Edna Hibbard was a stage

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 and motion picture actress from California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. She had a sharp tongue and was known for her roles in comedy.

Theatrical prominence

She made her stage debut in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...

 in 1907 as the child in The Kreutzer Sonata

The Kreutzer Sonata

The Kreutzer Sonata is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1889 and promptly censored by the Russian authorities. The work is an argument for the ideal of sexual abstinence and an in-depth first-person description of jealous rage...

. Hibbard trained with the Poli Stock Company in Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...

 and Washington, DC. Soon she performed in Officer 666, Ready Money, and Stop Thief. She spent a year in vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 with Lynne Overman

Lynne Overman

Lynne Overman was a film actor in the 1930s and early-1940s who often played a sidekick.-Selected filmography:* Dixie * The Desert Song * The Forest Rangers...

 in a rendition of The Highest Bidder.

Hibbard first came to theatrical prominence as the ingenue

Ingenue (stock character)

See also Disingenuous, which is not quite the antonym that it may seem!The ingénue is a stock character in literature, film, and a role type in the theatre; generally a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome. Ingenue may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in...

 lead in Rock-a-Bye Baby in 1918. The play was staged at the Rialto Theater

Rialto Theater

Rialto Theatre may refer to:in Canada*Rialto Theatre , a former theatre that is a National Historic Site of Canada*Rialto Theatre , 1943-1991; demolished 1991, within one year of acquisition by Cineplex Odeon and renaming as "The Phoenix"...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 with the ingenue role being the primary part in the cast. She graduated from drama school in New York before being sent to train under the Selwyns. The New York Times described Hibbard as a combination of Madge Kennedy

Madge Kennedy

Madge Kennedy was a movie and stage actress of the silent film era....

 and Marguerite Clark

Marguerite Clark

Marguerite Clark was an American stage and silent film actress.-Early life and theater:Born to a farming family in Avondale, Cincinnati, Ohio, Clark was educated at a Roman Catholic boarding school in Cincinnati...

 in appearance.

One of her best received roles was chorus girl, Dot Miller, in Ladies of the Evening, performed at the Lyceum Theater in 1924. Two years after she gained critical acclaim as the brunette partner of Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She made her London, England debut in the same part in 1928. Hibbard played the role of Ethel Brooks at the Belasco Theater in September 1929 in a production of The Door Between. Her final Broadway (Manhattan) appearance was in December 1932 at the Belasco Theater. She played Lulu Corliss in Anybody's Game.

Marriage and death

Edna Hibbard died in 1942 at Mother Cabrini Hospital, 611 Edgecombe Avenue, New York City, at the age of 47. She was married to Lester Bryant at the time of her death. An earlier husband was John C. Seager, Jr., Treasurer of the Seager Steamship Company.