Big Daddy Lives in Healdsburg

Charles Siebert has played Broadway, big screen and small; he’s directed for television as well, with credits in shows still running on cable in syndication – ever hear of “Xena, Warrior Princess”?

For the past 20 years, though, he’s lived in Healdsburg, even if in some ways the stage is still his calling. He’s starring in the 6th Street Playhouse’s production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” in the lead role as the domineering, demanding Big Daddy Pollitt.

As a busy television actor and director and family man, Siebert is one of those familiar faces that you might remember from “Trapper John MD” – he played Dr. Stanley Riverside II – or “The Blue Knight,” “One Day at a Time” or “The Rockford Files” among other programs.

About the time “Trapper John” was airing he began directing, and kept busy at it for years. But as his family grew, he and his wife realized they didn’t have to live in L.A. anymore.

“We moved up here about 20 years ago when we decided we wanted to leave L.A.,” he told me when we met at the News Stand Café on the Plaza.  “We wanted to live in Northern California, and took a couple years looking. We looked in Carmel and Napa and Sonoma and elsewhere, and one day we found ourselves in Healdsburg. And we owned a house 24 hours later.”

The family grew, and grew, with the Eastside Road house as a base, and is still growing. “There’s 7 kids and 13 grandkids. They keep breeding,” he said. “You can’t stop them.”

But at the time they moved to Healdsburg, Siebert was still working. “I was working a lot in television as a director, I was travelling a quite a bit to New Zealand and to Florida, Chicago and Southern California, directing things like 'Xena the Warrior Princess,' and 'Hercules,' and 'Silk Stockings,' and other little tidbits like that.”

The conversation took a detour, into Lucy Lawless’ discovery on the set of Hercules to fill the role of Xena, which had been turned down at the last minute by an American actress.  “I’m crazy about her,” he said, “she’s a fabulous woman.  I’d love to take credit for her but I’m not gonna.”

For the past three weeks Siebert has been playing the lead role of Big Daddy in Santa Rosa’s Sixth Street Playhouse production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” It’s a role, and a play, he’s deeply familiar with, more than most actors can claim.

“Burl Ives created the role of Big Daddy,” Siebert says. “He was in the Broadway production of it. He and one other actor from the play were in the movie. It’s a movie that people do remember, especially if you saw it at the time. And a lot if it had to do with the way Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman looked…. They were both at the height of their beauty.”

Although Siebert saw the 1957 movie, and it make a big impression on him, his own personal involvement came in 1974, when he had a role in the first Broadway revival playing Gooper, one of the brothers.

“The play is quite a bit different than the movie,” he reminds us. “The same basic story and the same basic themes. But the play is a lot stronger. It has a lot stronger language, and deals more forthrightly with the problems of the play.”

Among those are the issue of son Brick’s repressed homosexuality, which was something of a taboo subject in 1957. Director and screenwriter Richard Brooks “made a lot of changes to the play,” Siebert says, “some of which had to do with concessions to the time.”

But by 1974, the tenor of the times had changed somewhat. Playwright Tennessee Williams was himself involved in the Broadway revival, Siebert remembers, “and he loved it. In fact he rewrote a fair amount of the script for our production,  and that script has become the definitive script now.”

And it’s the script being used at the 6th Street Playhouse. Siebert has moved up from the younger brother to the pater familias, and as he says, “I like playing Big Daddy a lot more than I liked playing Gooper! The character is such a powerful and vibrant character and kind of dominates the play.”

Was Charles Siebert born to play Big Daddy Pollitt? With 7 children, and his earlier role in the play on Broadway – plus the fact that he first played Big Daddy late last year in a Tallahassee production – the evidence is mounting. But consider this: the play centers around the activities in the Pollitt household on the occasion of Big Daddy’s birthday; and the 6th Street Playhouse production opened on March 9, Siebert’s own 74th.

Siebert has done other theater work in the area, such as directing the production of “Our Town” a  couple years ago. He has also been involved in non-profit work, serving on the board of directors of the Healdsburg Health Care Foundation, and running their fundraising Wines and Vines events for the several years. “It kept the hospital alive, really, it revivified it, brought it back to live and ogt it on pretty sound footing.”

He has also been president of , which presents concerts with artists from all over the world.

And he won’t rule out staying in local theater, either on stage or directing future plays, possibly at the 6th Street Playhouse next season. “I’m open to anything, I’ve still got my health and energy and I love doing it. When something interesting comes along, I’m there.”

But in fact it’s “here” you can find Charles Siebert, in Healdsburg. “This is the longest we’ve lived anywhere, my wife and I. This the longest we’ve lived anywhere, and this is it. It’s wonderful, we’re crazy about Healdsburg. “

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" finishes its run at the 6th Street Playhouse this weekend, with performances Thursday through Saturday night, and Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Visit their website 6thstreetplayhouse.com or call (707) 523-4185 for ticket information.