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Hoot Gibson (born August 6, 1892; died August 23,
1962) was a rodeo champion and a pioneer cowboy
film actor, 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
bareback bronc|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 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 Western
Roundup in Pendleton, Oregon and the steer roping
World Championship at the Calgary Stampede. 

Gibson 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 director John Ford.

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: Notable figures in Western films|Other
notable figures in Western films

==External links==

*imdb name|id=0316995|name=Hoot Gibson