Biography for
Cedric Gibbons More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

23 March 1893, Dublin, Ireland

Date of Death

26 July 1960, Hollywood, California, USA

Birth Name

Austin Cedric Gibbons

Height

6' (1.83 m)

Mini Biography

After graduating from New York's Art Students League he worked for his architect father, then started film work at Edison Studios in 1915 assisting Hugo Ballin. In 1918 he moved to Goldwyn as art director and, in 1924, began his 32 year stint as supervising art director for some 1500 MGM films, with direct responsibility in well over 150 of those. He designed the Oscar itself, winning it 11 of the 37 times he was nominated for it. Some of his designs influenced American interiors, and it has been argued that he was the most important art director in the history of American cinema.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan

Spouse

Dolores del Rio	(6 August 1930 - 17 January 1941) (divorced)
Hazel Brooks	(? - ?) (second marriage)

Trivia

Chief of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's art department, 1924-56.

Designed the Academy Award (Oscar) statuette.

Received over 1500 on-screen credits between 1917 and 1956, a record among 20th century filmmakers.

One of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)

Uncle of actress Sandra Shaw.

He was nominated for and won more Academy Awards than any other art director in motion pictures.

He was art director at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), and its immediate predecessors Metro-Goldwyn Studios and Metro Pictures, for the entire length of his career, and during that time, he worked at no other studio.

Brother of writer Eliot Gibbons and brother-in-law of costume designer Irene (married to Eliot).

Great-uncle of Maria Cooper.

According to the book "Let's Go to the Movies!" by Lester Gordon published by Santa Monica Press in 1992, the reason his name appears in over 1500 film credits is as follows: "His 1924 contract stated that every film released by MGM in the USA would give him the credit of Art Director, even though others did the majority of the work."

Practically every film classic made by M-G-M between 1924 and 1956 bears his name as art director.

Personal Quotes

"When I find things I like I see no reason to change them. Except women."

[to Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, who wrote Adam's Rib (1949), when they went to Gibbons' office to discuss the sets for that film] "You know, this is an historic day. I've been at the studio [MGM] for 25 years and this is the first time writers have ever been in my office".

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