LILLIIAN GISH ,
THE FIRST ACTRESS OF HOLLYWOOD
BORN 1893 OCTOBER 14
Lillian Diana Gish[1] (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American actress of the screen and stage,[2] as well as a director and writer whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 in silent film shorts to 1987. Gish was called the First Lady of American Cinema, and she is credited with pioneering fundamental film performing techniques.[3]
| Lillian Gish | |
|---|---|
Lillian Gish, 1921
| |
| Born | Lillian Diana Gish October 14, 1893 Springfield, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | February 27, 1993 (aged 99) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Heart failure |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1902–1987 |
| Relatives | Dorothy Gish (younger sister) |
| Website | www |
Gish 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 the highest-grossing film of the silent era, Griffith's seminal The Birth of a Nation (1915). At the dawn of the sound era, she returned to the stage and appeared in film infrequently, including well-known roles in the controversial western Duel in the Sun (1946) and the offbeat thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955).
She also 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 (which would prove to be one of Davis's last on-screen appearances). In her later years Gish became a dedicated advocate for the appreciation and preservation of silent film. Gish is widely considered to be the greatest actress of the silent era, and one of the greatest actresses in cinema history. Despite being better known for her film work, Gish was also an accomplished stage actress, and she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1972.
The first several generations of Gishes were Dunkard ministers. Her great-great-great-grandfather came to America on the ship Pennsylvania Merchant in 1733 and received a land grant from William Penn. Her great-great-grandfather fought in the American Revolutionary War and is buried in a cemetery in Pennsylvania for such soldiers. Letters between Gish and a Pennsylvania college professor indicate that her knowledge of her family background was limited.
Gish's father was an unreliable alcoholic. When he left the family, her mother took up acting to support them. The family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois, where they lived for several years with Lillian's aunt and uncle, Henry and Rose McConnell. Their mother opened the Majestic Candy Kitchen, and the girls helped sell popcorn and candy to patrons of the old Majestic Theater, located next door. The girls attended St. Henry's School, where they acted in school plays.
The girls were living with their aunt Emily in Massillon, Ohio, when they were notified by their uncle that their father, James, was gravely ill in Oklahoma. Lillian traveled to Shawnee, Oklahoma, to see her father, who by then was institutionalized in an Oklahoma City hospital. She saw him briefly and stayed with her aunt and uncle, Alfred Grant and Maude Gish, in Shawnee and attended school there. She wrote to her sister Dorothy that she was thinking of staying and finishing high school and then going to college, but she missed her family. Her father died in Norman, Oklahoma, January 9, 1912, and, soon after, Lillian returned to Ohio.
When the theater next to the candy store burned down, the family moved to New York, where the girls became good friends with a next-door neighbor, Gladys Smith. Gladys was a child actress who did some work for director D. W. Griffith and later took the stage name Mary Pickford.[6] When Lillian and Dorothy were old enough, they joined the theatre, often traveling separately in different productions. They also took modeling jobs, with Lillian posing for artist Victor Maurel in exchange for voice lessons.[7]
In 1912, their friend Mary Pickford introduced the sisters to 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 19, she gave her age as 16 to the studio.[8] Gish had German, Scottish and English ancestry.
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
Gish made her stage debut in 1902, at The Little Red School House in Rising Sun, Ohio. From 1903 to 1904, Lillian toured in Her First False Step, with her mother and Dorothy. The following year, she danced with a Sarah Bernhardt production in New York City.
Film stardom at Biograph Studios (1912–1925)[edit]
Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms(1919)
Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms (1919)
illian Gish as Anna Moore in D. W. Griffith's Way Down East(1920)
Photoplay magazine cover by Rolf Armstrong (1921)
Photoplay magazine cover by Rolf Armstrong (1921)
After 10 years of acting on the stage, she made her film debut opposite Dorothy in Griffith's short film An Unseen Enemy (1912). At the time established thespians considered "the flickers" a rather base form of entertainment, but she was assured of its merits. Gish continued to perform on the stage, and in 1913, during a run of A Good Little Devil, she collapsed from anemia. Lillian would take suffering for her art to the extreme in a film career which became her obsession. One of the enduring images of Gish's silent film years is the climax of the melodramatic Way Down East, in which Gish's character floats unconscious on an ice floe towards a raging waterfall, her long hair and hand trailing in the water. Her performance in these frigid conditions gave her lasting nerve damage in several fingers. Similarly, when preparing for her death scene in La Bohème over a decade later, Gish reportedly did not eat and drink for three days beforehand, causing the director to fear he would be filming the death of his star as well as of the character.
Lillian starred in many of Griffith's most acclaimed films, including The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921).
Griffith utilized Lillian's expressive talents to the fullest, developing her into a suffering yet strong heroine. 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 American Cinema" and appearing in lavish productions, frequently of literary works such as Way Down East. She became the most esteemed actress of budding Hollywood cinema.
She directed her sister Dorothy in one film, Remodeling Her Husband (1920), when D. W. Griffith took his unit on location. He told Gish that he thought the crew would work harder for a girl. Gish never directed again, telling reporters at the time that directing was a man's job.[9] Unfortunately the film is now thought to be lost.
Work with MGM (1925–1928)[edit]
In 1925 Gish reluctantly ended her work with Griffith to take an offer from the recently formed MGM which gave her more creative control. MGM offered her a contract in 1926 for six films, for which she was offered 1 million dollars ($13.4 million in 2015 dollars). She turned down the money, requesting a more modest wage and a percentage so that the studio could use the funds to increase the quality of her films — hiring the best actors, screenwriters, etc. By the late silent era, Greta Garbo had usurped Gish as MGM's leading lady.
Sound debut, return to the stage, and television and radio[edit]
Lillian Gish in Jed Harris' Broadway production of Uncle Vanya (1930)
Her debut in talkies was only moderately successful, largely due to the public's changing attitudes. Many of the silent era's leading ladies, such as Gish and Pickford, had been wholesome and innocent, but by the early 1930s (after the full adoption of sound and before the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced) these roles were perceived as outdated.
Returning to movies, Gish was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1946 for Duel in the Sun. The scenes of her character's illness and death late in that film seemed intended to evoke the memory of some of her silent film performances. She appeared in films from time to time for the rest of her life, notably in Night of the Hunter (1955) as a rural guardian angel protecting her charges from a murderous preacher played by 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,[10] to 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 later acting appearances, Gish became one of the leading advocates of 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. She was interviewed in the television documentary series Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (1980).[11]
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 1979, she was awarded the Women in film Crystal Award in Los Angeles[12] In 1984, she received an American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, becoming only the second female recipient (preceded by Bette Davis 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 appearing in The Whales of August in 1987 at the age of 93, with Vincent Price, Bette Davis, and Ann Sothern, in which Davis and she starred as elderly sisters in Maine. Gish's performance was received glowingly, winning her the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress. At the Cannes festival Lillian won a 10-minute standing ovation from the audience. Some in the entertainment industry were angry that Gish did not receive 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."[citation needed]
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."
Radio[edit]
Gish starred in an episode of I Was There, broadcast on CBS. The episode dramatized the making of the film The Birth of a Nation.[13] On May 31, 1951, she starred in an adaptation of Black Chiffon on Playhouse on Broadway.[14]
Honors[edit]
The American Film Institute named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of Classic American cinema.[15] In 1955, she was awarded the George Eastman Award, for distinguished contribution to the art of film, at the George Eastman Museum's (then George Eastman House's) inaugural Festival of Film Artists.[16] She was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1971, and in 1984 she received an AFI Life Achievement Award.[17] Gish, an American icon, was also awarded in the Kennedy Center Honors.
Personal life[edit]
Lillian and her sister Dorothy, 1921
Gish never married or 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 also involved with producer Charles Duell and drama critic and editor George Jean Nathan. In the 1920s, Gish's association with Duell was something of a tabloid scandal because he had sued her and made the details of their relationship public.[6]
Lillian Gish was the sister of actress Dorothy Gish. She was a survivor of the 1918 flu pandemic, having caught the flu during the filming of Broken Blossoms.[18]
Gish learned French, German, and Italian from spending 15 years in Europe, which she first visited in 1917 during World War I. George Jean Nathan praised Gish's acting glowingly—comparing her to Eleonora Duse.
External audio
During the period of political turmoil in the US that lasted from the outbreak of WWII in Europe until the attack on Pearl Harbor, she maintained an outspoken noninterventionist 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.[20]
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, the "First Lady of the American Theatre". Gish was the godmother of Hayes's son James MacArthur. Lillian Gish had also designated Hayes as a beneficiary of her estate, with Hayes surviving her by less than a month.
Death[edit]
She died peacefully in her sleep of heart failure on February 27, 1993 at age 99, 8 months before what would have been her 100th birthday. She is interred beside her sister Dorothy at Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City. Her estate was valued at several million dollars, the bulk of which went toward the creation of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize Trust.
Legacy[edit]
Gish posed as Elaine of Astolat in Way Down East
A retrospective of Gish's life and achievements was showcased in an episode of the Emmy award winning PBS series, American Masters.
The All Movie Guide wrote of her legacy:[21]
"Lillian Gish is considered the movie industry's first true actress. A pioneer of fundamental film performing techniques, she was the first star to recognize the many crucial differences between acting for the stage and acting for the screen, and while her contemporaries painted their performances in broad, dramatic strokes, Gish delivered finely etched, nuanced turns carrying a stunning emotional impact. While by no means the biggest or most popular actress of the silent era, she was the most gifted, her seeming waiflike frailty masking unparalleled reserves of physical and spiritual strength. More than any other early star, she fought to earn film recognition as a true art form, and her achievements remain the standard against which those of all other actors are measured."[22]
Turner Classic Movies writes:[23]
"Having pioneered screen acting from vaudeville entertainment into a form of artistic expression, actress Lillian Gish forged a new creative path at a time when more serious thespians regarded motion pictures as a rather base form of employment. Gish brought to her roles a sense of craft substantially different from that practiced by her theatrical colleagues. In time, her sensitive performances elevated not only her stature as an actress, but also the reputation of movies themselves.
The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
A street in Massillon, Ohio, is named after Gish, who had lived there during an early period of her life and fondly referred to it as her hometown throughout her career.[24]
François Truffaut's movie, Day for Night from 1973, is dedicated to Dorothy and Lilian Gish.[25]
Gish's photo is mentioned as an inspiration for a troubled soldier in the 1933 novel, Company K.[
Born October 14, 1893 in Springfield, Ohio, USA
Died February 27, 1993 in New York City, New York, USA (heart failure)
Birth Name Lillian Diana Gish
Nickname The First Lady of American Cinema
Height 5' 4" (1.63 m)
லியோன் டயானா கேச் 1893, அக்டோபர் 14 அன்று ஓஹியோவில் ஸ்ப்ரிங்ஃபீப்பில் பிறந்தார். அவரது தந்தை ஜேம்ஸ் லீ ஜிஷ், மது அருந்துபவர், அரிதாகவே வீட்டிலேயே இருந்தார், எனவே குடும்பத்தினர் தங்களைக் காப்பாற்றுவதற்காக தாங்களே எதாவது வேலை செய்து பிழைக்கும் நிலை ஏற்பட்டது . லில்லியன், அவரது சகோதரி டோரதி ஜிஷ் மற்றும் அவர்களின் தாயார் மேரி ஜிஷ் ஆகியோர் உள்ளூர் நாடக கம்பெனியில் நடித்து வந்தனர்
பார்வையாளரின் முன்னிலையில் முதன்முதலில் தோன்றியபோது லில்லியன் வயது ஆறு .. அடுத்த 13 ஆண்டுகளில், சகோதரி டோரதி யும்
நாடக மேடை பார்வையாளர்களுக்கு பரீட்சயம் ஆகி பெரும் வெற்றி பெற்றனர் .உண்மையில், அவர் படங்களில் நாடி செல்லவில்லை .என்றாலும் பெரிய மேடை நடிகைகளில் ஒருவராகவே இன்றும் கருதப்பட்டு வருகிறார்
1912 இல், அவர் புகழ்பெற்ற இயக்குனர் D.W. கிரிபித். அவர் நாடகத்தை பார்த்து பரவசம் அடைந்து சினிமாவில் வாய்ப்பு கொடுத்தார் . அவளுடைய முதல் படம், அன் அன்ஸீன் எனிமி (1912), தி ஒன் ஷி லவ்வுடு (1912) மற்றும் மை பேபி (1912) மற்றும் கிரிபித்.இயக்கத்தில் மொத்தம் 12 படங்களில் நடித்தார். அடுத்த இரண்டு ஆண்டுகளில் 25 திரைப்படங்கள் மூலம், பொதுமக்களுக்கு லில்லியனின் நடிப்பாற்றல் மிகப்பெரிய தாக்கத்தை ஏற்படுத்தி இருந்தது . மிக சிறந்த நடிகை என்று பெயர் பெற்றிருந்த" அமெரிக்காவின் இனிய இதயம் " மேரி பிக் போர்ட் க்கு இணையாக பேசப்பட்டார் பின்னர் மிக சிறந்த படம் என்று தனக்கு தோன்றிய படங்களில் நடிப்பாற்றலை 1929 வரை தொடர்ந்தார் .
பேசும் படத்தில் 1933 -1987 வரை
பேசும் படம் 1929 இல் அறிமுகம் ஆகவே மௌனப்பட காலம் முடிவுக்கு வந்தது .செக்சியாக நடித்து புகழ் பெற விரும்பாததால் நாடகத்திற்கு திரும்பினார் . புதியவர்கள் இத்துறையில் அறிமுகம் ஆனதால் 1922 ,1925 ,1929 ஆகிய படங்களில் நடிக்கவில்லை .மௌன படத்திற்கு மவுசு குறைந்ததால் அவர் நாடகத்தில் நடித்தார் .இடை இடையே பேசும் படத்திலும் நடித்தார் . அவர் தனது ஹிஸ் டபுள் லைப் 1933 என்ற படத்தை தயாரித்தார் .பின்னர் பத்து வருடங்களுக்கு மற்றொரு படம் எடுக்கவில்லை . 1943 இல் அவர் திரும்பி வந்தபோது, இரண்டு பெரிய-பட்ஜெட் படங்கள், டான் (1942) மற்றும் மேன் ஆஃப் தி ஃபேமிலி (1943) ஆகியவற்றில் நடித்தார். .இந்த இரண்டுபடங்களும் தோல்வியை தந்தாலும் 1946 டூயல் இன் தி சன் படத்துக்காக இல் சிறந்த துணைநடிகைக்கான விருது பெற்றார் . அவரது வாழ்க்கை மிகவும் விமர்சன ரீதியாக பாராட்டப்பட்ட பாத்திரங்களில் ஒன்று திகில் திரைப்படமான தி நைட் ஆப் த ஹண்டர் (1955) இல் வெளிவந்தது, மேலும் நடிகர் சார்லஸ் லாக்டன் இயக்கிய ஒரே திரைப்படமாகும். 1969 ஆம் ஆண்டில், அவர் தனது சுயசரிதையை வெளியிட்டார் 'தி மூவிஸ், திரு க்ரிஃபித் அண்ட் மி'.
1987 ஆம் ஆண்டில், அவருடைய இறுதித் திரைப்படம், தி வேல்ஸ் ஆஃப் ஆகஸ்ட் (1987), அவர் ஒரு புதிய தலைமுறை ரசிகர்களை அம்பலப்படுத்திய ஒரு பாக்ஸ் ஆபிஸ் வெற்றியாக இருந்தது. அவரது 75 வருட வாழ்க்கை எந்தத் துறையில் இருந்தாலும் நாடகமாகட்டும் ,மௌன படமாகட்டும் ,பேசும் படம் ஆகட்டும் நிறைவாகவே புகழுடன் இருந்தார்
இறப்பு
இவர் திருமணமே செய்து கொள்ளவில்லை . பிப்ரவரி 27, 1993 இல், நியூயார்க் நகரத்தில் தூக்கத்தில் 99 வயதில் லில்லியன் ஜிஷ் இறந்தார்.
பேசும் படத்தில் 1933 -1987 வரை
Mini Bio (2)
Lillian Diana Gish was born on October 14, 1893 in Springfield, Ohio. Her father James Lee Gish was an alcoholic who caroused around, was rarely at home and left the family to more or less to fend for themselves. To help make ends meet, Lillian, her sister Dorothy Gish and their mother Mary Gish a.k.a. Mary Robinson McConnell 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, she 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. Ultimately, though, she found her way onto the big screen. In 1912, she met famed director D.W. Griffith. Impressed with what he saw, he immediately cast her in what was to be her first film, An Unseen Enemy (1912), followed by The One She Loved (1912) and My Baby (1912). She would make 12 films for Griffith in 1912. 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 (1915). She was not making the large number of films that she was 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, she appeared in another Griffith classic, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916). By the early 1920s, her career was on its way down. As in anything else, be it sports or politics, new faces appeared on the scene to replace the "old", and Lillian was no different. In fact, she did not appear at all on the screen in 1922, 1925 or 1929. However, 1926 was her busiest of the decade with roles in La Bohème (1926) and The Scarlet Letter (1926). As the decade wound to a close, "talkies" were replacing silent films. However, Lillian was not idle during her time away from the screen. She appeared in stage productions to acclaim of the public and critics alike. In 1933, she filmed His Double Life (1933), and then didn't make another film for ten years. When she did return in 1943, she played in two big-budget pictures, Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) and Top Man (1943). It was as though she had never been away. Although these roles did not bring her the attention she had in her early career, Lillian still proved she could hold her own with the best of them. She earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role of Laura Belle McCanles in Duel in the Sun (1946), but lost to Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge (1946). One of the most critically acclaimed roles of her career came in the thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955), also notable as the only film directed by actor Charles Laughton. In 1969, she published her autobiography "The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me". In 1987, she made what was to be her last motion picture, The Whales of August (1987), a box-office success that exposed her to a new generation of fans. Her 75-year career is almost unbeatable in any field, let alone the film industry. On February 27, 1993, Lillian Gish died at age 99 peacefully in her sleep in New York City.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Denny Jackson
Lillian Gish was born into a broken family where her restless father James Lee Gish was frequently absent. Mary Robinson McConnell a.k.a. Mary Gish, her mother, had entered into acting to make money to support the family. As soon as Lillian and her sister Dorothy were old enough, they became part of the act. To supplement their income, the two sisters also posed for pictures and acted in melodramas of the time. In 1912, they met fellow child actress Mary Pickford, and she got them extra work with Biograph films. Director D.W. Griffith was impressed by both the girls and especially by Lillian, who he saw as a exquisitely fragile, ethereal beauty. Over the next decade, Lillian was to become one of Griffith's greatest stars. She appeared in features such as The Birth of a Nation (1915); Broken Blossoms (1919); and Orphans of the Storm (1921). With Griffith, she became the greatest screen heroine of the time and was known as 'The First Lady of the Silent Screen'.
Lillian even tried her hand at directing with a movie called Remodeling Her Husband (1920) starring her sister Dorothy. After 13 years with Griffith, Lillian went to MGM where her first picture was La Bohème (1926). Her new contract gave her control over the type of picture, the director, the supporting lead and the cameraman. In the late 20s, Lillian's star began to wane and sound pictures became the rage with the viewing public. Lillian would resist the new sound pictures as she believed that silent pictures had a greater power and impact on audiences. And this was true in the beginning as they did not worry about the microphone. So Lillian was released by MGM in 1928 and went back to the stage and was a great success. She would continue on the stage for the next half century. Lillian never forgot D.W. Griffith, even when everyone else in Hollywood did. She helped care for the ailing Griffith and his wife until Griffith died in 1948. In the forties she again appeared in a handful of 'talkies' and received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as Laura Belle McCanles in Duel in the Sun (1946). In 1970 she received a special Academy Award 'for superlative artistry and distinguished contributions to the progress of motion pictures'. Her last film was The Whales of August (1987) in which she shared the lead with Bette Davis. Lillian Gish never married.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Trade Mark (4)
Small frame
Doll-like looks
Early roles as innocent, virginal characters who are victimized by a cruel world
Later often played willful but conflicted women
Trivia (28)
Sister of Dorothy Gish. Daughter of actress Mary Gish.
On June 11, 1976, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Film Theater was dedicated on the Bowling Green State University campus in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Following his death, she was interred beside her sister Dorothy Gish at Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City.
Received the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award (1984).
Every year on Gish's birthdate, October 14, New York's Museum of Modern Art shows at least one of her films or television performances.
She once autographed an 8mm copy of her film The Battle of Elderbush Gulch (1913) for a young filmmaker named Harry McDevitt.
Related, on her mother's side, to United States President Zachary Taylor.
She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1720 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.
After her amicable parting with D.W. Griffith she joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925, but was unceremoniously dumped when Greta Garbo emerged as a star. Considered a "sexless antique", she turned to radio and her first love, the theater. Ironically, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had Garbo on the set of The Scarlet Letter (1926) every day to watch Gish work as part of her apprenticeship.
John Gilbert was infatuated with her, and would mess up his "love scenes" with her in the filming of La Bohème (1926) on purpose, so he could keep kissing her.
While shooting Way Down East (1920), she was required to lie down on a slab of ice that was floating in a river for several hours in order to shoot a scene. While she did this, one of her hands was immersed in freezing cold water for hours, which permanently damaged the nerves in her wrist.
She held director D.W. Griffith in such high regard that, up until her death in 1993, she would always refer to him as "Mr. Griffith".
Lillian and Mary Pickford were childhood friends, but Mary tried to never be left alone with Lillian--remembering her mother's superstitious belief that "the good die young", Mary was in constant fear that Lillian would drop dead at any moment.
In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lillian Gish #19 on their list of 50 Greatest American Female Screen Legends.
She was of English, French and German heritage.
She and Dorothy Gish both started working for D.W. Griffith in the early days of American Mutoscope & Biograph. While it has been claimed that Griffith was immediately infatuated with Lillian, in their first film for him, An Unseen Enemy (1912), he thought they were twins. According to Lillian's autobiography, he had to tie different colored hair ribbons on the girls to tell them apart and give them direction: "Red, you hear a strange noise. Run to your sister. Blue, you're scared too. Look toward me, where the camera is.".
She was taught how to shoot by notorious western outlaw Al J. Jennings, who was in one of her early films (after having served a long term in prison for train robbery). When John Huston and Burt Lancaster took her to the desert to teach her how to shoot for The Unforgiven (1960), they were astounded to discover she could shoot more accurately and faster than they did. She found that she liked shooting, and over the years had developed into an expert shot.
Lillian was originally a member of the America First Committee, which advocated against US intervention in WII. It was not an uncommon position to be against America joining the war, with polls showing that 40% of Americans agreed at one point, but eventually apparent Nazi brutality made anti-war sentiment a radical opinion-one most infamously associated with the fascist sympathizing Charles Lindbergh. Gish was against any war due to her experience filming Hearts of the World, a WWI propaganda film, with Griffith in war-time France, in which she saw the horrors the Great War had unleashed. On why she opposed American involvement in WWII, Gish said "if I could save one American life and ruin my career in doing so, I would consider my career well lost." She resigned as a member of the committee several months before Pearl Harbor, and would later write a letter "I made War Propaganda" in Scribner's Commentator asking for forgiveness. After War was declared with Germany, any feelings of isolationism were seen as non-patriotic. Mary Pickford defended her: "This lady is as you and I are. She was merely against war".
In 1970, she wrote to congratulate California's First Lady Nancy Reagan after the Governor's wife likened anti-war protesters to Nazis in an interview. "Every time you and Ronnie open your mouths you echo my thoughts," Gish wrote.
Left her entire estate, which was valued at several million dollars, to Helen Hayes. Hayes died 18 days after Gish.
She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
She maintained a very close relationship with her sister Dorothy Gish, as well as with Mary Pickford, for her entire life. She never married or had children.
At her 1984 AFI Life Achievment Award ceremony, John Houseman claimed that she and her sister Dorothy Gish were offered the chance to buy the Sunset strip for $300. After considering the offer, they decided to spend the money for two dresses at the fashionable Bullock's department store instead.
She was filmed for a scene in Woody Allen's Zelig (1983). She scolded legendary director of photography Gordon Willis on his lighting set-up and, while the crew watched aghast, gave Willis step-by-step instructions on how to relight the scene. Willis complied. The scene did not make it into the final version of the film.
The debut album of the rock band Smashing Pumpkins was named "Gish" after her.
Ended her relationship with George Jean Nathan after finding out that he was Jewish. This was despite the fact that Nathan had converted to Protestantism and he shared Gish's right-wing views.
Strongly denied The Birth of a Nation (1915) was racist until her death, despite ongoing complaints that it was a glorification of the Ku Klux Klan.
She met with Benito Mussolini, whom she greatly admired, during a visit to Italy.
Personal Quotes (19)
Lionel Barrymore first played my grandfather, later my father, and finally, he played my husband. If he'd lived, I'm sure I would have played his mother. That's the way it is in Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older.
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.
Fans always write asking why I didn't smile more in films. I smiled in Annie Laurie (1927), but I can't recall that it helped much.
Those little virgins, after five minutes you got sick of playing them--to make them more interesting was hard work.
[1919] Marriage is a business. A woman cannot combine a career and marriage... I should not wish to unite the two.
[1939] I believe that marriage is a career in itself. I have preferred a stage career to a marriage career.
[after failing to receive a Best Actress nomination for The Whales of August (1987)] Oh, well. At least, I won't have to lose to Cher.
I don't care for modern films--all crashing cars and close-ups of people's feet.
I've never been in style, so I can't go out of style.
I can't remember a time when I wasn't acting, so I can't imagine what I would do if I stopped now.
[on D.W. Griffith] He inspired in us his belief that we were working in a medium that was powerful enough to influence the whole world.
[on Mary Pickford] It was always Mary herself that shone through. Her personality was the thing that made her movies memorable and the pictures that showed her personality were the best.
[on D.W. Griffith] It's true, sometimes I called him David. Even so, I might have said David, but I always thought "Mr. Griffith". He was a born general. His voice was a voice of command. It was resonant, deep and full.
I think the things that are necessary in my profession are these: Taste, Talent and Tenacity. I think I have had a little of all three.
[on Richard Barthelmess] The most beautiful face of any man who went before the camera.
[on Greta Garbo] Garbo's temperament reflected the rain and gloom of the long dark Swedish winters.
[Receiving an honorary Academy Award in 1971] Oh, all the charming ghosts I feel around me who should share this! It was our privilege for a little while to serve that beautiful thing, the film, and we never doubted for a moment that it was the most powerful thing, the mind and heartbeat of our technical century.
I'm a believing person. I believe in God even though I can't see him. You can't see the air in this room, right? But take it away and you're dead. And I believe there's something for us after we die. The world isn't wasteful.
[on why she acted in several comedies] I'm as funny as a barrel of dead babies.
Salary (2)
An Unseen Enemy (1912) $20
The White Sister (1923) $5,000 /week
Silent[edit]
1912[edit]
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)
1913[edit]
Oil and Water (1913)
The Unwelcome Guest (1913)
A Misunderstood Boy (1913)
The Left-Handed Man (1913)
The Lady and the Mouse (1913)
The House of Darkness (1913)
Just Gold (1913)
A Timely Interception (1913)
The Mothering Heart (1913)
An Indian's Loyalty (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 Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913)
The Conscience of Hassan Bey (1913)
1914[edit]
A Duel For Love (1914)
The Green-Eyed Devil (1914)
Judith of Bethulia (1914)
The Battle of the Sexes (1914)
The Hunchback (1914)
The Quicksands (1914)
Home, Sweet Home (1914)
Lord Chumley (1914)
The Rebellion of Kitty Belle (1914)
The Angel of Contention (1914)
Man's Enemy (1914)
The Tear That Burned (1914)
The Folly of Anne (1914)
The Sisters (1914)
1915[edit]
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Lost House (1915)
Enoch Arden (1915)
Captain Macklin (1915)
The Lily and the Rose (1915)
1916[edit]
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)
The House Built Upon Sand (1916)
1917[edit]
Souls Triumphant (1917)
1918[edit]
Hearts of the World (1918)
The Great Love (1918)
Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal (1918)
The Greatest Thing in Life (1918)
1919[edit]
A Romance of Happy Valley (1919)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
True Heart Susie (1919)
The Greatest Question (1919)
1920s[edit]
Remodeling Her Husband (1920)(*director only)
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
1930s[edit]
One Romantic Night (aka The Swan) (1930)
His Double Life (1933)
1940s[edit]
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 (1948)
Outward Bound (TV) (1949)
The Late Christopher Bean (TV) (1949)
1950s[edit]
The Joyous Season (TV) (1951)
Ladies in Retirement (TV) (1951)
The Autobiography of Grandma Moses (TV) (1952)
The Trip to Bountiful (TV) (1953)
The Quality of Mercy (TV) (1954)
The Corner Druggist (TV) (1954)
Film Fun (1955) (uncredited)
The Cobweb (1955)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
I, Mrs. Bibb (TV) (1955)
The Sound and the Fury (TV) (1955)
The Day Lincoln Was Shot (TV) (1956)
Morning's At Seven (TV) (1956)
Orders to Kill (1958)
1960s[edit]
The Grass Harp (TV) (1960)
The Unforgiven (1960)
Mr. Novak as Miss Phipps in "Hello, Miss Phipps" (NBC-TV, 1963)
Stowaway (TV) (1964)
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Episode: "Body in the Barn" (CBS-TV) (1964)
Follow Me, Boys! (1966)
Warning Shot (1967)
The Comedians (1967)
The Comedians in Africa (1967)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1969) (TV)
1970s[edit]
Twin Detectives (1976) (TV)
Sparrow (1978) (TV)
A Wedding (1978)
1980s[edit]
Thin Ice (1981) (TV)
Hobson's Choice (1983) (TV)
Hambone and Hillie (1983)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1985) (TV)
Sweet Liberty (1986)
The Whales of August (1987)
References[edit]
No comments:
Post a Comment