Lillian Gish

Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American pioneering actress of the screen and stage, and a director and writer. Her film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called “The First Lady of American Cinema,” and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. She was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1971 for her contribution to film and body of work.

She was a prominent film star from 1912 into the 1920s, being particularly associated with the films of director D.W. Griffith. This included her leading role in the highest-grossing film of the silent era, Griffith’s epic The Birth of a Nation (1915), which glorified the Ku Klux Klan, and his next epic Intolerance (1916), which was not successful at the time, but gained recognition later, becoming one of the first films to be selected for preservation by the Library of Congress (ahead of Birth of a Nation). Other notable films of the silent era included Henry King‘s Romola (1924), with Dorothy Gish, William Powell and Ronald Colman; and King Vidor‘s adaptation of La Bohème (1926), with John Gilbert.

At the dawn of the sound era, she returned to the stage and appeared in film infrequently, including well-known roles in Vidor’s controversial western Duel in the Sun (1946), with Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, and Lionel Barrymore, which earned her an Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress (her only nomination). Other films during this period included John Farrow‘s Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942), with Paul Muni, Anna Lee, Cedric Hardwicke, and Robert Coote; Charles Lamont’s Top Man (1942), with Donald O’Connor, Susanna Foster, Richard Dix, and Peggy Ryan; John Berry’s Mss Susie’s Single’s (1946), with Veronica Lake, Sonny Tufts, Joan Caulfield, and Lloyd Bridges; Vincente Minnelli‘s The Cobweb (1955), with Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer, and Gloria Grahame; and Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter (1955), with starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters.

She also did considerable television work from the early 1950s into the 1980s. Later film roles included John Huston‘s The Unforgiven (1960), with Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, and Charles Bickford; Peter Glenville’s The Comedians (1967), with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Alec Guinness, and Paul Ford; Robert Altman‘s A Wedding (1978), with Desi Arnaz, Jr., Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Vittorio Gassman, Mia Farrow, Geraldine Chaplin (daughter of Charlie Chaplin), Howard Duff, Nina Van Pallandt, Amy Stryker, and Pat McCormick; and Sweet Liberty (1986), with Alan Alda (who also directed), Michael Caine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins, Lois Chiles, Lise Hilboldt, and Larry Shue.

Her final film role was playing opposite Bette Davis in Lindsay Anderson’s The Whales of August (1987), which also featured Vincent Price, Ann Southern, Harry Carey Jr., and Mary Steenburgen. Her final professional appearance was a cameo on the 1988 studio recording of Jerome Kern’s Show Boat, starring Frederica von Stade and Jerry Hadley, in which she affectingly spoke the few lines of The Old Lady on the Levee in the final scene. The last words of her long career were: “Good night.” During her later years Gish became a dedicated advocate for the appreciation and preservation of silent film. Despite being better known for her film work, she was also an accomplished stage actress, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

Silent Era

An Unseen Enemy (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
Two Daughters of Eve (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
So Near, yet So Far (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
In the Aisles of the Wild (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The One She Loved (1912) – directed by D. W. Griffith – short
The Painted Lady (1912) – directed by D. W. Griffith – short – uncredited
The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) – directed by D. W. Griffith – short
Gold and Glitter (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith & Frank Powell – short
My Baby (1912) – short
The Informer (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short – undetermined secondary role
Brutality (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The New York Hat (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The Burglar’s Dilemma (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
A Cry for Help (1912) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
Oil and Water (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short – uncredited
The Unwelcome Guest (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short – uncredited
A Misunderstood Boy (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The Left-Handed Man (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The Lady and the Mouse (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The House of Darkness (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
Just Gold (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
A Timely Interception (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The Mothering Heart (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
An Indian’s Loyalty (1913) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short
During the Round-Up (1913) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short
A Woman in the Ultimate (1913) – directed by Dell Henderson – short
A Modest Hero (1913) – directed by Dell Henderson – short
So Runs the Way (1913) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short
Madonna of the Storm (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith short
The Conscience of Hassan Bey (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith & Christy Cabanne
The Little Tease (1913) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The Green-Eyed Devil (1914) – directed by James Kirkwood – short
Judith of Bethulia (1914) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
The Battle of the Sexes (1914) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short – incomplete/lost
The Hunchback (1914) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short
The Quicksands (1914) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short
Home, Sweet Home (1914) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short
Lord Chumley (1914) – directed by James Kirkwood – short
The Rebellion of Kitty Belle (1914) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short
The Angel of Contention (1914) – directed by John B. O’Brien – short
Man’s Enemy (1914) – directed by Frank Powell – short
The Tear That Burned (1914) – directed by Jack O’Brien – short
The Folly of Anne (1914) – directed by John B. O’Brien – short
The Sisters (1914) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short
The Birth of a Nation (1915) – directed by D.W. Griffith
The Lost House (1915) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short – lost
Enoch Arden (1915) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short
Captain Macklin (1915) – directed by John B. O’Brien – short – lost
The Lily and the Rose (1915) – directed by Paul Powell
Pathways of Life (1916) – directed by Christy Cabanne – short
Daphne and the Pirate (1916) – directed by Christy Cabanne
Sold for Marriage (1916) – directed by Christy Cabanne
An Innocent Magdalene (1916) – directed by Allan Dwan – lost
Intolerance (1916) – directed by D.W. Griffith
Diane of the Follies (1916) – directed by Christy Cabanne – lost
The Children Pay (1916) – directed by Lloyd Ingraham
The House Built Upon Sand (1916) – directed by Edward Morrissey – lost
Souls Triumphant (1917) – directed by John B. O’Brien – lost
Hearts of the World (1918) – directed by D.W. Griffith
The Great Love (1918) – directed by D.W. Griffith (as Captain Victor Marier) – lost
Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal (1918) – directed by D.W. Griffith – short – lost
The Greatest Thing in Life (1918) – directed by D.W. Griffith – lost
A Romance of Happy Valley (1919) – directed by D.W. Griffith
Broken Blossoms (1919) – directed by D.W. Griffith
True Heart Susie (1919) – directed by D.W. Griffith
The Greatest Question (1919) – directed by D.W. Griffith
Remodeling Her Husband (1920) – director only – lost
Way Down East (1920) – directed by D.W. Griffith
Orphans of the Storm (1921) – directed by D.W. Griffith
The White Sister (1923) – directed by Henry King
Romola (1924) – directed by Henry King
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) – directed by Fred Niblo – uncredited cameo
La Bohème (1926) – directed by King Vidor
The Scarlet Letter (1926) – directed by Victor Sjöström
Annie Laurie (1927) – directed by John S. Robertson
The Enemy (1927) – directed by Fred Niblo – partially lost
The Wind (1928) – directed by Victor Sjöström

Sound Era

One Romantic Night (1930) – directed by Paul L. Stein
His Double Life (1933) – directed by Arthur Hopkins
Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) – directed by John Farrow
Top Man (1943) – directed by Charles Lamont – aka Man of the Family
Miss Susie Slagle’s (1946) – directed by John Berry
Duel in the Sun (1946) – directed by King Vidor
Portrait of Jennie (1948) – directed by William Dieterle
The Cobweb (1955) – directed by Vincente Minnelli
Night of the Hunter (1955) – directed by Charles Laughton
Orders to Kill (1958) – directed by Anthony Asquith
The Unforgiven (1960) – directed by John Huston
Follow Me, Boys! (1966) – directed by Norman Tokar
Warning Shot (1967) – directed by Buzz Kulik
The Comedians (1967) – directed by Peter Glenville
Arsenic and Old Lace (1969) – directed by Robert Scheerer – TV movie
Twin Detectives (1976) – directed by Robert Day – TV movie
A Wedding (1978) – directed by Robert Altman
Sparrow (1978) – directed by John Berry (as Stuart Hoffman) – TV movie – pilot to series created by Larry Cohen that was never picked up
Thin Ice (1981) – directed by Paul Aaron – TV movie
Hobson’s Choice (1983) – directed by Gilbert Gates – TV movie
Hambone and Hillie (1983) – directed by Roy Watts
Sweet Liberty (1986) – directed by Alan Alda
The Whales of August (1987) – directed by Lindsay Anderson

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