 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. 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.