Gish, Lillian (1893–1993)

American actress. Born Lillian Diana Gish on Oct 14, 1893, in Springfield, Ohio; died at her home in New York City on Feb 27, 1993; elder dau. of Mary (McConnell) and James Lee Gish; sister of Dorothy Gish (actress); descendant of Zachary Taylor, 12th president of US; attended various schools including the Ursuline Academy in East St. Louis, Missouri; never married, no children.

One of the world's 1st great film stars, debuted in Convict's Stripes, starring Walter Huston, at age 5; hired as an extra at D.W. Griffith's Biograph Studios (1911); gained attention in The Mothering Heart (1913); appeared as Elsie Stoneman in The Birth of a Nation (1915); established stardom in Broken Blossoms (1919), followed by Way Down East (1920); made 1st talkie One Romantic Night (1930); made tv debut in "The Late Christopher Bean" (1948); made last film The Whales of August (1987); other films include During the Round-Up (1913), A Woman in the Ultimate (1913), A Modest Hero (1913), The Madonna of the Storm (1913), Judith of Bethulia (1914), The Battle of the Sexes (1914), Lord Chumley (1914), The Hunchback (1914), Home Sweet Home (1914), The Rebellion of Kitty Belle (1914), The Sisters (1914), The Lost House (1915), Captain Macklin (1915), (as Annie Lee) Enoch Arden (1915), Enoch's Wife (1915), The Lily and the Rose (1915), Daphne and the Pirate (1916), Sold for Marriage (1916), An Innocent Magdalene (1916), Intolerance (1916), Diane of the Follies (1916), Pathways of Life (1916), The House Built Upon Sand (1917), Hearts of the World (1918), The Great Love (1918), The Greatest Thing in Life (1918), A Romance of Happy Valley (1919), True Heart Susie (1919), The Greatest Question (1919), (directed only) Remodeling Her Husband (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1922), The White Sister (1923), (title role) Romola (1924), (Mimi) La Bohème (1926), (Hester Prynne) The Scarlet Letter (1926), Annie Laurie (1927), The Enemy (1928), The Wind (1928), One Romantic Night (1930), His Double Life (1933), The Commandos Strike at Dawn (1943), Top Man (1943), Miss Susie Slagle's (1946), Duel in the Sun (1947), Portrait of Jennie (1949), The Cobweb (1955), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Orders to Kill (Eng., 1958), The Unforgiven (1960), Follow Me Boys! (1966), Warning Shot (1967), The Comedians (1967), A Wedding (1978), Hambone and Willie (1984), and Sweet Liberty (1986). Given honorary Academy Award (1970), received American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award (1984).

See also autobiography (with Ann Pinchot) The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me (Prentice-Hall, 1969); Albert Bigelow Paine, Life and Lillian Gish (Macmillan, 1932), and Women in World History.