Cedric Gibbons

Cedric Gibbons was born in New York City in 1890 to Irish architect Austin P. Gibbons and American Veronica Fitzpatrick Simmons. The family moved to Manhattan after the birth of their third child. Cedric studied at the Art Students League of New York in 1911. He began working in his father's office as a junior draftsman, then in the art department at Edison Studios under Hugo Ballin in New Jersey in 1915. He was drafted and served in the US Navy Reserves during World War I at Pelham Bay in New York.

In 1918, Gibbons joined Goldwyn Studios, first serving as an assistant to Hugo Ballin. In 1924, Goldwyn Studios merged with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). In 1925, working in MGM's art department, Gibbons competed with Romain De Tirtoff for a more substantial position, while working with Joseph Wright, Merrill Pye and Richard Day on some 20 films. Tirtoff is better known as Erte. When studio executive Irving Thalberg summoned Gibbons to work on Ben Hur (1925), he used knowledge of the up-and-coming art moderne (that was to become known as art deco) to advance in the department. In addition to his credits as set decorator and art director, Cedric Gibbons is credited for directing one feature film, Tarzan and His Mate (1934).

Gibbons was one of the original 36 founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and designed the Academy Awards statuette in 1928. He was nominated 39 times for Best Art Direction, and won 11. His eleventh win was for Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956).

Gibbons retired from MGM as art director and the head of the art department on April 26, 1956, due to ill health with over 2,000 films credited to him. He was succeeded by William A. Horning. Even so, his actual hands-on art direction is considerable and his contributions lasting.

Gibbons married Gwendolyn Weller in New York City on January 16, 1926, after having known her for one week. (On the marriage certificate, it is stated that he had been born in Dublin, Ireland.) They divorced shortly thereafter on the grounds of "desertion." Gibbons at first failed to pay the promised $6,000 per year alimony.

On August 6, 1930, Gibbons married actress Dolores del Río. He co-designed their house with Douglas Honnold in Santa Monica, an intricate Art Deco residence influenced by Rudolf Schindler. The couple divorced in 1941. In October 1944, he married actress Hazel Brooks, with whom he remained until his death.

Gibbons' niece Veronica "Rocky" Balfe was Gary Cooper's wife and briefly an actress known as Sandra Shaw.

Gibbons' second cousin Frederick "Royal" Gibbons—a musician, orchestra conductor, and entertainer who worked with him at MGM—was the father of Billy Gibbons of the rock band ZZ Top.

Despite holding a US birth certificate, Gibbons claimed on census forms that he was born in Ireland and that his family emigrated to the US during his early childhood. His press marriage announcement also stated that he was a native of Ireland.

Gibbons died in Los Angeles on July 26, 1960, after a long illness at age 70. Contemporary publications, including the Los Angeles Times, reported at the time that he had died at age 65. He was interred under a modest marker at the Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles.