Early in his life, his family moved to Pine Bluff, where they lived until Max was eight years of age. After Pine Bluff, they moved to St. Louis for about ten years, then to New York. It was in New York that Max got work as a photographer’s model and a newspaper vendor. He also began to get roles on stage, beginning in vaudeville. He worked with Edwin S. Porter as an actor and script writer. It was during this time that he took the stage name, Gilbert M. Anderson.

In the early days of motion pictures, there was no story involved in a film. A film may have lasted five minutes, showing people walking in and out a door or showing people playing in a park.

In 1903, Porter filmed the movie, The Great Train Robbery with Anderson cast to play three roles in the film. This film actually contained a story, with a plot, in which the good guy captured the bad guy at the end. When the film was released, Anderson was sitting quietly in the audience in an effort to judge his own work and to test the response of the audience. He was shocked! The audience loved the film! Following that, he started writing, directing and acting in his own western movies.

In 1907, he and George Spoor established Essanay (S&A) Studios, one of the industry's earliest. He acted in over 300 short films, playing a wide variety of characters, but he gained tremendous popularity as the world’s first cowboy star, Broncho Billy. He did 148 silent era movies as Broncho Billy.

Spoor ran the studio from his facilities in Chicago, while Anderson traveled the western states looking for good spots for filming western movies.

Even during the busiest time of his career, he found time to direct a series of comedy westerns called, Alkali Ike.

In 1912, Anderson opened Essanay Studio’s second location in Niles, California, an area in which Anderson frequently filmed western movies. From that location, Essenay produced a western movie every two weeks on average. In the process, many of Hollywood’s legendary stars worked for Essanay. Among them were Francis X Buchman, Charlie Chaplin and Gloria Swanson. In 1915, Anderson appeared with Charlie Chaplin in the movie, The Champion. The films starring Bushman, Chaplin and Anderson were making money for Essenay, but in time, the studio began to experience problems.

Charlie Chaplin was hired away from Essenay for substantially more money. Also, Anderson began to realize that the public wanted longer movies, more than the simple two-reelers produced by Essanay up to that point.

He discussed the possibility of producing longer movies, but Spoor did not want to invest money in the idea. In 1916, Anderson sold his interest in Essanay Studios and retired from acting. In the process, he signed a statement promising not to be involved in motion pictures for a period of two years. He bought the Longacre Theatre in New York City and produced plays with limited success.

After this time, he made a comeback as the producer of a series of shorts with comedian Stan Laurel. In 1919 he also met Oliver Hardy and produced a movie with him called, A Lucky Dog, which wasn‘t released until 1921. Arguments with the Metro Studio led him to retire again in 1920.

He became the owner of Progressive Pictures and produced movies into the 1950s.

In 1943, he sued Paramount Pictures over use of the name Bronco Billy in the movie, Star Spangled Rhythm, which was strikingly similar to his fictitious hero and ultimately him. In the movie, Bronco Billy was portrayed as a down-and-out has been.

He again retired during the fifties.

In 1958, Anderson was presented an Honorary Academy Award as a motion picture pioneer for his “contributions to the development of motion pictures as entertainment.”

At the age of eighty-five, he did a cameo appearance in the movie, The Bounty Killer, released in 1965.

On January 20, 1971, ninety-year-old Broncho Billy Anderson passed away at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. He was survived by his wife, Mollie Schabbleman and their daughter, Maxine. His remains were cremated and put in a vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California.