This Actress Survived The Sinking Of The Titanic — And It Helped Her Win The Perfect Movie Role

The “unsinkable” Titanic lurches sickeningly as it smashes into a massive iceberg. It’s near midnight, and soon the ship will break in two before sinking to the bottom of the icy Atlantic. But there are survivors. One is the movie actress Dorothy Gibson, who is lucky enough to make it onto a lifeboat. And her harrowing true tale will soon help her win a very fitting movie role.

A titanic start

Gibson was on board the Titanic along with her mother Pauline. The two Americans had sailed to Europe in March 1912 for a vacation after Gibson had finished filming several movies. Then a cable arrived from the producer Jules Brulatour of the Eclair Moving Picture Company. The actress and her mother were in Italy at this point, but there was no time to wait for their return.

Conflict of interest

Brulatour’s message told Gibson that he’d secured her a multi-picture deal. He also asked her to come back to the States. The producer obviously had a professional relationship with Gibson, but there was more to it than that. The two were lovers, although Brulatour was almost 20 years Gibson’s senior — and married. Perhaps he had more than one reason to want her back in America...

What could go wrong?

So, Gibson and her mother traveled to Paris and booked tickets to sail across the Atlantic on the Titanic. The ship had set off from Southampton, England, at noon on April 10, 1912. Although her ultimate destination was New York City, the liner had a couple of stop-offs to make on the way in France and Ireland.

Time to board

The Titanic arrived at Cherbourg — a busy French port — at 6:30 p.m. that Wednesday. The two Gibsons boarded the ill-fated luxury liner that evening, and she sailed just after 8:00 p.m. Then the ship docked for what would be the last time at Queenstown in Ireland — now called Cobh — on the Thursday morning.