Squat, light-haired veteran character player who became a child star on stage in the early 1940s and has been a familiar face in film and TV since the 1960s. With his diminutive physique, often sad or reproachful eyes, and a generally wounded manner, Gibson excelled at playing ineffectual authority figures, colorful oddballs, and "sad sacks". An original ensemble member of the landmark TV comedy variety series "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" from 1968 to 1971, he often appeared as a gentle poet clutching a daisy. Gibson won his greatest acclaim in Robert Altman's "Nashville" (1975) as the haughty C & W singer Haven Hamilton who proclaims the glories of America. Gibson has appeared in several other Altman films including "The Long Goodbye" (1973) playing a sinister psychiatrist, "A Perfect Couple" (1979), and "Health" (1980). His distinctive voice has also turned up in a number of animated children's series and memorably on screen as Wilbur the pig in "Charlotte's Web" (1972). Quirky genre master Joe Dante has featured Gibson in several films including "Innerspace" (1987), "The Burbs" (1989), and "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" (1990). He was also memorable in John Landis' "The Blues Brothers" (1980) as the leader of the Illinois Nazi Party, as a radio personality in "Tune in Tomorrow..." (1990), and in the ensemble of Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" (1999).

Gibson remained a fixture on network television with guest stints on scores of series, including "Bewitched," "Love American Style," "Wonder Woman," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "Fantasy Island," "Magnum, P.I.," "Newhart," "Murder, She Wrote," "Mad About You," "Sisters," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Charmed." He also enjoyed a season on the daytime drama "Sunset Beach" and was particularly effective in a recurring turn as the stern, often unreasonable judge Clark Brown on the legal drama "Boston Legal."