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(August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962)
 Born
Edmund Richard Gibson in Tekamah, Nebraska, he learned to ride a
horse while still a very young boy. His family moved to California
when he was seven years old. As a teenager he worked with horses on
a ranch, which led to competition on bucking broncos at area rodeos.
Given the nickname "Hoot Owl" by co-workers, the name evolved to
just "Hoot".
In 1910, film director Francis Boggs was looking for experienced
cowboys to appear in his silent film short, Pride of the Range.
Gibson and another future star of Western films, Tom Mix, were
hired. Gibson made a second film for Boggs in 1911. After the
director was killed by a deranged employee, Gibson was hired by
director Jack Conway to appear in his 1912 Western, His Only Son.
Acting for Gibson was then a minor sideline and he continued
competing in rodeos to make a living. In 1912 he won the all-around
championship at the famous Pendleton Round-Up in Pendleton, Oregon
and the steer roping World Championship at the Calgary Stampede.
Gibson's career was temporarily interrupted with service in the
United States Army during World War I. When the war ended, he
returned to the rodeo business and became good friends with Art
Acord, a fellow cowboy and movie actor. The two participated in
summer rodeo then went back to Hollywood for the winter to do stunt
work. For several years, Gibson had secondary film roles with stars
such as Harry Carey. By 1921 the demand for cowboy pictures was so
great that Gibson began receiving offers for leading roles. Some of
these offers came from up-and-coming film director John Ford, with
whom Gibson developed a lasting friendship and working relationship.
Hoot Gibson apparently (but unconfirmedly) married Rose August
Wenger, a rodeo performer he had met at the Pendleton Round-Up in
Oregon sometime between 1911 and 1913. Under the name Helen Gibson,
she would become a major film star in her own right for a time,
notably in the lead role of The Hazards of Helen adventure film
serial. Census records for 1920 indicate that they were living
separately, Hoot Gibson listing himself as married, Helen listing
herself as widowed.
Following their separation/divorce, Hoot met a young woman named
Helen Johnson, whom he did marry in either 1920 or 1922 and with
whom he had one child, Lois Charlotte Gibson. They divorced in 1930.
The fact that Hoot Gibson was married to two consecutive women who
used the name Helen Gibson in some fashion has led to a good deal of
confusion.
From the 1920s through the 1940s, Hoot Gibson was a major film
attraction, ranking second only to Tom Mix as a western film box
office draw. He successfully made the transition to talkies and as a
result became a highly paid performer. He appeared in his own comic
books and was wildly popular until singing cowboys such as Gene
Autry Roy Rogers displaced him.
In 1933, Hoot injured himself when he crashed his plane while racing
cowboy star Ken Maynard in the National Air Races. Later, the two
friends teamed up to make a series of low budget movies in the
twilight of their careers.
Gibson's years of substantial earnings did not see him through his
retirement. He had squandered much of his income high living and
poor investments.
By the 1950s, Gibson faced financial ruin, aided in part by costly
medical bills from serious health problems. To get by and pay his
bills, he earned money as a greeter at a Las Vegas casino. For a
time, he worked in a carnival and took virtually any job his
dwindling name value could obtain.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Hoot Gibson has
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1765 Vine Street. In 1979,
he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma. |
