Dorothy Gibson named Dorothy Winifred Brown at birth was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the daughter of John A. and Pauline Brown. John Brown died when Dorothy was a child and her mother married John Leonard Gibson. 

       Dorothy was a singer and dancer in a number of musicals on Broadway in 1908. In 1909 she became a favorite model, her image appearing on magazine covers and postcards for a while. In 1911, she was hired by the French company Éclair, becoming a popular star in hit comedies and dramas. On March 17, 1912, having made multiple movies, including "The Easter Bonnet," a romantic comedy, and a gangster movie called "The Revenge of the Silk Masks”, Dorothy sailed to Europe for a vacation with her mother.

     After a few weeks, Éclair adviser and producer, Jules Brulatour told her in Italy to return to complete a new roll of movies. Dorothy was having an affair with Brulatour, who later divorced his wife to marry her. Dorothy and her mother were in Paris when they booked their return passage on the Titanic, which they boarded when the ship stopped at Cherbourg on the evening of April 10^th.

        Dorothy told the New York Dramatic Mirror that she "spent a pleasant Sunday evening playing bridge with a couple of friendly New York bankers".  Despite the requests of a steward to finish, the friends carried on with their game. It was not until about 11.40 p.m. that Dorothy made her way to join her mother in her room. She then noticed “a long drawn, sickening crunch." She wasn't exactly alarmed but decided to investigate. 

        "As I started to walk across the ship I noticed how lopsided the deck was." She hurried to fetch her mother. According to Dorothy, lifeboat 7 was virtually empty when she and her mother arrived on the boat deck. After being lowered into the water it looked as if her lifeboat would follow Titanic to the bottom. Water gushed through a hole in the bottom until, in the words of Dorothy "this was fixed by volunteer contributions from the underwear of the women and the garments of men."' 

      "I will never forget the terrible cry that rang out from people who were thrown into the sea ," she told the Moving Picture World. 

        Soon after the disaster, Dorothy acted in the first film ever produced about it, called "Saved from the Titanic" (in which she basically played herself.) The movie was released May 14, 1912, a month after the sinking. According to Eclair, Dorothy was hesitant about reliving the disaster so quickly after the tragedy but  "the beautiful young star conquered her own feeling and went ahead," as the Moving Picture World wrote.

      Dorothy made about 20 movies. Only one of her films survives to this day. "The Lucky Holdup," is now preserved by the American Film Institute. "The Lucky Holdup" premiered in New York just as Dorothy set sail on the Titanic.

         Mrs. Gibson died of heart failure in her suite at the Hotel Ritz in Paris on February 11, 1946. She was single when she died.

-Adeola :p