Harriet Elizabeth MacGibbonUnited Press (September 3, 1930)
"Pair Given Waiver to Go On with Wedding"
''Camden Courier-Post''. p. 9. Retrieved July 2, 2023."Illinois, Cook County, Birth Certificates, 1871-1949", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q239-ZR6N : 5 October 2022), Harriet Elizabeth MacGibbon, 1943. (October 5, 1905 – February 8, 1987) was an American film, stage and television actress best known for her role as the insufferably snobbish, "blue-blooded Bostonian" Mrs. Margaret Drysdale in the sitcom '' The Beverly Hillbillies''.

Career

MacGibbon joined the stock company of Edward Clarke Lilley at Akron, Ohio. She then went to San Francisco and played leading roles for Henry Duffy. In Louisville, Kentucky, she acted with Wilton Lackaye, Edmund Breese, William Faversham, Tom Wise and Nance O'Neil. Credits included ''Ned McCobb's Daughter'', '' The Front Page'', and a "transcontinental tour" of Max Marcin's ''The Big Fight'' (in which she starred opposite former world

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...

champion Jack Dempsey), beginning in Boston, taking in New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut, and ending at Caine's storehouse in Los Angeles. She had a long and distinguished career on the Broadway stage, beginning in 1925 at the age of 19 when she acted in the play ''Beggar on Horseback'' at the Shubert Theatre. In the late 1930s, she did '' You Can't Take It With You'', the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning comedy, at the Biltmore Theatre in Los Angeles. From 1934 to 1937, MacGibbon portrayed Lucy Kent on the NBC radio soap opera ''Home Sweet Home''. Her film debut was a non-speaking bit as a snooty woman walking a dog across a golf course in W.C. Fields' '' The Golf Specialist'' (1930), shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey.''The Golf Specialist'' (1930)
on YouTube She made numerous guest appearances on television starting in 1950, including '' Bewitched'', Ray Milland's sitcom '' Meet Mr. McNutley''. Another sitcom in which MacGibbon appeared was '' My Three Sons'', performing as Margaret Cunningham in the 1961 episode "Bub Goes to School". She was cast in five theatrical movies, including '' Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'' (1962), which was directed by

Vincente Minnelli Vincente Minnelli (; born Lester Anthony Minnelli; February 28, 1903 – July 25, 1986) was an American Theatre director, stage director and film director. From a career spanning over half a century, he is best known for his sophisticated innovat ...

and starred Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin, Charles Boyer, and Lee J. Cobb.

Personal life and death

MacGibbon married at least twice: in September 1930 to producer William Reno Kane of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, from whom she obtained a divorce in April 1942, at which time she married writer Charles Corwin White. They remained married until White's death in 1967, on Christmas Day. She had one child by her first marriage, a son, William MacGibbon Kane, who was born in 1933 and died in 1977, predeceasing his mother."Deaths, Funeral Announcements: White, Charles Corwin"
''The Los Angeles Times''. December 27, 1967. Class Secretaries Bureau. p. 26. Retrieved July 2, 2023. Harriet MacGibbon died at age 81. She was cremated, and her ashes interred in niche 61046 in the Columbarium of Remembrance at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

TV filmography

* ''Wacky Zoo of Morgan City'' (1970) as Mrs. Westerfield * '' The Judge and Jake Wyler'' (1972) as hostess * ''The Best Place to Be'' (1979)

TV series – regular

* '' Golden Windows'' (1954) as Mrs. Brandon (credited as Harriet McGibbon) * '' Hazel'' (1961) as Mother Baxter * '' The Beverly Hillbillies'' (1962–1969) as Mrs. Margaret Drysdale * '' The Smothers Brothers Show'' (1965) as Mrs. Costello

References

External links

* *
"History of Homeopathy – Biographies" about MacGibbon's father with some family background
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macgibbon, Harriet 1905 births 1987 deaths American film actresses American stage actresses American television actresses American radio actresses American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Deaths from respiratory failure 20th-century American actresses