Dorothy Gibson
Dorothy Gibson (born May 17, 1889 in Hoboken , New Jersey as Dorothy Winifred Brown , † February 17, 1946 in Paris ) was an American silent film actress , who mainly as a survivor of the Titanic disaster and through her participation in the film Saved from the Titanic became known.
Life
Gibson was the daughter of John A. Brown and his wife Pauline Caroline Boeson. After her father's death, her mother married John Leonard Gibson and Dorothy took his last name. On February 10, 1910, she married the pharmacist George Henry Battier, Jr. They separated shortly thereafter, and the marriage was divorced in 1916.
From 1906 Dorothy was seen as a singer , dancer and actress in various Broadway plays. In 1907 she played in Charles Frohman's The Dairymaids . In Fort Lee she worked as an actress for Ecair Studios. She was also a member of the choir that performed in the Shubert Brothers' productions at New York's Hippodrome Theater.
Gibson went on a trip to Europe with her mother in 1912. The return voyage to the United States both began on April 10 in Southampton and went as passengers on board the luxury liner Titanic . When the disaster began on the night of April 15, Gibson and three of her friends were among the first to obey the call to join the lifeboats and disembark in the half-manned No. 7 boat . There were only 28 people in this lifeboat, all of them from the first class and half of them men. You and your fellow passengers were rescued by the RMS Carpathia .
A month later, Gibson starred in the ten-minute short film Saved From The Titanic , on whose screenplay she had worked as a co-author and in which she is said to have worn the same dress as on the night of the accident.
In 1911 she began an affair with the married American film mogul Jules Brulatour (1870-1946). In 1913, she killed a passer-by in New York by running him over with Brulatour's sports car . The accident resulted in a lawsuit that revealed the Gibson-Brulatour liaison. Brulatour's wife, with whom he had three children, divorced him and he married Dorothy on July 6, 1917 in Kentucky . He left her in 1919 for the younger actress Hope Hampton (1897-1982) and married her in 1923. In 1928 Dorothy and her mother made another trip to Europe, from which they did not return to the United States.
Gibson lived from then on in France and also in Italy during World War II . During this time she was considered a Nazi sympathizer, but denied this and was imprisoned in San Vittore in 1944 as an anti-fascist activist. From there she was able to escape with two other prisoners, the journalist Indro Montanelli and General Bartolo Zambon .
Dorothy Gibson died of heart failure at the Hotel Ritz in Paris in 1946 at the age of 56 .
Filmography
- 1911: A Show Girl's Stratagem (Direction: Harry Solter)
- 1911: The Angel of the Slums (Direction: Joseph A. Golden)
- 1911: Good for Evil
- 1911: Hands Across the Sea in '76 (Directed by Lawrence B. McGill)
- 1911: Miss Masquerader
- 1911: The Musician's Daughter (Directed by Jay Hunt)
- 1911: The Wrong Bottle
- 1912: Divorcons
- 1912: Mamie Bolton
- 1912: Love Finds a Way
- 1912: The Awakening
- 1912: The Guardian Angel
- 1912: Bridge (Direction: Étienne Arnaud)
- 1912: The Kodak Contest (Director: Harry C. Mathews)
- 1912: It Pays to Be Kind (Director: GT Evans)
- 1912: A Living Memory (Direction: Alec B. Francis )
- 1912: Brooms and Dustpans
- 1912: The White Aprons (Direction: Étienne Arnaud)
- 1912: A Lucky Holdup (Directed by Delmar E. Clarke)
- 1912: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Direction: Étienne Arnaud)
- 1912: The Easter Bonnet
- 1912: Revenge of the Silk Masks (Director: Étienne Arnaud)
- 1912: Saved from the Titanic (Direction: Étienne Arnaud)
- 1912: Roses and Thorns
Web links
- Dorothy Gibson in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Dorothy Gibson in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gibson, Dorothy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brown, Dorothy Winifred (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American silent film actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 17, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hoboken , New Jersey |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 17, 1946 |
| Place of death | Paris |