Lillian Gish
Biography
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) 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. She was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1971, and in 1984 she received an AFI Life Achievement Award.
Ask the Vault
Ask anything about Lillian Gish.
Full filmography
- Robert Montgomery Presents (1950)
- The Love Boat (1977) as Mrs. Williams
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962) as Bessie Carnby
- The Philco Television Playhouse (1948) as Abby
- The Philco Television Playhouse (1948) as Narrator
- The Philco Television Playhouse (1948) as Carrie Watts
- Tony Awards (1956) as Self - Award Accepter
- Tony Awards (1956) as Self - Presenter
- The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) as Self
- The Dick Cavett Show (1968) as Self - Guest
- The Defenders (1961) as Louisa Clarendon
- The Defenders (1961) as Mrs. Cooper
- Film '72 (1971) as Self
- The Kennedy Center Honors (1978) as Self
- Mr. Novak (1963) as Maude Phipps
- The American Film Institute Salute to ... (1973) as Self
- The Night of the Hunter (1955) as Rachel Cooper
- Playwrights '56 (1955)
- The Alcoa Hour (1955) as Esther Crampton
- Duel in the Sun (1946) as Laura Belle McCanles
- Hollywood (1980) as Self
- The Unforgiven (1960) as Mattilda Zachary
- Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1951) as Grandma Moses
- The Birth of a Nation (1915) as Stoneman's Daughter Elsie