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Guy Bridges Kibbee (March 6, 1882[1] – May 24, 1956) was an American stage and film actor.
Guy Kibbee | |
|---|---|
 Kibbee in the 1940s | |
| Born | Guy Bridges Kibbee March 6, 1882 El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | May 24, 1956 (aged 74) East Islip, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1902–1950 |
| Spouses | Helen Shay
(m. 1918; div. 1923)Ethel Reed
(m. 1925) |
Kibbee was born in El Paso, Texas. His father was editor of the El Paso Herald-Post newspaper, and Kibbee learned how to set type at age 7.[2][3] At the age of 14, he ran away to join a traveling show. His younger brother was actor Milton Kibbee.[2]
Kibbee began his entertainment career on Mississippi riverboats. He became an actor in traveling stock companies. He began to lose his hair at 19. In his early days on stage, he was a romantic leading man.[4]
In 1930, he made his debut on Broadway in the play Torch Song, which won acclaim in New York and attracted the interest of Hollywood.[3] Shortly afterwards, Paramount Pictures signed Kibbee, and he moved to California. He later became part of the Warner Bros. stock company, contract actors who cycled through different productions in supporting roles. Kibbee's specialty was daft and jovial characters; he is perhaps best remembered for the films 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Captain Blood (1935), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), though he also played the expatriate inn owner in Joan Crawford's Rain (1932). One of his few starring performances during this period was the title role of Babbit (1934), a much altered and compressed version of the Sinclair Lewis novel.
He is also remembered for his performance as Mr. Webb, editor of the Grover's Corners, New Hampshire newspaper, and father of Emily Webb (played by Martha Scott) in the film version of the classic Thornton Wilder play Our Town.
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Kibbee's first wife was Helen Shay, with whom he raised a family in Staten Island until their divorce. One of their sons was Robert Kibbee, an academic who became chancellor of the City University of New York.[5][6][7]
His second wife was the former Ethel "Brownie" Reed. They had a daughter, Shirley Ann, and were married for 31 years.[3]
Kibbee died of Parkinson's disease at the Percy Williams Home for actors in East Islip, New York on May 24, 1956.[4][6]
"Guy Kibbee eggs" is a breakfast dish consisting of a hole cut out of the center of a slice of bread, and an egg cracked into it, all of which is fried in a skillet.[8] The actor prepared this dish in the 1935 Warner Bros. film Mary Jane's Pa, hence the nickname. The dish is also known by other names, such as "egg in a basket", "egg in a frame", "Rocky Mountain Toast", and "Frog in a Hole".
Kibbee is also mentioned in the iconic Hot August Night concert/album performed by Neil Diamond in 1972 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles:
Thank you people in the audience! Tree people out there, God bless ya, I'm singin' for you too! Are you still there tree people? (laughter) This is, this is the Greek Theatre. This is the place that God made for performers when they die, they go to a place called the Greek Theatre. And you're met there by an MC, wearing a long robe and smoking a cigar, looks like Guy Kibbee, and that's what it is. It's performers' paradise.
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| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | For Sale | Mr. Hart | Short, Uncredited |
| Stolen Heaven | Police Commissioner | Film debut | |
| Man of the World | Harry Taylor | ||
| City Streets | Pop Cooley | ||
| Laughing Sinners | Cass Wheeler | ||
| How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 6: 'The Big Irons' | Short, Uncredited | ||
| Side Show | Colonel Gowdy | ||
| New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford | Police Sergeant McGonigal | ||
| Flying High | Fred Smith | ||
| Blonde Crazy | A. Rupert Johnson Jr. | ||
| 1932 | Union Depot | Scrap Iron Scratch | Alternative title: Gentleman for a Day |
| Taxi! | Pop Riley | ||
| High Pressure | Clifford Gray | ||
| Fireman, Save My Child | Pop Devlin | ||
| Play Girl | Finkelwald | ||
| The Crowd Roars | Pop Greer | ||
| The Mouthpiece | Bartender | ||
| Two Seconds | Bookie | ||
| The Strange Love of Molly Louvain | Pop | ||
| The Dark Horse | Zachary Hicks | ||
| Winner Take All | Pop Slavin | ||
| Crooner | Mike | ||
| Big City Blues | Hummell | ||
| Rain | Joe Horn | ||
| Scarlet Dawn | Mr. Murphy | ||
| The Conquerors | Dr. Blake | ||
| Central Park | Charlie Cabot | ||
| 1933 | 42nd Street | Abner Dillon | |
| Girl Missing | Kenneth Van Dusen | ||
| Lilly Turner | Doc McGill | ||
| Gold Diggers of 1933 | Faneul H. Peabody | ||
| The Life of Jimmy Dolan | Phlaxer | Alternative title: The Kid's Last Fight | |
| The Silk Express | Detective McDuff | ||
| How to Break 90 #2: Position and Back Swing | Uncredited | Short, Uncredited | |
| Lady for a Day | Judge Henry G. Blake | ||
| Footlight Parade | Si Gould | ||
| Havana Widows | Deacon R. Jones | ||
| The World Changes | James Clafflin | ||
| Convention City | George Ellerbe | Lost film | |
| 1934 | Easy to Love | Justice of the Peace | |
| Wonder Bar | Simpson | ||
| Harold Teen | Joe "Pa" Lovewell | ||
| Merry Wives of Reno | Tom Fraser | ||
| The Merry Frinks | Uncle Newt Frink | ||
| Dames | Horace Peter Hemingway | ||
| Big Hearted Herbert | Herbert [Kalness] | ||
| Babbitt | George F. Babbitt | Title role | |
| 1935 | While the Patient Slept | [Police Lieutenant] Lance O'Leary | |
| Mary Jane's Pa | Sam Preston | ||
| Going Highbrow | Matt Upshaw | ||
| Don't Bet on Blondes | Colonel Jefferson Davis Youngblood | ||
| I Live for Love | Henderson | ||
| Captain Blood | Hagthorpe | ||
| 1936 | Little Lord Fauntleroy | Silas Hobbs | |
| Captain January | Captain January | ||
| I Married a Doctor | Samuel Clark | ||
| The Big Noise | Julius Trent | ||
| Earthworm Tractors | Sam Johnson | ||
| M'Liss | Washoe Smith | ||
| The Captain's Kid | Asa Plunkett | ||
| Three Men on a Horse | Carver | ||
| 1937 | Mama Steps Out | Leonard "Len" Cuppy | |
| Don't Tell the Wife | Malcom J. "Dinky" Winthrop | ||
| Jim Hanvey, Detective | James Woolford "Jim" Hanvey | ||
| Mountain Justice | Doctor John Aloysius Barnard | ||
| Riding on Air | J. Rutherford "Doc" Waddington | ||
| The Big Shot | Dr. Bertram Simms | ||
| The Bad Man of Brimstone | Francis X. "Eight Ball" Harrison | ||
| 1938 | Of Human Hearts | George Ames | |
| Joy of Living | Dennis Garret | ||
| Three Comrades | Alfons | ||
| Rich Man, Poor Girl | Pa Thayer | ||
| Three Loves Has Nancy | Pa Briggs | ||
| 1939 | Let Freedom Ring | David Bronson | |
| It's a Wonderful World | Fred "Cap" Streeter | ||
| Babes in Arms | Judge John Black | ||
| Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | Governor Hubert "Happy" Hopper | ||
| Bad Little Angel | Luther Marvin | ||
| Henry Goes Arizona | Judge Van Treece | ||
| 1940 | Our Town | Mr. Webb | |
| Street of Memories | Harry Brent | ||
| Chad Hanna | Huguenine | ||
| 1941 | Scattergood Baines | Scattergood Baines | |
| Scattergood Pulls the Strings | |||
| Scattergood Meets Broadway | |||
| It Started with Eve | Bishop Maxwell | ||
| Design for Scandal | Judge Graham | ||
| 1942 | This Time for Keeps | Harry Bryant | |
| Scattergood Rides High | Scattergood Baines | ||
| Sunday Punch | "Pops" Muller | ||
| Miss Annie Rooney | Grandpa Rooney | ||
| There's One Born Every Minute | Lester Cadwalader, Sr. | ||
| Tish | Judge Horace Bowser | ||
| Scattergood Survives a Murder | Scattergood Baines | ||
| Whistling in Dixie | Judge George Lee | ||
| 1943 | Cinderella Swings It | Scattergood Baines | |
| Power of the Press | Ulysses Bradford | ||
| Girl Crazy | Dean Phineas Armour | ||
| Learn and Live | Saint Peter | ||
| 1944 | Dixie Jamboree | Captain Jackson of the Ellabella | |
| 1945 | The Horn Blows at Midnight | Radio Director/The Chief | |
| 1946 | Cowboy Blues | Dusty Nelson | |
| Singing on the Trail | Dusty Wyatt | Alternative title: Lookin' for Someone | |
| Gentleman Joe Palooka | Uncle Charlie | ||
| Lone Star Moonlight | Amos Norton | Alternative title: Amongst the Thieves | |
| 1947 | Over the Santa Fe Trail | Biscuits | |
| The Red Stallion | Ed Thompson | ||
| The Romance of Rosy Ridge | Cal Baggett | ||
| 1948 | Fort Apache | Captain Dr. Wilkens | Alternative title: War Party |
| 3 Godfathers | Judge | Final film |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Kraft Television Theatre | Ed | 1 episode |
| 1949–1950 | The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre | 4 episodes | |
| 1950 | The Billy Rose Show | 1 episode, (final appearance) |
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