Helen Gibson - Return To Hollywood

Return To Hollywood

She returned to Hollywood in 1927 and began doubling for stars such as Louise Fazenda, Irene Rich, Edna May Oliver, Marie Dressler, Marjorie Main, May Robson, Esther Dale and Ethel Barrymore. She worked constantly stunt doubling and in uncredited or bit parts. As she had in her heyday, Helen became a featured guest at benefit rodeos and events such as the Annual Santa Barbara Horse Show.

In 1935, Helen married Clifton Johnson, a studio electrician who had been a chief gunner in the Navy. In 1940 he asked for active duty, and while he was serving in World War II, she carried on working as an extra and became treasurer of the stunt girl's fraternal organization.

In Universal's Hollywood Story (1951), she was cast as a retired silent film actress alongside Francis X. Bushman, William Farnum, Betty Blythe and earned $55 for one scene. Tony Curtis, then unknown, was assigned to escort Gibson and Blythe to the premier at the Academy Award Theater at the Academy's then-headquarters on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, where The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gave each silent star a plaque “for your outstanding contribution to the art and science of motion pictures, for the pleasure you have brought to millions over the world, and for your help in making Hollywood the film capital of the world.”