Lillian Gish

Lillian Gish

Lillian Gish, 1921
Born Lillian Diana Gish
October 14, 1893(1893-10-14)
Springfield, Ohio, U.S.
Died February 27, 1993(1993-02-27) (aged 99)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1912–1987
Website
http://www.lilliangish.com/index.php

Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993)[1] was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987.

She was a prominent film star of the 1910s and 1920s, particularly associated with the films of director D.W. Griffith, including her leading role in Griffith's seminal Birth of a Nation (1915). Her sound-era film appearances were sporadic, but included memorable roles in the controversial western Duel in the Sun (1946) and the offbeat thriller Night of the Hunter (1955). She did considerable television work from the early 1950s into the 1980s, and closed her career playing, for the first time, opposite Bette Davis in the 1987 film, The Whales of August.

The American Film Institute (AFI) named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of all time.[2] She was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1971, and in 1984 she received an AFI Life Achievement Award.[3]

Contents

Early life

Lillian Diana Gish was born in Springfield, Ohio, the elder sister of actress Dorothy Gish. Their 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 the family.[4] When Lillian and Dorothy were old enough, they joined the theatre, often traveling separately in different productions. They also took modeling jobs.

In 1912, their friend Mary Pickford introduced the sisters to D. W. Griffith, and helped get them contracts with Biograph Studios. Lillian Gish would soon become one of America's best-loved actresses. Although she was already nineteen, she gave her age as 16 to the studio.[5]

Career

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, including The Birth of a Nation (as Elsie), Intolerance, Broken Blossoms, Way Down East and Orphans of the Storm. One of the enduring images of Gish's silent film years is the climax of the melodramatic Way Down East (1920), in which Gish's character floats unconscious on an ice floe towards a raging waterfall, her long hair trailing in the water.

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" and appearing in lavish productions, frequently of literary works such as The Scarlet Letter. MGM released her from her contract in 1928 after the failure of The Wind, now recognized by many as among her finest performances and one of the most distinguished works of the late silent period.

She directed one film, Remodeling Her Husband, when D. W. Griffith took his unit on location—he told Gish that he thought the crew would work harder for a girl. Gish apparently preferred to remain in front of the camera rather than behind it, since she never directed again. She told reporters at the time that directing was a man's job.[6]

With her debut in talkies only moderately successful, she acted on the stage for the most part in the 1930s and early 1940s, appearing in roles as varied as Ophelia in Guthrie McClintic's landmark 1936 production of Hamlet (with John Gielgud and Judith Anderson) and Marguerite in a limited run of La Dame aux Camélias. Of the former, she said, with pride, "I played a lewd Ophelia!".

Lillian Gish as Anna Moore in D. W. Griffith's film Way Down East (1920)

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, notably in Night of the Hunter as a rural guardian angel protecting her charges from a murderous preacher (Robert Mitchum). She was considered for various roles in Gone with the Wind ranging from Ellen O'Hara, Scarlett's mother, which went to Barbara O'Neil,[7] to the role of the disgraced prostitute, Belle Watling, which went to Ona Munson.

Gish made numerous television appearances from the early 1950s into the late 1980s. Her most acclaimed television work was starring in the original production of The Trip to Bountiful in 1953. She appeared as Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in the short-lived 1965 Broadway musical Anya. 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 in 1973

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.

Her last film role was in The Whales of August in 1987 at the age of 93, with Vincent Price, Bette Davis and Ann Sothern, in which she and Davis starred as elderly sisters in Maine. 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 near century-spanning career: "Good night, dear."

Some in the entertainment industry were angry that Gish had not received an Oscar nomination for her role in The Whales of August. Gish herself was more complacent, remarking that it saved her the trouble of "losing to Cher" (who did, in fact, win for her performance in Moonstruck).

Personal life

Lillian and her sister Dorothy

Lillian Gish never married nor had children. The association between Gish and D. W. 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".

She was involved with Charles Duell (a producer) and the drama critic and editor George Jean Nathan. Gish's association with Duell was something of a tabloid scandal in the 1920s after he sued her and made the details of their relationship public.[8]

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 maintained an outspoken non-interventionist stance. She was an active member of the America First Committee, an anti-intervention organization founded by retired General Robert E. Wood with aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh as its leading spokesman. She said she was blacklisted by the film and theater industries until she signed a contract in which she promised to cease her anti-interventionist activities and never disclose the fact that she had agreed to do so.[9]

She maintained a very close relationship with her sister Dorothy, as well as with Mary Pickford, for her entire life. Another of her closest friends was actress Helen Hayes; Gish was the godmother of Hayes' son James MacArthur.

Death

She died in her sleep of natural causes on February 27, 1993, aged 99. Her estate, which she left to Hayes (who died a month later) was valued at several million dollars, and went to provide prizes for artistic excellence.

Legacy

Filmography

Books

Autobiographical:

Biographical & Other:

Documentaries about Gish

See also

References

  1. ↑ Although for many years it was believed that the Gish sisters were born with surname "De Guiche" or "de Guiche"; in actuality their surname was, in fact, Gish. According to Lillian Gish: Her Legend, Her Life, a biography by Charles Affron "The Gish name was initially the source of some mystification. In 1922, at the time of the opening of Orphans of the Storm, Lillian reported that the Gish family was of French origin, descending from the Duke de Guiche.... [S]uch press-agentry falsification was common. Just a few years later the story was modified slightly so that de Guiche becomes the more illustrious Duc de Guise.... [A]mong the Gish ancestors were a great-uncle probably murdered on a business trip to Philadelphia and four cousins who served in the Civil War. Lillian's father, James Leigh Gish was the youngest of four sons of David Gish (1814–1888) and Diana Caroline Waltz."
  2. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars". http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/stars.aspx. 
  3. ↑ "The AFI Life Achievement Award". http://www.afi.com/tvevents/laa/laalist.aspx. 
  4. ↑ Lillian Gish Biography
  5. ↑ Charles Affron (12 March 2002). Lillian Gish: her legend, her life. University of California Press. pp. 19–20. ISBN 9780520234345. http://books.google.com/?id=X44SqEVU2r4C&pg=PA19. Retrieved 23 July 2010. 
  6. ↑ Charles Affron (12 March 2002). Lillian Gish: her legend, her life. University of California Press. p. 138. ISBN 9780520234345. http://books.google.com/?id=X44SqEVU2r4C&pg=PA138. Retrieved 23 July 2010. 
  7. ↑ Lambert, Gavin (1976) [1973]. GWTW: The Making of Gone With the Wind (mass market paperback ed.). New York: Bantam Books. p. 53. 
  8. ↑ Charles Affron (12 March 2002). Lillian Gish: her legend, her life. University of California Press. pp. 179–198. ISBN 9780520234345. http://books.google.com/?id=X44SqEVU2r4C&pg=PA179. Retrieved 23 July 2010. 
  9. ↑ Sarles, Ruth and Bill Kauffman. A Story of America First: The Men and Women Who Opposed U.S. Intervention in World War II. Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2003, p. xxxvii.

External links

1982 Kennedy Center Honorees
George Abbott · Lillian Gish · Benny Goodman · Gene Kelly · Eugene Ormandy
AFI Life Achievement Award

John Ford (1973) · James Cagney (1974) · Orson Welles (1975) · William Wyler (1976) · Bette Davis (1977) · Henry Fonda (1978) · Alfred Hitchcock (1979) · James Stewart (1980) · Fred Astaire (1981) · Frank Capra (1982) · John Huston (1983) · Lillian Gish (1984) · Gene Kelly (1985)  · Billy Wilder (1986) · Barbara Stanwyck (1987) · Jack Lemmon (1988) · Gregory Peck (1989) · David Lean (1990) · Kirk Douglas (1991) · Sidney Poitier (1992) · Elizabeth Taylor (1993) · Jack Nicholson (1994) · Steven Spielberg (1995) · Clint Eastwood (1996) · Martin Scorsese (1997) · Robert Wise (1998) · Dustin Hoffman (1999) · Harrison Ford (2000) · Barbara Streisand (2001) · Tom Hanks (2002) · Robert De Niro (2003) · Meryl Streep (2004)  · George Lucas (2005) · Sean Connery (2006) · Al Pacino (2007) · Warren Beatty (2008) · Michael Douglas (2009) · Mike Nichols (2010) · Morgan Freeman (2011)