Biography
Versatile as well as tall, dark, and handsome, Thomas Gibson has moved easily between TV stardom and a varied movie career working with some of the industry's major names.
Born and raised in Charleston, Gibson found his calling as a child, making his acting debut at age ten in children's theater productions. Though he attended the College of Charleston, Gibson relocated when he won a scholarship to New York's prestigious Juilliard School. After earning his B.F.A., Gibson made his professional New York theater debut in 1985. Gibson spent the rest of the 1980s doing theater, as well as branching out into television with two seasons on the daytime drama
Another World and the TV movie
Gore Vidal's Lincoln (1988).
Gibson made the transition to films in style with a co-starring role opposite
Tom Cruise and
Nicole Kidman in
Ron Howard's glossy Irish-American epic
Far and Away (1992). Along with playing a bit part in
Martin Scorsese's lush
The Age of Innocence (1993), Gibson further distinguished himself that year with larger roles in the critically praised PBS miniseries Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City and French-Canadian director
Denys Arcand's first English-language film, the contemporary drama
Love and Human Remains (1993).
Gibson subsequently appeared in the second part of
Whit Stillman's preppy trilogy,
Barcelona (1994), and in the indie
Sleep With Me (1994), but he became better-known to TV audiences that year on the CBS hospital drama
Chicago Hope. After three seasons on the show, Gibson became an even more prominent TV presence in 1997 when he was cast as the straight-laced husband Greg to
Jenna Elfman's hippie Dharma on the ABC sitcom
Dharma and Greg. Though he also appeared in the TV miniseries
A Will of Their Own (1998) and Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City (1998) during
Dharma's first seasons, Gibson's sitcom fame was such that a few critics wondered what it was about the show that prompted
Stanley Kubrick to cast Gibson (and reunite him with Cruise) in
Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Gibson continued to balance Hollywood with outside projects during his hiatuses with a small part in the ill-fated sequel
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, a starring role in Arcand's celebrity culture satire
Stardom, and a supporting turn as the slick surfer Kanaka in the campy '60s teen-film parody
Psycho Beach Party. Gibson is married and has one son. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide