Ask Vance: Don Briscoe

As a star on the hit TV series "Dark Shadows" this Memphian was one of the best-known actors in America.

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Dear Vance: Several years ago, you wrote about Lara Parker, the Memphis actress who starred in the hit TV series Dark Shadows. What can you tell me about Don Briscoe, her co-star on that show? — C.R., Memphis.

Dear C.R.: In our July 2016 issue, when I shared the story of Lara Parker, I tried to explain the plot of Dark Shadows, which aired from 1966 to 1971. I gave up, admitting, “It’s impossible to describe, but the show basically focused on the witches, warlocks, vampires, and other unsavory characters who came to inhabit the normally sleepy village of Collinsport, Maine.”

Four of those characters were played by Don Briscoe, a talented actor who was so popular with the fans of the show that, even when he was killed off (not an easy thing to do with vampires, though they are indeed susceptible to wooden stakes), he was brought back, time and again.

Cecil Donald Briscoe was born on March 20, 1940, in the tiny village of Scobey, Mississippi, about two hours south of Memphis. While he was in his teens, his family moved here, where his father took a job as a service manager for Firestone, and his mother worked in admissions at the old City of Memphis Hospital. He and his sister, Bonny, apparently enjoyed a middle-class existence here, growing up in a cozy house at the corner of Lyndale and Hudson in the Highland Heights neighborhood and attending Treadwell High School.

The various biographies and websites I’ve researched say that Briscoe left Treadwell at the beginning of the 11th grade and transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy, a quite prestigious private school in Hanover, New Hampshire. This abrupt move puzzled me, but my pal John Beifuss, in a newspaper tribute written years ago, claims that the young man won a scholarship to Phillips from the Memphis Press-Scimitar — though it’s not clear what he did, exactly, to earn it.

Then, in August 1968, he landed the role of a lifetime — the character of Tom Jennings, described rather matter-of-factly as “a handyman who becomes a vampire.”

I must say here that C.R., once she learned I was scribbling this column, served as my research assistant, and contacted that school. As one might expect, administrators there wouldn’t talk about his grades, or whether he played on any athletic teams. At the same time, they responded, “He was quite active in student organizations. He wrote for the Pendulum literary magazine and was vice president of the debating society, secretary of the PEA Senate [a school government group], vice president of the Dramatic Association, and a member of the literary club and debating society.” What’s more, Briscoe was involved with “other clubs including those that focused on ham radio operation, biology, and astronomy.”

Whew! For a school that can’t admit whether a student played football, they certainly are forthcoming about everything else he did. Thanks for that information, C.R.

After graduating from Phillips in 1958, Briscoe then enrolled at Columbia University, where he earned a master’s in English and was active in the Drama Club.

Websites devoted to Dark Shadows (and there are many) mention that he remained several years in New York City, where he landed small roles in TV commercials for Camel cigarettes and Folger’s coffee, and got bit parts in hit shows like I Dream of Jeanie and the soap operas Days of Our Lives and The Guiding Light. He appeared on Broadway, performing in The Boys in the Band, Come Back Little Sheba, Friends and Romans, and other plays. He even joined a national touring company presenting Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In fact, the photo you see here is taken from that production, when it was staged at Ellis Auditorium on February 19-20, 1965. Briscoe is the handsome young man kneeling on the stage.

This kind of life continued for years, as it did for so many other struggling actors. Then, in August 1968, he landed the role of a lifetime — the character of Tom Jennings, described rather matter-of-factly as “a handyman who becomes a vampire.” As I mentioned earlier, for reasons too complicated to go into here, “Tom Jennings” was killed off. Well, due to popular demand, as they say, Briscoe returned to the show — are you ready for this? — as Tom’s twin brother, Chris Jennings, described as “a werewolf.” In other words, he looked exactly the same, except for the fangs, I guess.

Now, when that character was also killed off (I get the impression job security was not assured if you appeared on Dark Shadows), Briscoe was brought back a third time to please fans, this time playing the role of Chris Collins, who was apparently related to those twin Jennings brothers, but had been transported to present-day Collingswood from the past, or maybe it was the future, and — look, it’s just too crazy to explain here.

And from what I understand, somehow Briscoe managed to play a fourth character named Tim Shaw, but I can’t figure out if he was a vampire, werewolf, handyman, or something else entirely.

The talent of Don Briscoe lives on, in the many websites devoted to Dark Shadows, countless articles in books and magazine, and the memories of all the fans who admired him.

Briscoe was a handsome gentleman, and he was often featured in promotions for the show. According to the Dark Shadows Online website, “Don’s sexy, brooding good looks made him an instant favorite among fans, and he became the subject of countless fan photos and articles.” For example, he took part in a photo spread for Sixteen magazine, lounging bare-chested against a stack of books, with the caption, “Like to join me? Pull up an encyclopedia and sit down.” According to another website, he was photographed for another fan magazine with the tagline, “Come see how the vampires do it.”

That same magazine also mentioned that Briscoe carried a tiny portable television set around with him in a paper bag, so he could watch episodes of Dark Shadows and critique his own acting.

For other promotions and interviews, the actor had to endure such questions as:

  • Do you have sports and hobbies? “I like to drive sports cars, ride horses, swim, and tinker with my stereo system.”
  • What’s your favorite color? “Light blue.”
  • Who’s your favorite singer? “Aretha Franklin.”
  • What do you look for in a girl? “I like girls who are aware — of themselves and the world around them.”

Briscoe starred in 95 episodes of Dark Shadows, but despite all the publicity stunts like those I mentioned here, he never quite attained the same level of stardom as colleagues like Lara Parker or Jonathan Frid (who played the patriarch of the Collins clan). By 1970, after only two years on the show, he was clearly in ill health, though the exact nature of his ailment was unknown at the time. He was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

The last episode featuring Don Briscoe aired April 27, 1970. He left the show and traveled around the country, living for several months on the West Coast, where one website hinted that “he got into the drug culture very heavily in California, which was unfortunate.” Sometime in the early 1970s, he returned to Memphis and moved in with his parents, who by this time had moved to Whitehaven. According to yet another Dark Shadows website, “He remained there, shunning the spotlight, for the rest of his life.”

In 1990, fans tracked him down and tried to persuade him to join other former members of the Dark Shadows cast who were taking part in movie festivals and reunions. He declined, telling them, “I’m not one for interviews.”

The deaths of his parents (his mother in 1999 and his father in 2004) left him alone in the house, and he became a total recluse. His sister found him dead there, of an apparent heart attack, on October 31, 2004. It was Halloween. He was laid to rest, beneath a simple bronze marker, next to his parents in the Greenview section of Memorial Park.

“Don Briscoe played tortured souls on Dark Shadows, plagued by the torments of vampirism and a werewolf curse — situations that tragically mirrored his real life,” read a tribute on a website, Barnabas & Company, devoted to the cast of the show. “For decades, the handsome actor battled bipolar disorder, and after walking away from worldwide fame, he died a near recluse.”

I certainly wish this story had a much happier ending. But at least the talent of Don Briscoe lives on, in the many websites devoted to Dark Shadows, countless articles in books and magazine, and the memories of all the fans who admired him.

Got a question for Vance?

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Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis magazine, 65 Union Avenue, Suite 200, Memphis, TN 38103

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