Biography

Henry Gibson

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Overview

Born
September 21, 1935 · Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Died
September 14, 2009 · Malibu, Los Angeles County, California, USA (cancer)
Birth name
James Bateman
Height
5′ 4″ (1.63 m)

Mini bio

Henry Gibson was born on 21 September 1935 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Before appearing in films and television series, he was a child star on the stage during the 1940s and during the late 1950s he was an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force. His screen debut came in 1963 when he was cast in the Jerry Lewis film The Nutty Professor (1963). He made two other small film appearances in the early 1960s in Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) and The Outlaws Is Coming (1964), in which he played a rather hip Indian named Charlie Horse. He made two memorable appearances on F-Troop as US Cavalry Private Leonard W Starr aka Wrongo Starr. His breakthrough came in 1968 when he was cast as a member of the regular cast of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967). He stayed with the show until 1971, when he left and continued his career as a character actor. His best known film role was probably his performance in Nashville (1975). He played Haven Hamilton, a smarmy Country and Western singer. For this role he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and was awarded the National Film Critics Award for best supporting actor. Gibson's career carried on through the 1980s and 1990s when he appeared in many films, such as The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) and The 'Burbs (1989). He also provided voice-overs for many children's animated series like The Smurfs (1981), The Wuzzles (1985) and Galaxy High School (1986). His most recent appearance have been in the Paul Thomas Anderson drama Magnolia (1999) and the independent film The Year That Trembled (2002).
- IMDb mini biography by: Jim Walter <jimwalter_2001@yahoo.co.uk>

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Trademarks

Known for playing characters whose refined and serious demeanor sharply contrasts their eccentric behavior
Soft-spoken voice
Short stature

Trivia

So convincing was his southern poet character that Gibson once received a letter from the Governor of Alabama claiming he was "...one of the most exciting talents to come out of Alabama since Tallulah Bankhead".
Attended the Catholic University of America with actor Jon Voight during the 1950s. Along with Voight, he developed a comedy routine and came up with the stage name Henry Gibson. Voight used the name Harold Gibson and together they played two southern hillbillies. After this, Voight took up more serious acting whilst Henry Gibson carried on with his comedy routine, eventually landing his famous role on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967), playing a southern poet.
Henry Gibson is actually a stage name - he was born James Bateman. He named himself after Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen because "...if you say his name with a Southern accent, it sounds like Henry Gibson".
He has appeared in four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Nutty Professor (1963), The Long Goodbye (1973), Nashville (1975) and The Blues Brothers (1980).
Had three sons: Jon Gibson, a business affairs executive at Universal Pictures; Charles Gibson, a director and two-time Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor; and James Gibson, a screenwriter.