Gish, Lillian Diana

▪ 1994

      U.S. actress (b. Oct. 14, 1893, Springfield, Ohio—d. Feb. 27, 1993, New York, N.Y.), was a fragile beauty whose film heroines projected a waiflike vulnerability and virginal innocence that was belied by an indomitable spirit; her dramatic and masterful use of gestures and her expressive eyes earned her accolades as "the First Lady of the Silent Screen." Gish, who made her stage debut at the age of five, was billed as Baby Lillian. Both she and her younger sister, Dorothy, were child stars, and the two made their bow with their mother in the film An Unseen Enemy the same day that their friend Gladys Smith (Mary Pickford) secured them bit roles with director D.W. Griffith. Gish vaulted to stardom when she was given the lead role of Elsie Stoneman in Griffith's box-office smash hit The Birth of a Nation (1915), which was followed by another blockbuster, Intolerance (1916). She became famous for her heartrending interpretations in such sentimental Griffith melodramas as Hearts of the World (1918), Broken Blossoms (1919), True Heart Susie (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1922), the latter with her sister, whom she had directed in Remodeling Her Husband (1920). After amicably leaving Griffith she made The White Sister (1923) for Inspiration Films before joining MGM. There she made some of her best films, including La Bohème (1926), under the direction of King Vidor, and The Scarlet Letter (1926) and The Wind (1928), both with the Swedish director Victor Sjöström. Gish returned to the New York stage and appeared in such plays as Camille, Uncle Vanya, Life with Father, and The Chalk Garden before making her talkie debut in One Romantic Night (1930) and starring in her last screen lead in His Double Life (1933). She earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Duel in the Sun (1947), and went on to appear in such films as Portrait of Jennie (1949), The Cobweb (1955), and The Night of the Hunter (1955). Her enduring career included such television films as The Day Lincoln Was Shot, The Sound and the Fury, and Arsenic and Old Lace, with Helen Hayes (q.v.). Gish made her final Broadway appearance in A Musical Jubilee (1975) and her last film appearance in The Whales of August (1987). She published two volumes of memoirs, Life and Lillian Gish (1932) and The Movies, Mr. Griffith & Me (1969). Gish received a special Academy Award in 1970 for her "superlative artistry," Kennedy Center honours in 1982, and a lifetime achievement tribute in 1984 from the American Film Institute.

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