Aleshia Brevard
Aleshia Brevard | |
---|---|
Born | Erwin, Tennessee, U.S. | December 9, 1937
Died | July 1, 2017 | (aged 79)
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Actress, Model, Professor, Author |
Years active | 1960s–2015 |
Known for | Early gender transition |
Notable work | Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual Journey |
Aleshia Brevard (December 9, 1937 – July 1, 2017)[1] was an American author and actress of stage, screen, and television. She worked as an entertainer, actress, model, Playboy bunny, professor of theater, and author. She also underwent one of the first sex reassignment surgery procedures performed in the United States.[2] Brevard lived her life outside of the wider transgender community and as a result, she was not publicly identified as transgender until publishing her memoirs in her later years.
Early life
Brevard was born in Erwin, Tennessee, on December 9, 1937.[3][4] Growing up in a religious family in a rural part of central Tennessee,[1][5] she was always close to her mother. Brevard always felt different than other children, like a girl inside, and prayed nightly to wake up a girl.[6][7] Brevard's teen years were awkward, and after a romantic disappointment in high school, Brevard left right after graduation to the West Coast.[6]
San Francisco and transition
Ending up in San Francisco, Brevard found a job as a female impersonator at Finocchio's Club in San Francisco under the stage name Lee Shaw in the early 1960s,[8] doing Marilyn Monroe impressions,[2][4] eventually achieving enough renown that Marilyn herself came to a performance.[9]
Brevard began her transition at 21 under the care of famed gender specialist Harry Benjamin in the late 1950s. At Benjamin's recommendation, Brevard underwent the surgical reassignment procedure in Los Angeles's Westlake Clinic under the care of surgeon Elmer Belt.[6]
Brevard later worked as a stripper in Reno and as a Playboy bunny.[2]
Education
After a year's recovery post-surgery,[6] she enrolled as a student at Middle Tennessee State University for her undergraduate education[10][non-primary source needed]. During this period, she became more comfortable with her womanhood, got married, and took classes.[6] This was at a time when she was a working actress, touring the U.S. doing theater, and working in film or television. She gained membership in Hollywood unions,[10][non-primary source needed] and ultimately got her master's degree in Theater from Middle Tennessee State.[7]
Through Dr. Harry Benjamin, Brevard became friends in the late 1950s and 1960s with other transgender patients of his, including Charlotte Frances McLeod and Kathy Taylor, and they became a support network for each other. Together they had lunches with Dr. Benjamin who they also considered to be a paternal kind of mentor and friend.
Attitude towards gender
Brevard's was one of the first medical transitions, and occurred before the term transgender had been coined and before there was a transgender community in San Francisco.[1][11]
Brevard did not identify as trans early in her life and would deflect questions.[12] Her husbands were not aware that she had transitioned.[1] However she decided to change because realized she was denying her own personal history.[12] Once her memoir came out in 2001, she started to become labeled a "transsexual writer" and "transsexual actress". As she stated in her second book, "I'd been labeled—forced into a transsexual mold."[11]
"Professionally, both as a film/stage actress and, later, as a university professor of theatre, my life was lived outside the gender community. Only after publishing two memoirs, when in my 60s and 70s, did I first hear the term 'transgender' and become aware of the community's stated agenda," she said in an interview in 2013.[6] She also said in April 2017 "I did not go through gender reassignment to be labeled transsexual. I look at that as an awkward phase that I went through—sort of like a really painful adolescence. I don't even think of myself now in terms as transsexual. That's something I experienced and [something] I was".[3]
"For me, as well as for my early sisters, the goal was never to live with a 't' before our names. Our objective was to blend so thoroughly that the things mixed could not be recognized. It was a choice, made not because we felt any shame about our transsexual history, but because our goal had always been to live fully as the women we’d been born to be."[6]
In the book, "Bodies in the Making: Transgressions and Transformations" (2006) by Nancy N. Chen, Brevard is interviewed by Mary Weaver discussing topics like gender, gender reassignment, the importance of personal history, and personal transformation.[12]
Later life
After her work in television and film, she returned to Tennessee and received her M.A. in Theater Arts from Middle Tennessee State University.[7] She met her first husband in Tennessee and had other marriages, which according to her sister, did not work out.[citation needed] She returned to California in the late 1990s, settling outside of Santa Cruz with an old friend, finding work as a substitute teacher, and doing some community theater.
Aleshia Brevard died at home in Scotts Valley, California, on July 1, 2017, at the age of 79.[1]
Works
- Brevard, Aleshia (15 February 2001). Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual Journey. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-4399-0527-2. OCLC 884015871.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Brevard, Aleshia (1 March 2015) [1st pub 2010]. The Woman I Was Born to Be. Aleshia Brevard. ISBN 978-0-9961344-2-2. OCLC 710814756.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Brevard, Aleshia (7 October 2015). Bilbo's Bend. Aleshia Brevard. ISBN 978-0996134446.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help)
Film and television
Year | Title | Type | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1969 | The Red Skelton Show | Television | Brevard's TV debut was on this show, and she appeared more than once.[13] | |
1969 | The Love God? | Film | Sherry (one of "Peacock's Pussycats") | [13] |
1969 | The Female Bunch | Film | Sadie | [13] |
1970 | Big Foot | Film | [13] | |
One Life to Live | Television | Tex | [13] ABC soap opera TV series. | |
1970 | The Partridge Family | Television | Cocktail waitress | [13] |
The Dean Martin Show | Television | [13] | ||
1972 | Night Gallery | Television | Robot receptionist | "You Can't Get Help Like That Anymore" segment |
1979 | Legends of the Superheroes | Television | Giganta | |
1980 | The Man with Bogart's Face | Film | Mother the landlady | A comedy thriller.[13] |
Smokey and the Judge | Film | Wally Lewis | [13] | |
1981 | Hard Country | Film | Snoopy Lady | |
1981 | American Pop | Film | "Showgirl #2" voice by Brevard | An adult animated musical drama film. |
2005 | Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria | Film | As self | A documentary film, featuring Brevard as a drag entertainer talking about how drag has opened doors of opportunity.[14] |
Theater
Year | Theater show title | Role | Location | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Move Over Ms. Markham | Joanna Markham | [15] | ||
Gingerbread Lady | Evy Meara | |||
Seven Year Itch | The Girl Upstairs | [15] | ||
The Shadow Box | Beverly | [15] | ||
Steel Magnolias | Truvy Jones, a salon owner | Off-broadway in New York | [15][4] | |
Night of the Iguana | Maxine Faulk | [15] | ||
Ruthless! The Musical | Emily Green | Chicago | A one-year long show.[15] | |
A Midsummer Night's Dream | Hyppolyta | Globe Theater | [15] | |
Subject to Change | Madeline Bassett |
See also
Sources
- "Aleshia Brevard, transgender model, actress and writer". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2017-07-24. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- Ames, Jonathan (2002). "Of Breasts and Transhistories". My Less Than Secret Life: A Diary, Fiction, Essays. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 978-1-56025-375-4. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Artavia, David (2017-07-25). "Trans Trailblazer Aleshia Brevard Dead at 79". The Advocate. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Brevard, Aleshia (2001). The Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual Journey. Temple University Press. ISBN 1566398401.
- Brevard, Aleshia (2015). Bilbo's Bend. Aleshia Brevard. ISBN 978-0996134446.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Chen, Nancy N. (2006). Bodies in the Making: Transgressions and Transformations. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 9780971254633.
- "Finocchio's 1961 Revue One of LaMonte's Best". The Times. San Mateo, California. February 3, 1961. p. 23. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
- Kowalska, Monika (25 January 2013). "Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 1". The Heroines of My Life. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
{{cite web}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Kowalska, Monika (2013-04-23). "Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 3". The Heroines of My Life. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Whiting, Sam (April 24, 2017). "Aleshia Brevard, SF drag star and transgender pioneer, dies at 79". SFGate. Jeffrey M. Johnson. Archived from the original on 2017-07-25. Retrieved 2017-07-25.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - "Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria (2005)". University at Buffalo Libraries. 2017. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Shepard, Nikita (2017-11-20). "A Tennessee Trans Icon Comes Home: Remembering Aleshia Brevard". Spectrum South. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Waldron, Terri-Lynne (2017-04-05). "Actress reflects on transitioning, Marilyn Monroe connection - Gay Lesbian Bi Trans News Archive". Windy City Times. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
{{cite web}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
References
- ^ a b c d e Whiting 2017.
- ^ a b c Brevard 2001. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBrevard2001 (help)
- ^ a b Waldron 2017.
- ^ a b c Shepard 2017.
- ^ Kowalska, Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 1 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kowalska 2013. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFKowalska2013 (help)
- ^ a b c Artavia 2017:Brevard moved back to her home state to get a master's degree at Middle Tennessee State University. “I even went back to teaching acting at the same university I’d first attended as a boy,”
- ^ Times of San Mateo 1961:Finocchio's new 1961 musical revue, "Showtimes in New York and San Francisco," is a dazzler, an uproarious laughfest, and an-outstanding novelty all rolled into one big fun package. It presents a race for top entertainment achievements of the Broadways of the two cities. ... Among the new faces in the Finocchio's cast is Lee Shaw. This show is a winner and certainly is a triumph of real originality for Producer LaMonte.
- ^ Ames 2002, p. 281.
- ^ a b Brevard 2015, p. 3. sfn error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFBrevard2015 (help)
- ^ a b Brevard 2015, p. 5. sfn error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFBrevard2015 (help)
- ^ a b c Chen 2006, p. 62–68.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i The Sydney Morning Herald 2017.
- ^ University at Buffalo Libraries 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kowalska, Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 3 2013
External links
- 1937 births
- 2017 deaths
- Actresses from San Francisco
- American memoirists
- American women memoirists
- Marshall University alumni
- Middle Tennessee State University alumni
- Transgender and transsexual actresses
- Transgender and transsexual female models
- Transgender and transsexual writers
- LGBT people from Tennessee
- LGBT memoirists
- Writers from San Francisco
- 20th-century American actresses
- People from Unicoi County, Tennessee
- People from Scotts Valley, California