Profile of Hoot Gibson on Famous Like Me

Hoot Gibson (born August 6, 1892; died August 23, 1962) was a rodeo champion and a pioneer cowboy film actor, film director and producer.

Born Edmund Richard Gibson in the wilds of Tekamah, Nebraska, as part of the way of life he learned to ride a horse while still a very young boy. His family moved to California when he was seven years old but as a teenager he pursued working with horses on a ranch which led to riding 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 was more than qualified and he and another future star of Western films, Tom Mix, were hired. Gibson made a second film for Boggs in 1911 but 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 still only a very minor sideline and he continued competing in rodeos to help make a living. His skills were such that 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 where he became good friends with Art Acord, a fellow cowboy who also began acting in film. The two participated in summer rodeo then went back to Hollywood for the winter to perform stunts for the film studios. For several years, Gibson had secondary film roles in mostly western-style films to stars such as Harry Carey until 1921 when the demand for cowboy pictures was so great that he began receiving offers for leading roles including from up-and-coming film director John Ford.

Hoot Gibson married Rose August Wenger in 1920 and in 1923 they had a daughter, Lois Charlotte Gibson. His wife would become a major film star in her own right, notably in the lead role of The Hazards of Helen adventure film serial.

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. When Comic books became popular, Gibson was featured as a cowboy hero but it met with only limited success because by this time, singing cowboys such as Gene Autry were all the rage. Gibson's years of substantial earnings came at a time when professional financial management was not readily available. As such, he was one of the many stars who squandered their huge incomes on high living and poor investments. By the 1950s, Gibson faced financial ruin, aided in part by costly medical bills from serious health problems. Just 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 most any job offer that came along where his name still had value to a promoter.

Hoot Gibson died of cancer in 1962 in Woodland Hills, California and was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

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.

See also: Other notable figures in Western films

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