Guy Kibbee

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Guy Bridges Kibbee (born May 6, 1882 in El Paso , Texas , † May 24, 1956 in Long Island , New York ) was an American film and stage actor. Under contract with Warner Brothers , Kibbee played mostly jovial and comical supporting characters.

Life

Guy Kibbee was born in El Paso, Texas on the border with Mexico . He began his show career at the age of 13 on the steamers of the Mississippi River , where he appeared as an entertainer. He later played with theater companies in America and was also active on Broadway . He didn't start working in Hollywood until 1931, when he was almost 50 years old. He soon became a popular supporting actor who mostly embodied jovial characters. Kibbee was one of the large circle of character actors of the Studio Warner Brothers . He appeared in the extremely successful musical film The 42nd Street , which saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy. In the following years he shot other musicals, such as Goldminers from 1933 , where he portrayed a lawyer with a secret weakness for revue ladies. Also in 1933, he was seen in Frank Capra's comedy Lady for a day as an indebted judge (an office he also held in other films) who had to fake a marriage with an old apple seller (played by May Robson ).

Guy Kibbee also played some leading roles, for example in the 1934 title role of Babbitt in the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by the Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis . Kibbee was also able to appear as the main actor in other, mostly smaller comedies. In 1935 he played a major supporting role in the pirate film Unter Piratenflagge , the breakthrough of Errol Flynn . At the end of the 1930s, he was again seen under Capra's direction in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington at the side of James Stewart : He played a stupid governor who followed the advice of his large group of children and then proclaimed a pawnbroker to be a senator. With Stewart he also appeared in the comedy Top and Bottom in the same year . In the 1940s, Kibbees film appearances were less, but he took the lead role in the six-part film series Scattergood Baines . He played his last cinema roles in 1948 in the John Ford West To the Last Man and Tracks in the Sand , each with John Wayne in the lead role. In total he made over 110 films in less than twenty years.

Kibbee got some roles on the fledgling US television around 1950, then he ended his career in front of the camera for good. Acting appearances on the stage can be verified until 1953, when Parkinson's disease ended this career. He died of their consequences in May 1956 at the age of 74 in a sanatorium on Long Island . Treatment costs had melted his previously sizable fortune, but he still enjoyed watching his old films on television. He was married twice, from 1918 to 1923 to Helen Shea (from this marriage there were four children) and from 1925 until his death to Esther Reed (from this marriage there were three children). His younger brother Milton Kibbee (1896-1970) was also an actor and played minor supporting roles in nearly 400 films.

"Guy Kibbee Egg"

A breakfast dish is named after kibbee. A fried egg is fried in a hole in a slice of bread. This is then called the Guy Kibbee Egg , which comes from the fact that he preferred this strange dish in a role in the 1935 film Mary Janes Pa .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Guy Kibbee  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guy Kibbee Biography - Character Actor Played Sugar Daddies, Goofballs, and Patriarchs. January 11, 2016, accessed August 30, 2020 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Kibbee, guy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kibbee, Guy Bridges (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film and stage actor
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH El Paso , Texas
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1956
Place of death Long Island , New York