Lois Kibbee (July 13, 1922 – October 18, 1993) was an American actress. Kibbee was born in

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...

. The daughter of actor

Milton Kibbee Milton Kibbee (January 27, 1896 – April 17, 1970) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 360 films between 1933 and 1953. He was the brother of actor Guy Kibbee and his daughter was actress Lois Kibbee. He died in Simi Valle ...

and the niece of actor

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 ...

, Kibbee played in a number of television and film roles. On TV, Kibbee's most notable roles were on daytime soap operas. She had a long run as wealthy Geraldine Weldon Whitney Saxon on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

daytime

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

The Edge of Night ''The Edge of Night'' is an American television mystery crime drama series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that networ ...

'', where she appeared from 1970–71 and again from 1973 until the show's end in 1984. She also portrayed frosty matriarch Emily Moore Matson on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

's ''

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

'' from 1972 to 1973, a character whose eccentric family was involved in a murder storyline centered on "Jingles the Clown". Later in her career she played powerful matriarch Elizabeth Sanders on ABC's ''

One Life to Live ''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...

'' (from 1986–88 and again in 1989). In film, Kibbee may be best remembered for her role in the film ''

Caddyshack ''Caddyshack'' is a 1980 American sports comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, written by Brian Doyle-Murray, Ramis and Douglas Kenney, and starring Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe and Bill Murray with supporting role ...

'' as Mrs. Smails. Her character was involved in several of the film's jokes, including a scene where a candy bar in a swimming pool is mistakenly identified as human feces. Kibbee died of a

brain tumor A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and seconda ...

on October 18, 1993, at

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...

in Manhattan.

Acting career

In 1951, Kibbee established Playhouse, Inc., a community theater in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

. She also performed with the Circle Theater in Hollywood and in summer stock theater in Columbus, Ohio, and in Chicago. Kibbee acted on radio on ''

Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ''Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar'' is a radio drama that aired on CBS Radio from February 18, 1949 to September 30, 1962. The first several seasons imagined protagonist Johnny Dollar as a private investigator drama, with Charles Russell, Edmond O'Br ...

'', and other programs. Later, she portrayed Geraldine Whitney Saxson on ''The Edge of Nigh'' on TV.

Writing career

Kibbee was a writer on ''The Edge of Night''. and co-wrote the book ''The Bennett Playbill'' about the life of the Bennett acting family, particularly film, stage and television star, Joan Bennett. She also was the

ghostwriter A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

for ''The Christine Jorgensen Story''. While

Henry Slesar Henry Slesar (June 12, 1927 – April 2, 2002) was an American author, playwright, and copywriter. He is famous for his use of irony and twist endings. After reading Slesar's "M Is for the Many" in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', Alfre ...

was head writer for the CBS soap ''Capitol'', Kibbee briefly contributed a few scripts as well. Kibbee had been writing a book about her family's history as performers at the time of her death.

Awards and nominations

Kibbee was nominated for a

Daytime Emmy The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (N ...

award in the category of Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role in a Daytime Drama Series in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1984 and Outstanding Writing Team in 1982 with

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kibbee 1922 births 1993 deaths American film actresses American soap opera actresses American soap opera writers Deaths from brain cancer in the United States 20th-century American actresses Deaths from cancer in New York (state) American women television writers Women soap opera writers 20th-century American screenwriters