Born Edmund Richard Gibson in Tekamah, Nebraska, he learned to ride a horse while still a very young boy. His family moved to California when he was seven years old. As a teenager, he worked with horses on a ranch, which led to competition on bucking broncos at area rodeos.\n', '

Given the nickname "Hoot Owl" by co-workers, the name evolved to just "Hoot". (Michael Wallis\' book, The Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West, says that Gibson "picked up the nickname \'Hoot\' while working as a bicycle messenger for Owl Drug Company." Dan L. Thrapp\'s Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography says that Gibson "is said to have been nicknamed because he once hunted owls in a cave.")\n', '

In 1910, film director Francis Boggs was looking for experienced cowboys to appear in his silent film Pride of the Range. Gibson and Tom Mix, another future star of Western films, were hired. Gibson made a second film for Boggs in 1911. After a deranged employee killed Boggs, director Jack Conway hired Gibson to appear in his 1912 Western His Only Son.[citation needed]\n', '

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