• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • ABOUT US
  • MEDIA
  • PRIVACY
  • TERMS
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS
do you remember

DoYouRemember?

The Home of Nostalgia

  • Celebrity News
    • Family
    • Obituaries
    • Life Behind the Fame
    • ICONS
    • Celebrity Feuds
  • Entertainment
    • Cast
    • Showbiz Rewind
    • Music
    • Beauty & fashion
  • STORIES
  • Celebrity Buzz!?
  • Sitcoms
    • Bewitched
    • Little Rascals
    • The Partridge Family
    • I Dream of Jeannie
    • All in the Family
    • MASH
    • Happy Days
    • Cheers
  • Celebrity Collections
  • SHOP DYR
    • DYR Book

Stories

90-Year-Old Marla Gibbs Talks About Her Start In Hollywood

by Lauren Novak

Published February 18, 2022

Marla Gibbs reflects on her start in Hollywood

Marla Gibbs is best known for her role in The Jeffersons but she continues to act to this day. Marla is now 90 years old and is reflecting on her start in Hollywood. She was born in Chicago and growing up, she said she always loved movies and looked up to several actresses including Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.

Before moving to California, she lived in Detroit and had three children. She said, “I moved to California in 1969 from Detroit, Michigan. I had moved to Detroit from Chicago, so my three children were all born in Detroit. But I’m a Chicagoan. My sister lived here, and she was begging me to come out here for the longest time. I was running from my husband. I was done. He followed me out here six months later. And I gave him another shot, but it didn’t change anything. So then there was a divorce.”

Related:

  1. Marla Gibbs Talks Being Very Strict With Regina King During ‘227’
  2. 92-Year-Old ‘Jeffersons’ Icon Marla Gibbs Stuns At Emmy Awards

Marla Gibbs from ‘The Jeffersons’ opens up about the start of her career in Hollywood

MARLA GIBBS, portrait
MARLA GIBBS, portrait / Everett Collection

Marla worked for United Airlines and continued to work there until she got her big break in The Jeffersons. Prior to getting the role, she took acting classes at the Performing Arts Society of Los Angeles. Her sister was an extra and had an agent, so they also helped her to break into the industry.

RELATED: Whatever Happened To Marla Gibbs, Florence Johnston From ‘The Jeffersons’?

THE JEFFERSONS, Marla Gibbs, Isabel Sanford, Sherman Hemsley, 1975-1985
THE JEFFERSONS, Marla Gibbs, Isabel Sanford, Sherman Hemsley, 1975-1985 / Everett Collection

Marla added, “My girlfriend and I, we would sweet-talk our way past the guards at the big studios and take our résumés. I remember we were at 20th Century Fox, and we met Joyce Selznick, David O. Selznick’s niece. And she said, ‘Come on in, girls.’ She spent 20 minutes giving us a whole speech about how Hollywood works. I always appreciated her.”

BIG SHOT, Marla Gibbs, Kalm Korn'
BIG SHOT, Marla Gibbs, Kalm Korn’, (Season 1, ep. 107, aired May 28, 2021). photo: Gilles Mingasson / ©Disney+ / Courtesy Everett Collection

These days, you can watch Marla on the soap opera Days of Our Lives.

RELATED: Marla Gibbs Loves Betty White – That’s Why She Doesn’t Want Any More Comparisons To Her

Next up: ‘I Love Lucy’s William Frawley Said TV Wife Vivian Vance Was A ‘C-Word’

Previous article: ‘I Love Lucy’s William Frawley Said TV Wife Vivian Vance Was A ‘C-Word’
Next Post: Malcolm-Jamal Warner From ‘The Cosby Show’ Is 51 And A Grammy Winner

Primary Sidebar

© 2025 DoYouRemember? Inc.

  • about us
  • media
  • privacy
  • terms
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS