Born Today August 15: Gertrude Shipman

1880 (or 1878)-1960

Born in Pittsburgh on this day in 1878, Gertrude Shipman would become, if ever so briefly, an actress in early narrative films. Serveral sources cite that she actually started in films in 1909, the earliest film that I can find that she is credited with acting in dates from 1912: Camille. The three other film that she is known to have appeared in are: Arizona (1913), Checkers (1913) and The Price He Paid (1914), the last of these she had a starring role.  Prior to her work in films, she had been a stage actor. Shipman was married to silent era director Lawrence B. McGill; together they were parents of newspaper man and radio writer/producer Jerry McGill. After her husband's retirement from the film industry (he was eleven years her senior), the couple settled in Florida. They both died there, decades apart.  She is buried along side her husband, who preceded her in death by 32 years, in the Laurel Grove Cemetery, which is located in Waldo, Florida--a small town to the northeast of Gainesville in Alachua county.  

[photo: Find A Grave]

Find A Grave