Guy Kibbee
Guy Bridges Kibbee (March 6, 1882 – May 24, 1956) was an American stage and film actor. Early years. Kibbee was born in El Paso, Texas. His father was editor of the "El Paso Herald-Post" newspaper, and Kibbee learned how to set type at age 7. His younger brother was actor Milton Kibbee. At the age of 14, he ran away to join a traveling show. Career. Kibbee began his entertainment career on Mississippi riverboats. He became an actor in traveling stock companies. He began to lose his hair at 19, and in his early days on stage , he was a romantic leading man. In 1930, he made his debut on Broadway in the play, "Torch Song", which won acclaim in New York and attracted the interest of Hollywood. Shortly afterwards, Paramount Pictures signed Kibbee, and he moved to California. Later, he became part of Warner Bros.'s stock company, contract actors who cycled through different productions in supporting roles. Kibbee's specialty was daft and jovial characters, and he is perhaps best remembered for the films "42nd Street" (1933), "Gold Diggers of 1933" (1933), "Captain Blood" (1935), and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), though he also  played the expatriate inn owner in Joan Crawford's "Rain" (1932). One of his few starring performances during this period was in the title role of "Babbit" (1934), a much altered and compressed version of the Sinclair Lewis novel. He is also remembered for his performance as Mr. Webb, editor of the Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, newspaper, and father of Emily Webb, played by Martha Scott, in the film version of the classic Thornton Wilder play "Our Town". Personal life. Kibbee was married for 31 years to the former Ethel "Brownie" Reed, and they had a daughter, Shirley Ann . He was previously married to Helen Shay, raising a family in Staten Island until divorcing. One of their sons was Robert Kibbee, an academic who became the chancellor of the City University of New York. Death. Kibbee died of Parkinson's disease at the Percy Williams Home for actors in East Islip, New York on May 24, 1956. In popular culture. Guy Kibbee eggs is the name for a breakfast dish that consists of a hole cut out of the center of a slice of bread, and an egg cracked into it, all of which is fried in a skillet . The actor prepared this dish in the 1935 Warner Bros. film "Mary Jane's Pa", hence the eponym. This dish is also known by other names, such as "egg in a basket" and "egg in a frame". Guy Kibbee is also mentioned in the iconic "Hot August Night" concert/album performed by Neil Diamond in 1972 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles: