Lillian Gish

Lillian Gish Filmography
Lillian Gish Gallery

When Lillian Gish made her first film "An Unseen Enemy" (1912) she could never have dreamed that she would make her last film "The Whales Of August" (1987) seventy five years later, giving her the longest career of any screen actress. Lillian Gish was born in October 1893 and together with her younger sister Dorothy entered the movies, when Mary Pickford introduced them to DW Griffith at the Biograph studio, there they joined Griffiths stock company of actors. Lillian would go on to appear in every major Griffith film over the next ten years including "The Birth Of A Nation" (1915), "Intolerance" (1916) and her amazing perfomance in "Broken Blossoms" (1919). She left Griffith after making "Orphans Of The Storm" (1921) then made two films for director Henry King, she signed for MGM where she made five films, including "The Wind" (1928) once again her performance was awesome.

With the coming of sound Lillian moved back into the theatre, only making occasional films including "Duel In The Sun" (1946)for which she received an academy award nomination and "Night Of The Hunter" (1955) her best performance in a sound film. Lillian published her autobiography in 1969 called "The Movies, Mr Griffith And Me" this was a wonderful resume of her career. In 1981 she was given a lifetime achievement award by the American Film Institute, Lillian died in February 1993, aged 99. There were two reasons I started watching silent films, the "Hollywood" series and Lillian Gish, which says it all..