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| Birth Name(s) : Lillian Diana de Guiche |
Date of Birth: October 14, 1893 |
| Status:
N/A
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| Profession:
Actor |
Official Site
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Full Lillian Gish Biography
Lillian Gish was born under the birth name of Lillian de Guiche on October 14, 1893 in Springfield, Ohio or Northern Kentucky, depending on which source you believe. Her father was an alcoholic who caroused around, rarely at home, leaving the family to more or less to fend for themselves. To help make ends meet, Lillian, her sister Dorothy, and their mother tried their hand at acting in local productions.
Lillian was all of six years old when she first appeared in front of an audience. For the next 13 years, Lillian and Dorothy appeared before stage audiences with great success. Actually, had she not made her way into films, Lillian quite possibly could have been one of the great stage actresses of all time. But ultimately, she found her way onto the silver screen.
In 1912, Lillian met the famed director from Kentucky, D.W. Griffith. Impressed with what he saw, he immediately cast her in what was to be her first film, AN UNSEEN ENEMY followed by THE ONE SHE LOVED and MY BABY. She would make twelve films for Griffith in 1912, with many more on the horizon.
With 25 films in the next two years, Lillian's exposure to the public was so great that she fast became one of the top stars in the industry right alongside, Mary Pickford, America's Sweetheart.
In 1915, Lillian starred as Elsie Stoneman in Griffith's most ambitious project to date, THE BIRTH OF A NATION. She wasn't making a large number of films that she had in the beginning, because she was successful and popular enough to be able to pick and choose the right films to appear in. The following year, Lillian appeared in another Griffith classic, INTOLERANCE.
By the early twenties she was on her way down. As in anything else, be it sports or politics, new faces appeared on the scene to replace the "old". Lillian was no different. As a matter of fact, she didn't appear at all on the silver screen in 1922, 1925, or 1929. In fact, 1926 was her busiest of the decade with roles in LA BOHEME and THE SCARLET LETTER.
As the decade wound to a close, sound motion pictures was replacing the silent ones. This wasn't to say that Lillian was idle during her time away from the silver screen. She appeared in stage productions to the rave of the public and critics alike.
After filming HIS DOUBLE LIFE in 1933, Lillian was away from celluloid for ten years. When she did return in 1943, she played in two big screen films, COMMANDOS STRIKE AT DAWN and TOP MAN. It was as though she had never been away. Although she would not garner the attention she had in her early career, Lillian still proved she could hold her own with the best of them. As a matter of fact, she did get an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role of Laura Belle McCanles in DUEL IN THE SUN released in 1946. She lost to Anne Baxter in THE RAZOR'S EDGE.
Throughout the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties, Lillian would, from time to time, appear in movies both theatrical and television. One of the best was in 1955's THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. In 1969, Lillian published her autobiography, "The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me".
In 1987, she made what was to be her last motion picture, entitled THE WHALES OF AUGUST. From 1912 to 1987, films involving Lillian Gish would come to symbolize quality. Her work record of 75 years is almost unbeatable in any field.
On February 27, 1993, Lillian died peacefully in her sleep in New York City. She was 99 years old. |
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Additional Lillian Gish Biography
The American Film Institute (AFI) named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of all time. She was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1971, and in 1984 she received an AFI Life Achievement Award.
In addition to her latter-day acting appearances, Gish became one of the leading advocates on the lost art of the silent film, often giving speeches and touring to screenings of classic works. In 1975 she hosted The Silent Years, a PBS film program of silent films.
Gish received a Special Academy Award in 1971 "For superlative artistry and for distinguished contribution to the progress of motion pictures." In 1984 she received an American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, becoming only the second female recipient (Bette Davis was first in 1977), and the only recipient who was a major figure in the silent era. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1720 Vine Street.
Some in the entertainment industry were angry that Gish had not received an Oscar nomination for her role in The Whales of August, despite the fact that it was obviously her swan song. Gish, herself, was more complacent, remarking that it saved her the trouble of "losing to Cher" (who did, in fact, win the Oscar for her performance in Moonstruck). Ironically enough, Cher's then-boyfriend, Rob Camiletti, confided to a friend before the nominations were announced that, while Cher deserved to win the Oscar, she didn't have a chance of winning because the Academy would inevitably give it to Lillian Gish.
The association between Gish and Griffith was so close that some suspected a romantic connection, an issue never acknowledged by Gish although several of their associates were certain they were at least briefly involved. For the remainder of her life she always referred to him as "Mr. Griffith".
During the period of political turmoil in the United States that lasted from the outbreak of World War II in Europe until the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was unable to find work in Hollywood due to being blacklisted for her outspoken non-interventionist stance. She was an active member of the America First Committee, a controversial anti-intervention organization founded by retired General Robert E. Wood with aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh as its leading spokesman.
She died in her sleep on February 27, 1993 as a result of heart failure aged 99. Her estate, which she left to Helen Hayes, who died a month later, was valued at several million dollars, and went to provide prizes for artistic excellence.
SILENT
- An Unseen Enemy (1912)
- Two Daughters of Eve (1912)
- So Near, Yet So Far (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)
- Brutality (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)
- Madonna of the Storm (1913)
- The Blue or the Gray (1913)
- The Conscience of Hassan Bey (1913)
- Just Kids (1913)
- The Stolen Bride (1913)
- The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913)
- A Duel For Love (1914)
- The Green-Eyed Devil (1914)
- Judith of Bethulia (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)
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) |
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Lillian Gish Quote(s)
| I never approved of talkies. Silent movies were well on their way to developing an entirely new art form. It was not just pantomine, but something wonderfully expressive. |
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