Kent Gibson, an Emmy-winning producer and sound designer, died Oct. 23 in hospice care in Seattle after a struggle with dementia, his friend Susan Lenti told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 77.
Gibson received his Emmy in 1981 for his work as a sound designer and re-recording mixer on the PBS miniseries Cosmos, co-written and presented by astronomer Carl Sagan, and he landed another nom for his work on the 1996 TBS miniseries America’s Music: The Roots of Country.
Later, he scored a News and Documentary Emmy nomination for executive producing the 2003 A&E telefilm Cosmic Journey: The Voyager Interstellar Mission and Message as president of Cosmos Studios (he served in that role from 1998-2006).
Gibson also handled postproduction audio for Olivia Newton-John’s music video for “Let’s Get Physical” in 1982 and worked on projects involving other musical acts including Bing Crosby, John Lennon, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart and Huey Lewis and the News.
Born in New Orleans in July 1948, William Kent Gibson earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1970 and his master’s from Stanford University film school in 1974.
His other credits included work on episodes of Nova and American Experience for PBS; the telefilm Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire; Charlton Heston Presents the Bible; Ernie Kovacs: Television’s Original Genius; Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre; and The History of Sex.
He was a founding partner of Rosebud Films, owner of a company called Soundesign and a forensic audio, video and facial-recognition expert.
Survivors include his sister, Linda, and his nephew, Jason. His husband, Millard Tipp, died in 2012 at age 79.
