Wynne Gibson was a B-movie actress best known for playing hard-boiled characters
She was born Winifred Elaine Gibson on July 3, 1898 in New York City. Her father, Frank Gibson, was an efficiency expert, and her mother, Elaine Gibson, was a Christian Science healer. Wynne attended Wadleigh High School for Girls. When she was a teenager she ran away from home to join a theater troupe. Then she started performing with the Melody Maids in vaudeville. She appeared in the Broadway shows When You Smile and Jarnigan. In 1927 she married actor John Calludet. They divorced three years later. Wynne was signed by Paramount and made her film debut in the 1929 comedy Nothing But The Truth. She appeared in a string of B-movies including If I Had A Million, The Devil Is Driving, and Emergency Call. Unfortunately she was typecast as a hard-boiled blonde and often played "the other woman".
Wynne said "My star is rising. If it keeps up somebody will find out I can do other things besides the roles of ladies with purple pasts and ostrich feather boas." While filming Flirting With Fate in 1938 she began a romance with actress Beverly Roberts. During the 1940s she continued to act in films like Double Cross and The Falcon Strikes Back. In 1955 she became the chair of the Equity Library Theater in New York City. Her final acting role was in a 1956 episode of Producer's Showcase. She and Beverly enjoyed one of Hollywood's longest relationships. The couple owned homes in New York and California. On May 15, 1987 Wynne died from a cerebral thrombosis at the age of eighty-eight. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Her epitaph reads "Forget Wynne Gibson? It Cant Be Done." When Beverly died in 2009 she was buried next to Wynne.
Wynne in If I Had A Million
