16 Facts About Cedric Gibbons

Austin Cedric Gibbons was an Irish-American art director for the film industry.

Cedric Gibbons made a significant contribution to motion picture theater architecture from the 1930s to 1950s.

Cedric Gibbons was nominated 39 times for the Academy Award for Best Production Design and won the Oscar 11 times, both of which are records.

Cedric Gibbons was born in Ireland in 1890 to Irish architect Austin P Gibbons and American Veronica Fitzpatrick Simmons.

Cedric Gibbons studied at the Art Students League of New York in 1911.

Cedric Gibbons 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.

Cedric Gibbons was drafted and served in the US Navy Reserves during World War I at Pelham Bay in New York.

Cedric Gibbons joined Goldwyn Studios, and began a long career with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924, when the studio was founded.

Cedric 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, a trophy for which he himself would be nominated 39 times, winning 11, the last time for Best Art Direction for Somebody Up There Likes Me.

Cedric Gibbons 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.

In 1930, Cedric Gibbons married actress Dolores del Rio and co-designed their house with Douglas Honnold in Santa Monica, an intricate Art Deco residence influenced by Rudolf Schindler.

Cedric Gibbons's press marriage announcement stated that he was a native of Ireland.

Cedric 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.

Cedric Gibbons' set designs, particularly those in such films as Born to Dance and Rosalie, heavily inspired motion picture theater architecture in the late 1930s through 1950s.

The iconic Oscar statuettes that Cedric Gibbons designed, which were first awarded in 1929, still are being presented to winners at Academy Awards ceremonies each year.

Cedric Gibbons was inducted into the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame in February 2005.