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Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in The Sheriff's Brother (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Gladys Field in The Tribe's Penalty (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Gladys Field in The Lucky Card (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in The Puncher's New Love (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in What a Woman Can Do (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in The Indian Maiden's Lesson (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Gladys Field in The Bad Man's First Prayer (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in The Bad Man's First Prayer (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Gladys Field in Across the Plains (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Gladys Field in The Sheriff's Chum (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Gladys Field, and Brinsley Shaw in A Thwarted Vengeance (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Brinsley Shaw in The Faithful Indian (1910)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in On the Desert's Edge (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Arthur Mackley in The Outlaw and the Child (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in The Outlaw and the Child (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Gladys Field, and Victor Potel in The Bad Man's Downfall (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in Carmenita the Faithful (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Gladys Field in The Bad Man's Downfall (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Gladys Field in The Border Ranger (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Gladys Field, and Victor Potel in The Border Ranger (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Gladys Field, and Arthur Mackley in The Girl of the West (1911)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in His Regeneration (1915)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Marguerite Clayton in His Regeneration (1915)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Lee Willard in His Regeneration (1915)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Lloyd Bacon, and Belle Mitchell in His Regeneration (1915)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Robert McKenzie, and Belle Mitchell in His Regeneration (1915)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Augustus Carney, Fred Church, Albert Macklin, and Harry Todd in Tag Day (1909)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in When Love and Honor Called (1915)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Marguerite Clayton in When Love and Honor Called (1915)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Marguerite Clayton in The Tell-Tale Hand (1914)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in The Tell-Tale Hand (1914)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in The Good-for-Nothing (1914)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Lee Willard in The Good-for-Nothing (1914)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Marguerite Clayton in The Three Gamblers (1913)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson in Broncho Billy Gets Square (1913)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Marguerite Clayton in Why Broncho Billy Left Bear County (1913)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Eugenia Clinchard, Audrey Hanna, and Evelyn Selbie in Broncho Billy and the Sheriff's Kid (1913)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and True Boardman in Broncho Billy and the Outlaw's Mother (1913)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and Bess Sankey in Broncho Billy and the Maid (1913)

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Victor Potel, and Brinsley Shaw in Broncho Billy's Promise (1912)

American actor-director-writer-producer Gilbert M. Anderson, father of the movie cowboy and the first Western star, was born Maxwell Henry Aronson in Little Rock, Arkansas. His parents, Esther (Ash) and Henry Aronson, were from New York. His father was from a German Jewish family, and his mother was the daughter of Russian Jewish parents. He had worked as a photographer's model and newspaper vendor before drifting into acting. He performed in vaudeville before joining forces with Edwin S. Porter as an actor and occasional script collaborator. In Porter's startling early film The Great Train Robbery (1903), Anderson played several roles (among them, the train passenger shot by bandits as he tries to escape). The success of that film prompted Anderson to begin writing, directing and starring in his own series of Westerns. In 1907 he and George K. Spoor founded Essanay Film Manufacturing Co., destined to be one of the predominant early film studios. Anderson gained enormous popularity in hundreds of Western shorts, playing the first real cowboy hero, "Broncho Billy." Writing and directing most of the films, Anderson also found time to direct a series of "Alkali Ike" comedy Westerns starring Augustus Carney. In 1916 Anderson sold his ownership in Essanay and retired from acting. He returned to New York and bought the Longacre Theatre and produced plays there, though not achieving the same kind of success he enjoyed in films. He made a brief comeback as a producer with a series of shorts starring Stan Laurel for Metro Pictures. However, a series of conflicts with the studio led him retire again after 1920. He continued to produce films as owner of Progressive Pictures into the 1950s. In his 70s, he came out of retirement for a cameo role in The Bounty Killer (1965). He had been presented with an honorary Oscar in 1957 as a "motion picture pioneer, for his contributions to the development of motion pictures as entertainment." Anderson died in 1971 at the age of 90.

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Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

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