ONE OF OVER 2,208 PASSENGER & CREW STORIES - DOROTHY WINIFRED GIBSON, BORN MAY 17, 1889

In the first movie ever made about Titanic, Dorothy Gibson played herself. Before taking the trip to Europe with her mother in 1912, the original “Harrison Fisher Girl” had enjoyed success as a silent-screen actress. Known for her all-American, demure good looks, Dorothy actually led a steamy romantic life and was involved with a married man named Jules Brulatour. Because he was involved in and influential to Dorothy’s career opportunities, he insisted that she cut her vacation short and return to New York as a first-class passenger on Titanic.

When Titanic struck the iceberg, Dorothy remembered hearing “a long-drawn sickening crunch.” She and her mother entered a lifeboat. At her insistence, several male first-class passengers were also allowed to accompany her. In ensuing years they credited her with saving their lives.
Dorothy eventually married Jules Brulatour but the marriage was short-lived and stormy. Later, she and her mother lived almost continuously in Europe and during World War II was an alleged Nazi sympathizer and intelligence operative. She renounced her involvement by 1944, switching her allegiance to the resistance movement.

Soon after returning to France, Dorothy died of a heart attack in her apartment at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. She was only 56. Dorothy was buried at Saint Germain-en-laye Cemetery.