Wynne Gibson

Winifred Elaine Gibson, known professionally as Wynne Gibson, was born on July 3, 1898, in New York City, the daughter of Frank W. Gibson, an efficiency expert, and Elaine Coffin Gibson, an authorized Christian Science healer. She attended Wadleigh High School for Girls in New York City. During her youth, she ran away from home with a touring play troupe, performing with the group in three cities before her father located her.

Gibson began her stage career in chorus work before advancing to leading roles. Early in her professional life she was a member of Frederick Santley's Melody Maids and Ray Raymond's Melody Charmers, and she also appeared in vaudeville as part of The Melody Charmers. She toured in the Ritz Girls show, where she and Billie Vernon performed together as a sister act. Gibson subsequently toured Europe and, upon returning to the United States, pursued dramatic roles before returning to musical comedy.

Her Broadway career spanned 1925 to 1928. She appeared in the musical When You Smile in 1925 and in the play Jarnegan in 1928. Paramount signed her when the studio was preparing to film Nothing But the Truth in 1929, launching a screen career that extended through 1956 and encompassed approximately 50 films, many of them B movies. Earlier in her career she had appeared in a small film role but had not pursued further screen work at that time.

In her personal life, Gibson had a brief marriage to a stage manager. She subsequently married actor John Gallaudet in 1927; they divorced in 1930. She later became a long-time companion of former Warner Brothers actress Beverly Roberts. In 1955 and 1956, Gibson served as chair of the Equity Library Theatre. She died on May 15, 1987, of a cerebral thrombosis in Laguna Niguel, California.