Brian Frishman

Brian was a two-sport athlete at Westchester High School, continuing with basketball at West Los Angeles College where he was the sixth leading scorer in the state. His junior year he led the BYU team in scoring as a junior. After his red-shirt year, from transferring to San Diego State, he was invited to the Lakers tryouts on the same day he had four wisdom teeth removed. He tried to play the next day but between the pain pills and a purposeful elbow to the jaw from Laker CJ Kupec on the third time Brian blew by him, he could not continue. His senior year, despite a torn anterior cruciate ligament, torn cartilage in his ribs, and floating cartilage in his lateral knee joint, he led San Diego State in scoring until the final few games. Over two seasons, he averaged 22.5 points in nine games against 6 teams rated in the top twenty (UCLA, UNLV, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, University of Utah, and University of New Mexico). After five years in college without earning a degree-foreshadowing his later role in The White Shadow-and after having his grades fixed in many useless classes at every college except BYU, a not uncommon practice at the time, he decided to become an actor. Within nine months, he was earning a living. One of his earliest parts was a featured guest-spot on The White Shadow (1978) in which he portrayed a high school basketball star whose previous school fixed his grades as he was unable to read. He made his feature film debut with a tiny part in Steven Spielberg's epic comic misfire 1941 (1979). The following year, he portrayed the lovable Barf in Disney's Midnight Madness (1980), which went on to garner a monstrous cult following thanks to airings on HBO throughout the 1980s. Next, he squared off in the boxing ring against Tommy Lee Jones in Back Roads (1981). After that came another Disney movie, Amy (1981), which featured him in a pivotal role as a sensitive deaf mute who was taught by Jenny Agutter. He played a sexy meat-head in Savage Streets (1984), a frat bro in School Spirit (1985), another basketball player on Misfits of Science (1985), a murder suspect on Matlock (1986), and appeared as two different characters in two episodes of The Fall Guy (1981) and numerous other television roles. During this time, he was also teaching private group acting classes. An inveterate gypsy, who, at 15 hitchhiked to Baltimore in December from Los Angeles, he decided that he wanted to live in different less crowded parts of the western states and travel internationally. After his acting career he began moving to many cities he wanted to experience. He began his academic career as a freshman at thirty-two in Eugene Oregon, then Santa Rosa, where he decided to focus on theatre and founded the Actors Group Playhouse while going to Sonoma State University, and majoring in Creative writing. He eventually earned a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre directing at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television. His favorite role as an actor was the role of Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon in Tennessee Williams Night of the Iguana at the Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival. He taught at several Community Colleges, then instituted and ran the theatre department at an Independent School in Reno for two years then formed The Actors Conservatory of Northern Nevada, a rigorous repertory company for advanced teenage actors. Then he led the middle and high school theatre program at Sacramento Country Day School living in Sacramento and Grass Valley, CA for 16 years. He authored, and co-authored socially conscious plays with his students, both at ACNN and SCDS, incorporating guest speakers for post play discussions. He retired from teaching and directing in 2020, continuing his wellness practice begun in 2017, nurturingbreathwork, utilizing Breathwork, Yoga Nidra, and Yoga classes. Since 2020, he has been splitting his time between Santa Cruz, CA and Southeast Asia. He is the father of Alexandra Leigh Frishman and Dylan Justice Frishman.