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Lillian Gish is a Actor, Director and Story American born on 14 october 1893 at Springfield (USA)

Lillian Gish

Lillian Gish
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Birth name Lillian Diana Gish
Nationality USA
Birth 14 october 1893 at Springfield (USA)
Death 27 february 1993 (at 99 years) at New York City (USA)
Awards Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres‎

Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American stage, screen, and television actress, 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.


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 one of the highest-grossing films of the silent era, Griffith's seminal The Birth of a Nation (1915). Her sound-era film appearances were sporadic, but included well-known roles in the controversial western Duel in the Sun (1946) and the offbeat thriller The 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. Gish is widely considered to be the greatest actress of the silent era, and one the greatest actresses in cinema history.

Biography

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".
Lillian Gish was the sister of actress Dorothy Gish.
Gish was a survivor of the 1918 flu pandemic.

She was 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.

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.

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's son James MacArthur.

Best films

Duel in the Sun (1946)
(Actress)
The Unforgiven (1960)
(Actress)

Usually with

D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
(51 films)
Christy Cabanne
Christy Cabanne
(28 films)
Robert Harron
Robert Harron
(29 films)
Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Gish
(25 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Lillian Gish (103 films)

Display filmography as list

Actress

The Whales of August, 1h30
Directed by Lindsay Anderson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Vincent Price, Ann Sothern, Mary Steenburgen, Harry Carey, Jr.
Roles Sarah Webber
Rating70% 3.5481453.5481453.5481453.5481453.548145
The Whales of August tells the story of two elderly widowed sisters near the end of their lives, spending a summer in a seaside house in Maine. The surroundings cause them to recall their relationship as young women, and the summers they had enjoyed there in the past. They reflect on the passage of time, and the bitterness, jealousies and misunderstandings that slowly festered over the years and kept them from establishing a true closeness in their relationship.
Sweet Liberty, 1h46
Directed by Alan Alda
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romance
Actors Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins, Lillian Gish, Saul Rubinek
Roles Cecelia Burgess
Rating57% 2.8996452.8996452.8996452.8996452.899645
College history professor Michael Burgess (Alan Alda) is about to have his fact-based historical novel about The American Revolution turned into a Hollywood motion picture being filmed in the North Carolina town where he lives.
A Wedding
A Wedding (1978)
, 2h5
Directed by Robert Altman
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy
Themes Films about marriage
Actors Desi Arnaz Jr., Carol Burnett, Geraldine Chaplin, Howard Duff, Vittorio Gassman, Mia Farrow
Roles Nettie Sloan
Rating69% 3.4947853.4947853.4947853.4947853.494785
Dino Corelli (Desi Arnaz Jr.) marries Muffin Brenner (Amy Stryker) in a lavish Episcopalian church wedding presided over by a doddering, forgetful bishop. After the ceremony, the wedding party and guests drive back to the Corelli mansion for the reception. Meanwhile, the elderly, bedridden matriarch Nettie Sloan (Lillian Gish), mother of Regina Sloan Corelli (Nina Van Pallandt) and grandmother of the groom Dino, is being tended in her upstairs bedroom at the mansion by drunk, lecherous Dr. Jules Meecham (Howard Duff). Nettie is lying in her bed speaking with wedding planner Rita Billingsley (Geraldine Chaplin) when Nettie suddenly dies peacefully. Dr. Meecham informs Dino's father and head of household Luigi Corelli (Vittorio Gassman) of Nettie's death, but leaves it to him to tell his wife Regina, which Luigi is unable to do because Regina is high on drugs and mentally unstable. Nettie's corpse remains lying in bed, appearing to be asleep, throughout the reception, while various attendees are quietly told about her death or in some cases visit her in her room without realizing she's actually dead. By the time her bossy daughter Toni (Dina Merrill) finds out and calls a family meeting to make a dramatic announcement, the other family members are mostly not surprised or even too upset.
Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still, 52minutes
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin
Genres Documentary
Actors Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, Yves Montand, James Dean, Renée Falconetti, Henry Fonda
Roles Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Rating57% 2.8625252.8625252.8625252.8625252.862525
Juste après avoir tourné « Tout va bien » avec Jane Fonda, Godard et Gorin lui adressent une lettre cinématographique interrogeant une photographie de l'actrice au Vietnam. « Cette photo répond à la même question que celle que pose Tout va bien : quel rôle les intellectuels doivent-ils jouer dans la révolution ? »
The Comedians in Africa, 11minutes
Directed by Peter Glenville
Origin USA
Genres Documentary
Themes Films set in Africa, Films about films, Documentary films about business, Documentary films about the film industry, Documentary films about films
Actors Lillian Gish, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, Peter Glenville
Roles Self (uncredited)
Rating62% 3.1377853.1377853.1377853.1377853.137785
This short documentary chronicles the difficulties encountered by the crew and cast while filming The Comedians on location in Africa's Dahomey (since renamed the Republic of Benin). Author Graham Greene and director Peter Glenville appear in the film, as do actors Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, Georg Stanford Brown, Roscoe Lee Browne, Paul Ford, Lillian Gish, James Earl Jones and Raymond St. Jacques.
The Comedians, 2h30
Directed by Peter Glenville
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Political films
Actors Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, Lillian Gish, Georg Stanford Brown
Roles Mrs. Smith
Rating62% 3.1478053.1478053.1478053.1478053.147805
A ship arrives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Four of the alighting passengers are: Major H. O. Jones (Alec Guinness), a British businessman with a letter of invitation to do business with the government; an elderly American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Paul Ford and Lillian Gish) who wish to set up a vegetarian complex for education and nutrition for the locals, and the central character, a cynical, washed-up hotel owner named Brown, portrayed by Richard Burton.
Warning Shot, 1h40
Directed by Buzz Kulik
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Action, Crime
Actors David Janssen, Ed Begley, Keenan Wynn, Joan Collins, Sam Wanamaker, Lillian Gish
Roles Alice Willows
Rating66% 3.3445153.3445153.3445153.3445153.344515
Los Angeles police sergeant Tom Valens is on a stakeout near an upscale apartment complex when he is forced to defend himself from a mysterious figure who aims a gun at him on a foggy night. The trouble is, the dead man turns out to be a prominent physician and pillar of the community, Dr. James Ruston, and there is no gun to be found.
Follow Me, Boys!, 2h11
Directed by Norman Tokar
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama
Themes Films about children, Scoutisme, Children's films
Actors Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles, Donald May, Lillian Gish, Charles Ruggles, Elliott Reid
Roles Hetty Seibert
Rating70% 3.5444953.5444953.5444953.5444953.544495
In 1930, Lemuel "Lem" Siddons (Fred MacMurray) is a saxophonist in a traveling band who dreams of becoming a lawyer. When the band's bus reaches Hickory, a small town, Lem suddenly decides to leave the band and settle down, finding a job as a clerk in the general store.
Hallelujah the Hills, 1h22
Directed by Adolfas Mekas
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romance
Actors Jerome Hill, Taylor Mead, Richard Barthelmess, Lillian Gish
Rating61% 3.09593.09593.09593.09593.0959
"Two young men, Jack and Leo, are both courting the same girl. For seven long years they persist, but she finally gives herself to the 'horrible Gideon.' In a sense, just as this is the pretext for the film, so the courtships of Vera is a pretext for Jack and Leo to camp out together in the Vermont woods near her home, and to indulge themselves in the wildest of horseplay and high jinks. The film has a Giffithian flavor, a lyrical naivete, which is extremely touching. At the same time it is full of sophisticated film parodies - Rashomon, the New Wave, Douglas Fairbanks, Ma and Pa Kettle. In short, this is one of the most completely American films ever made, in its combination of anarchistic wackiness with a nostalgic sense of the lost frontier and (maybe they're both the same) the magic of youth." -Richard Roud, in the program notes for The First New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center NY, screening September 14, 1963.
The Unforgiven, 2h5
Directed by John Huston
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Romance, Western
Themes Films about racism, Films about sexuality
Actors Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, Lillian Gish, Charles Bickford, John Saxon
Roles Mattilda Zachary
Rating65% 3.296863.296863.296863.296863.29686
The Zacharys are a thriving and respected family on the Texas frontier. Father Will Zachary was killed by Kiowa Indians, leaving his oldest son Ben (Burt Lancaster) as the head of the family. Both Ben and his mother Mattilda (Lillian Gish) are very protective of the Zachary's adopted daughter, Rachel (Audrey Hepburn), while her other brothers, Cash (Audie Murphy) and Andy (Doug McClure), treat her as they would any sister. The family is supported by their closest neighbor, Zeb Rawlins (Charles Bickford), the patriarch of a racist family, whose shy son Charlie (Albert Salmi) wants to marry Rachel. Ben, long aware that she is not actually his sister, loves Rachel and is reluctant.
Orders to Kill, 1h52
Directed by Anthony Asquith
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Thriller, Action, Historical
Themes Political films
Actors Eddie Albert, Lillian Gish, James Robertson Justice, Irene Worth, Philip Bond, Leslie French
Roles Mrs. Summers
Rating70% 3.537933.537933.537933.537933.53793
A young American bomber pilot Gene Summers (Paul Massie) is selected by Maj. Kimball (John Crawford) to go on a mission to Nazi-occupied Paris and there kill a man believed to be a double agent working in the French Resistance. He is picked because of his fluency in French and military experience. Summers receives rigorous training by his handler Maj. MacMahon (Eddie Albert) and a British Naval Commander (James Robertson Justice). Summers is enthusiastic, and remembers all of the information he needs by setting his instructions to melodies of childhood songs.
The Night of the Hunter, 1h33
Directed by Charles Laughton, Robert Mitchum, Terry Sanders
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Horror, Noir, Crime
Themes Medical-themed films, Serial killer films, Films about psychiatry, Films about capital punishment
Actors Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Billy Chapin, Peter Graves
Roles Rachel Cooper
Rating79% 3.9990053.9990053.9990053.9990053.999005
In the 1930s West Virginia, along the Ohio River, Reverend Harry Powell, a serial killer, flees the scene of his latest victim. Powell is a self-anointed preacher with a penchant for switchblade knives; a misogynist who is both attracted to and repulsed by women. He travels rural roads, preaching in small towns, and seems to believe he is doing God's work. The letters "L-O-V-E" are tattooed on one hand and the letters "H-A-T-E" on the other, which Powell uses as symbols in impromptu sermons. In one small town, police arrest Powell for driving a stolen car and sentence him to jail, unaware that he is a murderer.
The Cobweb
The Cobweb (1955)
, 2h14
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Melodrama
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about psychiatry, Films set in psychiatric hospitals
Actors Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Mabel Albertson, Charles Boyer, Gloria Grahame, Lillian Gish
Roles Victoria Inch
Rating62% 3.147483.147483.147483.147483.14748
Dr. Stewart McIver (Richard Widmark) is now in charge of a psychiatric facility, one run for many years by medical director Dr. Douglas Devanal (Charles Boyer).
Portrait of Jennie, 1h26
Directed by William Dieterle
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Fantastic, Fantasy, Romance
Themes Peinture, Ghost films
Actors Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Brian Keith, Ethel Barrymore, Cecil Kellaway, Florence Bates
Roles Mother Mary of Mercy
Rating75% 3.7950653.7950653.7950653.7950653.795065
In 1934, impoverished painter Eben Adams (Joseph Cotten) meets a fey little girl named Jennie Appleton (Jennifer Jones) in Central Park, New York. She is wearing old-fashioned clothing. He makes a sketch of her from memory which involves him with art dealer Miss Spinney (Ethel Barrymore), who sees potential in him. This inspires him to paint a portrait of Jennie.
Duel in the Sun, 2h9
Directed by William Dieterle, Otto Brower, David Selznick, Josef von Sternberg, King Vidor, William Cameron Menzies, Sidney Franklin
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Romance, Western
Themes Films about capital punishment
Actors Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Marshall, Lillian Gish
Roles Laura Belle McCanles
Rating66% 3.3469753.3469753.3469753.3469753.346975
Pearl Chavez (Jennifer Jones) is orphaned after her father Scott Chavez (Herbert Marshall) kills her mother (Tilly Losch), having caught his wife with a lover (Sidney Blackmer). Before Scott Chavez is executed as a punishment for killing his wife, he arranges for his daughter Pearl to live with his second cousin and old sweetheart, Laura Belle (Lillian Gish).