Fred Hibbard

Who was Fred Hibbard?

Fred Hibbard was a film director, screenwriter and producer of the silent era. He directed 104 films between 1916 and 1925. He also wrote for 61 films between 1918 and 1925.

As Freddy Fischbach, he began his screen career as a cameraman at Mack Sennett's Keystone studio, where he worked with comedy star Roscoe Arbuckle. Sennett promoted Fischbach to director, with his surname Americanized to Fred Fishback.

Anyone with Keystone credentials was welcomed by lesser comedy studios, and Fishback secured a job directing comedy shorts for Universal Pictures, many of them featuring former Keystone and Hal Roach bit player Lige Conley.

In 1921 Fishback was involved in the famous sex scandal surrounding his friend Roscoe Arbuckle. Arbuckle hosted a party in San Francisco that got out of hand, and Fishback was a member of Arbuckle's coterie. Both Arbuckle and Fishback had to change their professional names to keep working as the notoriety subsided. Performer Arbuckle became director William Goodrich, and Fishback adopted the pseudonym Fred Hibbard.

Both Arbuckle and Hibbard were hired to direct at Educational Pictures. Hibbard, reunited with Lige Conley, helped to develop Conley into a comedy star in a lengthy series of slapstick short subjects. Hibbard also directed one of Educational's leading comedians, Lloyd Hamilton. Hibbard died at the age of 30; his last films were released posthumously.