Austin Cedric Gibbons (March 23, 1890[1] – July 26, 1960) was an American
art director for the film industry. He also made a significant contribution to motion picture theater architecture from the 1930s to 1950s. Gibbons designed the
Oscar statuette in 1928, but tasked the sculpting to
George Stanley, a Los Angeles artist.[2][3] He was nominated 39 times for the
Academy Award for Best Production Design and won the Oscar 11 times, both of which are records.[4]
Early life
Cedric Gibbons was born in New York City in 1890[1] to Irish architect Austin P. Gibbons and American Veronica Fitzpatrick Simmons. The family moved to Manhattan after the birth of their third child.[5] Cedric studied at the
Art Students League of New York in 1911.[6] 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.[7]
In 1925, when he was first working in the art department at MGM, he was in competition with
Romain De Tirtoff for a more substantial position, while working with Joseph Wright, Merrill Pye and Richard Day on some 20 films.[9] 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 MGM art department.[9]
He retired from MGM as art director and the head of the art department on April 26, 1956, due to ill health with over 1,500 films credited to him; however, other designers did major work on these films, some credited, some not, during Gibbons' tenure as head of the art department.[9] Even so, his actual hands-on art direction is considerable and his contributions lasting.[11][12]
Gibbons' second cousin[citation needed] Frederick "Royal" Gibbons—a musician, orchestra conductor, and entertainer[20] who worked with him at MGM—was the father of
Billy Gibbons of the rock band
ZZ Top.[21][22]
Despite holding a US birth certificate,[23] Gibbons claimed on census forms that he was born in Ireland and that his family emigrated to the US during his early childhood.[24][25] His press marriage announcement also stated that he was a native of Ireland.[26] The reasons for this misstatement are unknown.
Gibbons died in Los Angeles on July 26, 1960, after a long illness at age 70 and was buried under a modest marker at the
Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles.[27]Dorothy Kilgallen, journalist and gossip columnist, a friend of his second wife, reported his age as 65 at the time of his death.
Legacy
Gibbons' set designs, particularly those in such films as Born to Dance (1936) and Rosalie (1937), heavily inspired motion picture theater architecture in the late 1930s through 1950s.
Among the classic examples are the Loma Theater in San Diego, the Crest theaters in Long Beach, California and Fresno, California, and the Culver Theater in Culver City, California, some of which are still extant. The style sometimes is referred to as
Art Deco or as
Art Moderne. The style is found in the theaters that were managed by the
Skouras brothers, whose designer Carl G. Moeller used the sweeping scroll-like details in his creations.[28]
The iconic Oscar statuettes that Gibbons designed, which were first awarded in 1929, still are being presented to winners at
Academy Awards ceremonies each year.