| From Peter's biography Click here for Peter's filmography |
 London-Photographer, Ralph Starkweather, bought pic on e-Bay. link to the filmography of Gibson Gowland |
 Erich von Stroheim upstaged by Gibson Gowland in "Blind Husbands" Peter refers to his father as "the unknown celebrity" because of his only starring role in a film that has become a classic, Greed directed by Erich von Stroheim in 1924. Gibson Gowland was McTeague, the lead character. While Greed is still shown and written about, Gibson's other 87 film roles never came up to that first burst of fame. A mild mannered man in reality, his was always cast in villainous roles; Simon Legree in Topsy and Eva, raping Joan Crawford in Rose Marie. He lived modestly on small pay checks. Originally, Gibson came to the United States from England, by way of Canada, in 1913 and there met Beatrice Bird, also from England, whom he married. Both were actors who had left their comfortable families behind to seek careers. They arrived in Hollywood by train knowing no one in 1914. At first, each worked for $2 a day as extras or bit players and lived in a $7 a month shack one-half block from the famous Sunset Blvd. In 1916, Peter was born there. He sees the irony of that beginning, with his life-style today, also just three blocks from Sunset Blvd, but at the other end, in an affluent neighborhood. After two broken marriages, Gibson returned to England in 1944, a sad and unfulfilled man. He died in London at age 74 and is buried in Golders Green. Peter has never been able to find his father's grave. |
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| Joan Crawford with Gibby cutting her head off. "Rose Marie" 1928 | Zazu Pitts with Gibson in "Greed" 1924 “Thanks, Ed Harris & eBay for these two pictures” |
 Gibson Gowland, 1902 in England |
 Gibson Gowland before a job interview |
 Gibson Gowland in SOS Iceberg shot in Greenland 1933 |
 Gibson Gowland in South Africa 1902 |
 Gibson Gowland in North Africa 1922 |
 Peter was not forced to work until he was six weeks old. His mother, Sylvia Andrew, wrote the script, Small Magnetic Hand for a Universal film in 1916, Peter's only starring role. link to the filmography of Sylvia Andrew |
 Peter Gowland's mother driving new car Universal Studio 1916 |
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Peter's Mother - Painting by "Edwin Earl" in 1932 |
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Peter's mother, brother, and father had no problem
growing hair. Money?
Mother sold her hair to
Hollywood wig-maker. |
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“A camera is only a light-tight box” |
 Gibson Gowland driving Peter, age 5 in 1921 |
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My father raised me from age two, to my late |
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 Peter's childhood was happy. |
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| Under joint-custody at age eleven my mother decided I was not living a proper life-style. My clothes and general appearance to her, "were dirty." So, at age eleven,I was dropped off at British Military Academy in Hollywood. My father neglected to tell me where we were going. Hugging my toy truck, in a narrow bed, I cried myself to sleep. A few days later I was happy. They’d given me a soldier’s uniform! At age three and seven I had worn sailor suits. Now I was in the Army. | |
 Gibson, his Graham Paige & "Malibu" house. British Subject, Gibson parks on left side of street. |
 Gary Cooper with Gibson Gowland in Florida, 1929 |
| In 1930, my father and I moved into a one bedroom house on Pacific Coast highway near Malibu. The house cost $500.and an additional $10 dollars a month was to lease the land. An outhouse served as a bathroom. There was no gas, no electricity and cold,running water only on occasion. My father added two more rooms and a bathroom but cooking was still done on a kerosene range. The living room was heated by burning newspaper in a tin stove. Beause the house was built in a canyon, heavy rains were a problem. Water would flood in the back door and exit through the front door, leaving 18" of rocks and sand down the center hall. My father and I had to shovel it into wheelbarrows and dump it into the drain under the highway.
I remember, when I was thirteen, my father bought me a 22-Rifle. I took a shot at a small bird, not thinking I could kill it, I never used the gun again and I still hate guns. A person in our present neighborhood shot a raccoon! We feed at least twelve of them every night. Another neighbor shot a rat. I couldn’t even do that. At seventeen I was a member of the California Cavalry. At nineteen, wearing a German uniform at Universal Studios in “The Road Back.” We filmed from sunset to dawn, freezing for weeks, running over battle fields, surprise explosions under foot. A powder man was killed by concussion while firing a machine gun from inside a small building. To me, it was real war! I didn’t like it. |
 Peter's grandmother, 13th woman doctor in the British Isles. She had 2 doctor sons. She dressed as a man in order to vote. As a child Peter lived in a 4 doctor family in London for 2 years. |
 Born, 1997, Great-granddaughter, Camille daughter of Tracy Newsom (Producer at Harmonix Music) & Dan Newsom, Music educator at Berklee College, of music, has been playing violin for five years and performs with the Rivers prep Orchestra. Recently took up the flute too. She’s on her way to becoming our sixth generation in show business. |
 Peter's doctor-actor grandfather, Henry Marcus Bird, was the first generation in show business London. This was in the l9th century, soon after men dressed as women to act female roles in Shakespeare's time. |
| Some of these pictures will appear in Peter's biography |