Our Next Celebs? Patrick & Anna Gibbons are Rising Actors in Our Midst
Patrick’s acting head shot
Over the years, Seven Mile Beach has become a premier destination for the rich and famous. We have seen the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, Pink, John Oliver, Ron Jaworski, Dave Matthews, Ed McMahon and many more.
We might get to add another star to the list pretty soon: Patrick Gibbons Jr.
Gibbons, 13, and his sister Anna, 22, of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., have been coming to Avalon for the summer since their family bought a shore house five years ago. They also have been spending time in Hollywood, working as actors on the sets of daytime soap operas “One Life to Live” and “General Hospital.” Gibbons was recently featured in a four page spread in Soap Digest, and things are looking promising for this cheerful young actor’s career.
Meeting with Patrick Gibbons, I could tell he was special. He is just one of those kids who makes you smile. Charming and delightful, he seemed to carry himself with a poised demeanor and professional attitude not normally found in people his age.
His acting career started unintentionally at the age of 5, when he was discovered in the waiting room by an agent during one of his sister’s auditions.
“Initially we weren’t interested in getting Patrick into acting,” his father says, “but the agent begged us to have him read, and he ended up landing a part on ‘One Life to Live,’ beating out 150 other kids.”
Apparently, the deciding factor was that the final 10 candidates were put in a room with cartoons on the TV, and Gibbons was the only one who kept his focus on the casting agent.
Gibbons stayed on the show for three seasons as the character Sam Manning. Now at age 13, he landed another arc (mini story across episodes within the show) on “General Hospital.” Executive producer Frank Valentini, who took over “General Hospital” in 2012 after leaving “One Life to Live,” had brought in Gibbons the first time, and was the one who personally called to invite him to do the role of Wyatt Hoover.
Gibbons was happy to reunite with former castmates Roger Howarth and Michael Easton on the set and he even had the opportunity to meet John Stamos (whose breakout role was as Blackie on “GH”).
He says Stamos “was really nice. He was kind of shy, and said he thought I was a good actor, and was sort of acting like I was the famous person when we were talking.”
Gibbons is a big fan of “Fuller House,” and Stamos mentioned that he might try to get him a role on the show.
“Whenever I leave the set, I always take the long way out because I don’t want to leave,” Gibbons says, “and Stamos said he used to do the same thing when he was younger.”
Both Patrick and Anna Gibbons are passionate about acting and want to make it their career. Anna is in her senior year of a nursing program at Penn State, but acting is her priority. She spent the summer in Los Angeles this year and worked as a reoccurring background nurse character on “General Hospital” but didn’t have any speaking lines.
“Just being on set is a great experience. It is all about making connections and gaining exposure,” she says.
In today’s world it is important to have a web presence, so Anna actively runs her own YouTube channel and Instagram vlogs. Patrick attends St. Philip Neri School in Lafayette Hill, Pa., and hopes to attend St. Joseph’s Prep for high school next year. “Their performing arts program is among the best in the nation,” his father says.
When the young thespians are not busy with acting or school, they love spending time at the beach.
“I love to play with my friends when I am at the beach,” Gibbons says. “My favorite things to do are go boogie boarding or tubing behind the boat. The other day I had a big wipeout,” he adds with a huge smile.
Patrick’s other loves are playing ice hockey and baseball. He also is learning the guitar and taking singing lessons. If he couldn’t be an actor, his next dream job would be to play professional sports.
Anna had just arrived from her summer in LA and skipped going home to Plymouth Meeting to come straight to Avalon.
“I love LA because it is home of the film business,” she says, “but the Santa Monica beach cannot compare to the beaches in Avalon.”
Currently, the Gibbon siblings are in the market for new representation and are actively auditioning for roles. Nowadays, the studios send “sides,” which are script lines from the movie that you have to film yourself reciting and send back to the casting agency. Only rarely, or if you make a final cut, do you go in person anymore. Patrick made it to the final round of casting for the latest “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” movie but just missed landing the part. He has also come close a few other times and is super close to catching his big break. A strong agent will definitely help.
The Gibbonses both have bright futures in the acting world. Maybe one day you will see them side by side with Stamos on an episode of “Fuller House.” Maybe one of them will become the next big star to come from the Philadelphia area. A level head and a big smile can get you far in life, and both of them have what it takes to make it far.
Avalon might have to start its own “Hollywood Stars” on the sidewalks of Dune Drive, and there might need to be two with the name “Gibbons.”
