- High school classmates with Sam Cooke.
- She used to work for United Airlines, and she continued working there even after she landed a role on The Jeffersons (1975). She did not quit until the sitcom became a success.
- Accepted "Funniest Woman of the Year" at The Commies on Comedy Central. (December 2003)
- Honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
- Since leaving television in 1990, Marla has been operating the Vision Theater Complex (which closed in 1997) and Marla's Memory Lane jazz supper club (which closed in 1997), both in Los Angeles.
- Younger sister of Susie Garrett.
- Graduated from Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago, Illinois, in 1949.
- Has three children: Angela Elayne Gibbs, Dorian Gibbs and Joseph Gibbs.
- Grandmother of Amil Gibbs.
- Great-grandmother of Sam Christian.
- A dog lover.
- With the encouragement of Norman Lear, she got her lead role of Mary Jenkins, on 227 (1985), because of her popularity on The Jeffersons (1975).
- Her parents were: Ophelia (née Kemp) Birdie, who was a business woman who owned a theater, a hotel, and a boarding home haberdashery, and Douglas Bradley, who was a self-taught mechanic who owned an ice company.
- Attended St. Elizabeth High School, in Chicago, Illinois, where she completed her freshman year and first semester of her sophomore year. During the middle of her sophomore year, she transferred to Wendell Phillips Academy High School, where she stayed both her sophomore and senior years, while attending Northern High School, for a semester, in Detroit, Michigan.
- Before she was a successful actress, she used to work at a men's factory, straightening up the zippers, while cutting the ribbons.
- Is one of the three actors to appear in every episode of 227 (1985).
- Childhood friends of: Della Reese and Nichelle Nichols.
- After Sherman Hemsley's death on July 24, 2012, she (along with) Berlinda Tolbert, who played Jenny Willis, are the only 2 surviving castmates of The Jeffersons (1975).
- She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Boulevard, in Hollywood, California, on July 20, 2021.
- A musical, movie and game show buff.
- Had always wanted to be an actress.
- Remains close friends with Jackée Harry, during and after 227 (1985).
- In the 1980s, she was the spokesperson for Accent Brand Seasoning.
- Composed the 227 (1985) theme song: "There's No Place Like Home".
- At age 32, Gibbs relocated from Detroit, Michigan, to Los Angeles, California, in 1963, to work as a flight attendant, before becoming an actress.
- Her favorite 227 (1985) episode was the one where Hal Williams's character was sick and was ringing the bell, and her character was tired of hearing it.
- Attended the Mafundi Institute in Los Angeles, California.
- Best known by the public for her role as Florence Johnston on The Jeffersons (1975) and for her starring role as Mary Jenkins on 227 (1985).
- She is of African-American, Haitian and German descent, along with Jamaican ancestry.
- Worked with Jackée Harry in production of four shows: 227 (1985), The First Family (2012), Forbidden Woman (2013) and Days of Our Lives (1965).
- Before she was a successful actress and comedienne, she did everything from working at a bookbinding company to a mail clerk in the mailroom.
- Her hobbies (over her long life) are: cooking, praying, sewing, reading the Bible, movies, playing tennis, traveling, singing, listening to jazz music, spending time with her family and acting.
- She was also inducted into The LaFemme Film Festival as Honorary Board Member in Los Angeles, California. [17 October 2010].
- Her personal favorite episodes of "The Jeffersons" are: Me and Billy Dee (1978) (where Billy Dee Williams kisses her) and Florence in Love (1976) (where she dresses in a Aunt Jemima costume).
- Was hospitalized with a brain aneurysm. [26 October 2006].
- Before she was a successful actress, she worked as a receptionist in a hotel in Detroit, Michigan.
- Had filled in for Zara Cully, for almost all of the third season of The Jeffersons (1975), due to Cully's hospitalization of pneumonia, caused by a collapsed lung. By the time Cully recuperated, she returned to the show, while Gibbs was away, before they promoted her, as a series regular, the following season, until Cully's death. Neither of them shared a scene, together.
- In the 2010s, she co-starred opposite Rita Moreno and Ellen Burstyn, in a pilot for NBC, that failed to be picked up as a series.
- Florence Johnston, her character from The Jeffersons (1975), reminded her of both her grandmother and aunt, and the people who were around her.
- Had quit her job as a reservations agent for United Airlines, to continue working on The Jeffersons (1975).
- She was reunited with her former 227 (1985) co-star, Regina King, to guest-star in the police drama, Southland (2009), where Gibbs played an unidentified grandmother who had been used by her charming granddaughter in finding clues all about her granny.
- In 1949, at age 18, she was evicted from her grandmother's house. Her grandmother wouldn't allow her to keep the dog in the house, so she had to move out.
- Mary Jenkins, Gibbs's secondary character on 227 (1985), whose traits were inherited from Florence Johnston's The Jeffersons (1975), a character she played a decade earlier.
- Met Hal Williams, on the set of The Jeffersons (1975), in 1977, for both episodes. On the first episode, he played a tall, handsome young schoolmate, whom George became really jealous and found out the man wanted more of Louise's relationship and on the second episode, he played a soap opera star, whom Florence dreamed of, when entering into a poem-writing contest. Williams later co-starred on 227 (1985), playing the role of Gibbs's husband. They remain friends.
- Has worked with Della Reese on in production of both shows: 227 (1985) and Touched by an Angel (1994).
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