Margaret Gibson

Ella Margaret Gibson (September 14, 1894 – October 21, 1964) was an American stage and silent-film actress who had leading roles in Vitagraph Westerns, often opposite William Clifford. She also appeared with Charles Ray in The Coward (1915) and later worked in two Westerns with William S. Hart: The Money Corral and Sand! On her deathbed in 1964, she reportedly made a dying confession to the 1922 murder of director William Desmond Taylor. Gibson was sometimes credited or otherwise identified under at least seven other names, such as Patricia Palmer, Patsy Palmer, Margie Gibson, Marguerite Gibson, Ella Margaret Lewis, Ella Margaret Arce, or Pat Lewis. She appeared in 147 films between 1913 and 1929. Family Gibson was the daughter of Ellsbarry James Gibson, a musician of Scotch-Irish descent, and Celia Ella Fisher, a vocalist of English descent. She had two older siblings, Forest and Edna. By her own account, Gibson's parents had worked in show business. Career She began her stage career at the age of 12, when her father allegedly left and she remained as the sole means of support for her mother. Gibson appeared on the Pantages Vaudeville Circuit for over two years. In 1909, she became a member of the Theodore Lorch Stock Company in Denver, where she was cast in a wide variety of roles. She entered the film industry in 1912, getting a job with Vitagraph in Santa Monica, where she stayed for three years. For six months during this period, Taylor was acting in the same studio and they made four films together: The Love of Tokiwa, The Riders of Petersham, The Kiss, and A Little Madonna. An article in Variety the following year noted that the 19-year-old budding film star had purchased a cliffside bungalow overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica. In 1915, she left Vitagraph and went to the Thomas Ince Film Company, where she played a small supporting role in The Coward, the film which made Charles Ray a star. She subsequently had supporting roles in many comedy shorts and was the subject of several promotional articles in fan magazines.