Gibbons was born in
Brooklyn and studied at the
Art Students League of New York and worked for his architect father. While at
Edison Studios from 1915, he first designed a set for a film released in 1919, assisting
Hugo Ballin. But, after this first foray, the studio closed, and he signed with
Samuel Goldwyn in 1918. This evolved to working for
Louis B. Mayer at
MGM from 1924 to 1956—a 32-year career.
In 1930, he married actress
Dolores del Rio. They divorced in 1941, the year he married actress Hazel Brooks (b.
Cape Town, South Africa, 1925–d. Los Angeles,
2002) with whom he remained for the rest of his life.
Cedric Gibbons fostered MGM's incorrect publicity claim that he was born in
Dublin, Ireland and provided his birth year as 1893. Also, in responding to letters from those seeking employment as designers at MGM, he instructed his secretary Herta Verkuitz to respond by claiming that a degree in "architectural engineering" was required, thus, suggesting that he himself had such a degree and evidently aspiring to his father's profession. The letters further claimed that Gibbons was "the first to bring modern architecture to the screen" (a memo dated
23 March 1935, Special Collections, American Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, MGM Art Department/Publicity, folder 44).
Gibbons was one of the original 36 founding members of The
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and oversaw the design of the
Academy Awards Oscar statuette in 1929, a trophy for which he himself would be nominated 39 times, winning 11—second only to
Walt Disney, who won 26.
He retired in 1956 with about 1,500 films credited to him: however, his contract with MGM dictated that he receive credit as art director for every MGM film released in the United States, even though other designers may have done the bulk of the work. Even so, his actual hands-on art direction may have been on about 150 films.
Gibbons's 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. The style is found very clearly in the theaters that were managed by
the Skouras brothers, whose designer Carl G. Moeller used the sweeping scroll-like details in his creations. Among the more classic examples are the Loma Theater in
San Diego, The Crest in Long Beach and Fresno, and the Culver Theater in
Culver City, all of which are in California and some extant. The style is sometimes referred to as
Art Deco and
Art Moderne. The 2006 Academy Award Show stage set design at the
Kodak Theater in Hollywood was inspired by this so-called golden-era of theater architecture.
Gibbons's grave is in the
Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles.
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