Hoot Gibson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hoot Gibson in a movie scene (1936)

Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (born August 6, 1892 in Tekamah , Nebraska , United States , † August 23, 1962 in Woodland Hills , California , ibid) was an American rodeo rider and film actor specializing in westerns .

Live and act

Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson began his professional life at the age of 13: he was a cattle drive worker, moved to the circus and made a few dollars doing tricks on many a horse's back. A few years later he hired himself as a rodeo rider, went on tour with the horse show "Wild Wild West" through the USA and Australia and finally in 1912 won the title of "World's Greatest All-Around Champion Cowboy". Thereupon Gibson, who had already stood in front of the camera (“ Pride of the Range ”) for the first time in 1910 at the side of one of the most important Wild West stars of the silent film era, Tom Mix , became an extra, small actor and double, primarily for actors in the saddle who were not experienced in riding won the movie.

Promotional poster: Hoot Gibson in King of the Rodeo (1929)

Gibson starred in Wild West films from the beginning, in which he was able to prove his riding skills. He first stepped on the side of the western star Harry Carey sr. on. After his military service in the American Panzer Association in France from 1917 to 1919, Hoot Gibson returned in front of the camera and was built up a little later by John Ford to become a cowboy star. He celebrated his breakthrough in 1921 in the short Ford westerns " Action " and " Sure Fire ". In the 1920s, Gibson, who at times earned $ 14,000 a week as the main cowboy actor at Universal Studios , was the most popular representative of the Western genre after Tom Mix. Unlike his competitors, Gibson placed greater emphasis on comedy and humor instead of action elements and shootouts, but also integrated car racing and airplane scenes into his films.

The transition to sound film was difficult for Gibson, even if he made his own films in those years and thus gained greater control over the work. Soon his style of presentation and humor had outlived itself. In 1931 he was signed by MH Hoffman for "Allied Artists" and made eleven films in two years. Due to a legal dispute between Universal Pictures and Hoffman, he was then unable to make a film for two years; in addition, a plane crash with subsequent hospitalization made his life difficult. After two more films for Hoffman and six works for "Diversion Pictures" in 1936, he shot a serial . After 1937 the actor withdrew to a large extent into private life, which he interrupted for circus and rodeo appearances, and from 1943 only appeared as guest appearances, mainly in films for the small company Monogram Pictures . In the 1950s, the meanwhile impoverished, ailing and stricken with high treatment costs, Gibson earned one or two dollars as a Greetings August in a casino in Las Vegas , as a chinchilla seller on television and as a fireworker. Most recently, the almost forgotten actor completed two tiny appearances in A-productions: in “ The Last Command ” , a civil war Western of his former sponsor Ford, you could see him as Yankee Sergeant Brown, and in the star-studded crooks “ Frankie and his cronies “He was used as an old post of a roadblock.

In 1950 a few issues of a Hoot Gibson comic book appeared.

Gibson was married to actresses Helen Gibson (1892–1977) and Sally Eilers (1908–1978) , among others .

Filmography

  • 1910: Pride of the Range
  • 1910: The Two Brothers
  • 1912: His Only Son
  • 1913: In the Secret Service
  • 1914: Shotgun Jones
  • 1914: The Hazards of Helen
  • 1915: The Man From Texas
  • 1915: The Pay Train
  • 1916: Stampede in the Night
  • 1916: Knight of the Range
  • 1917: Straight shooting
  • 1917: The Secret Man
  • 1918: The Midnight Flyer
  • 1918: The Branded Man
  • 1919: The Rustlers
  • 1919: Gun Law
  • 1920: Cinders
  • 1920: Wolf Tracks
  • 1920: Red Courage
  • 1921: Action
  • 1921: Sure Fire
  • 1921: The Cactus Kid
  • 1922: The Galloping Kid
  • 1922: The Lone Hand
  • 1922: Trimmed
  • 1923: Blinky
  • 1923: The Gentleman From America
  • 1923: The Thrill Chaser
  • 1924: Hit and Run
  • 1924: The Sawdust Trail
  • 1924: Broadway or Bust
  • 1924: Hoot Gibson, the avenger of the mountains ( The Ridin 'Kid From Powder River )
  • 1925: The Calgary Stampede
  • 1925: The Taming of the West
  • 1925: Little Big Horn's Death Ride ( The Flaming Frontier )
  • 1926: King of the Cowboys ( The Buckaroo Kid )
  • 1926: The Terror of Texas ( The Texas Streak )
  • 1926: The Phantom Bullet
  • 1927: The Silver Gorge Raid ( The Denver Dude )
  • 1927: The Prairie King
  • 1927: The Silent Rider
  • 1927: The Wild West Show
  • 1927: “Wild-West” fairground ( Painted Ponies )
  • 1928: The Flying Cowboy ( The Flyin 'Cowboy )
  • 1928: A Trick of Hearts
  • 1929: The Cowboy King of Chicago ( King of the Rodeo )
  • 1929: The 'Flying Devil' of Texas ( The Winged Horseman )
  • 1929: Courtin 'Wildcats (also production)
  • 1929: The Long Long Trail (also production)
  • 1930: Roaring Ranch (also production)
  • 1930: The Mounted Stranger
  • 1930: Trigger Tricks (also production)
  • 1930: Spurs
  • 1930: Trailing Trouble (also production)
  • 1931: Clearing the Range
  • 1931: Hard Hombre
  • 1932: The Boiling Point
  • 1932: Local Bad Man
  • 1932: Spirit of the West
  • 1933: Cowboy Counselor
  • 1933: The Dude Bandit
  • 1935: Sunset Range
  • 1935: Rainbow's End
  • 1936: Frontier Justice
  • 1936: Lucky Terror
  • 1936: The Last Outlaw
  • 1937: The Singing Arrow ( The Painted Stallion )
  • 1943: Blazing Guns
  • 1943: Storm over Arizona ( Arizona Whirlwind )
  • 1944: The Outlaw Trail
  • 1944: Sonora Stagecoach
  • 1944: Death Valley Rangers
  • 1946: Flight to Nowhere
  • 1953: The Marshal's Daughter
  • 1956: You Bet Your Life (guest star TV appearance)
  • 1958: The last command ( The Horse Soldiers )
  • 1960: Frankie and his cronies ( Ocean's Eleven )

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 251.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gibson, Hoot
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gibson, Edmund Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rodeo rider and film actor specializing in westerns
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Tekamah , Nebraska , United States
DATE OF DEATH 23rd August 1962
Place of death Woodland Hills , California