Profile of Lillian Gish on Famous Like Me

Lillian Diana de Guiche (October 14, 1893 - February 27, 1993), was an American actress known as Lillian Gish. Born in Springfield, Ohio, she was the elder sister of actress Dorothy Gish.

The Gish sisters' mother, Mary Robinson McConnell (an Episcopalian), began acting in order to support the family after her husband, James Leigh Gish (who was of German Lutheran descent), abandoned them. When Lillian and Dorothy were old enough, they joined her act. They also took modeling jobs. In 1912, their friend Mary Pickford introduced the sisters to D.W. Griffith, and she got them contracts with Biograph Studios. Their first role was in Griffith's short film An Unseen Enemy. Lillian went on to star in many of Griffith's most acclaimed films, among these The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms, Way Down East, and Orphans of the Storm. Although Lillian never married, the Gish-Griffith association was so close that it was suspected that Lillian was Griffith's lover, though the evidence is circumstantial at best. Alleged relationships were affairs with Charles Duell, a producer, to whom Lillian was reportedly engaged, and the drama critic and editor George Jean Nathan, although Gish was posthumously outed as a lesbian in several books, including one by Boze Hadleigh called Hollywood Lesbians (1996), and another by Axel Madsen titled The Hollywood Sewing Circle (2002).

Having appeared in over 25 short films and features in her first two years as a movie actress, Lillian became a major star, becoming known as "The First Lady of the Silent Screen". Preferring silent movies, she spurned talkies until MGM finally let her go from her contract in 1928. She acted on the stage for the most part in the 1930s and early 1940s, preferring to care for the aging Griffith and his wife in their later years.

Returning to movies, Gish was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1946 for Duel in the Sun. She appeared in films from time to time for the rest of her life, in 1971 winning a special Academy Award "For superlative artistry and for distinguished contribution to the progress of motion pictures." In 1984 she received an American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1720 Vine Street.

Her last film role was in The Whales of August in 1987 at the age of 93, with Vincent Price, Bette Davis, who was dying of cancer and behaving badly, if understandably, and Ann Sothern, who earned her only Academy Award nomination for her final film performance. Amazingly, and to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' permanent dishonor, Gish was not even nominated for an Academy Award for what was obviously her swan song, to which she replied with equanimity: "At least I won't have to lose to Cher." (Cher did win that year, for Moonstruck)

The main street in Massillon, Ohio is named after Gish, who had lived there during an early period of her life.

Her estate, which she left to her fellow actress and friend Helen Hayes, who died a month later, was valued at several million dollars, and went to provide prizes for artistic excellence.

She was interred beside her sister Dorothy in Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church columbarium in the undercroft of the church, New York City.

Filmography

SILENT

• An Unseen Enemy (1912)
• Two Daughters of Eve (1912)
• In the Aisles of the Wild (1912)
• The One She Loved (1912)
• The Painted Lady (1912)
• The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
• Gold and Glitter (1912)
• My Baby (1912)
• The Informer (1912)
• The New York Hat (1912)
• The Burglar’s Dilemma (1912)
• A Cry for Help (1912)
• Oil and Water (1913)
• The Unwelcome Guest (1913)
• A Misunderstood Boy (1913)
• The Left-Handed Man (1913)
• The Lady and the Mouse (1913)
• A Timely Interception (1913)
• The House of Darkness (1913)
• Just Gold (1913)
• The Mothering Heart (1913)
• During the Round-Up (1913)
• An Indian’s Loyalty (1913)
• A Woman in the Ultimate (1913)
• A Modest Hero (1913)
• So Runs the Way (1913)
• The Madonna of the Storm (1913)
• The Blue or the Gray (1913)
• The Conscience of Hassan Bey (1913)
• Just Kids (1913)
• The Stolen Bride (1913)
• Judith of Bethulia (1914)
• The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1914)
• The Green-Eyed Devil (1914)
• The Hunchback (1914)
• The Quicksands (1914)
• The Battle of the Sexes (1914)
• Silent Sandy (1914)
• The Rebellion of Kitty Belle (1914)
• Man’s Enemy (1914)
• The Angel of Contention (1914)
• The Tear That Burned (1914)
• The Folly of Anne (1914)
• Men and Women (1914)
• The Sisters (1914)
• Home Sweet Home (1914)
• The Escape (1914)
• Lord Chumley (1914)
• The Birth of a Nation (1915)
• His Lesson (1915)
• The Lost House (1915)
• Enoch Arden (1915)
• Captain Macklin (1915)
• The Lily and the Rose (1915)
• Pathways of Life (1916)
• Daphne and the Pirate (1916)
• Sold for Marriage (1916)
• An Innocent Magdalene (1916)
• Intolerance (1916)
• Diane of the Follies (1916)
• The Children Pay (1916)
• A House Built Upon Sand (1916)
• Souls Triumphant (1917)
• Hearts of the World (1918)
• The Great Love (1918)
• Liberty Bond (1918)
• United States Fourth Liberty Loan Drive (1918)
• Canadian Victory Loan Drive (1918)
• The Greatest Thing in Life (1918)
• A Romance of Happy Valley (1919)
• Broken Blossoms (1919)
• True Heart Susie (1919)
• The Greatest Question (1919)
• Way Down East (1920)
• Orphans of the Storm (1921)
• The White Sister (1923)
• Romola (1924)
• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) (uncredited extra)
• La Bohème (1926)
• The Scarlet Letter (1926)
• Annie Laurie (1927)
• The Enemy (1927)
• The Wind (1928)

POST-SILENT

• One Romantic Night (aka The Swan) (1930)
• His Double Life (1933)
• Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942)
• Top Man (aka Man of The Family) (1943)
• Miss Susie Slagle's (1946)
• Duel in the Sun (1946)
• Portrait of Jennie (aka Tidal Wave) (1948)
• The Trip to Bountiful (1953) (TV)
• Film Fun (1955) (uncredited)
• The Cobweb (1955)
• The Night of the Hunter (1955)
• Orders to Kill (1958)
• The Unforgiven (1960)
• Follow Me, Boys! (1966)
• Warning Shot (1967)
• The Comedians (1967)
• Arsenic and Old Lace (1969) (TV)
• Twin Detectives (1976) (TV)
• Sparrow (1978) (TV)
• A Wedding (1978)
• Thin Ice (1981) (TV)
• Hobson's Choice (1983) (TV)
• Hambone and Hillie (1984)
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1985) (TV)
• Sweet Liberty (1986)
• The Whales of August (1987)

Books

Autobiographical:

• The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me (with Ann Pinchot) (Prentice-Hall, 1969)

• Dorothy and Lillian Gish (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973)

• An Actor's Life For Me (with Selma G. Lanes) (Viking Penguin, 1987)

Biographical & Other:

• Lillian Gish an Interpretation - Edward Wagenknecht (University of Washington, 1927)

• Life and Lillian Gish - Albert Bigelow Paine (Macmillan, 1932)

• Star Acting - Gish, Garbo, Davis - Charles Affron (E.P. Dutton, 1977)

• A Moment with Miss Gish - Peter Bogdanovich (Santa Teresa Press, 1995)

• Lillian Gish A Life on Stage and Screen - Stuart Oderman (McFarland & Company, 2000)

• Lillian Gish Her Legend, Her Life - Charles Affron (Scribner, 2001)

Documentaries about Lillian Gish

• Gish's life is documented in Terry Sanders' 1988 documentary Lillian Gish: An Actor's Life for Me.

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