Biography
Friends and Family
Dorothy Gish
[Sister]
::
Mary Robinson McConnell
[Mother]
::
James Leigh Gish
[Father]
Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 You can get through life with bad manners, but it`s easier with good manners. Fans always write asking why I didn`t smile more in films. I smiled in `Annie Laurie`, but I can`t recall that it helped much.
(imdb.com)
Those little virgins, after five minutes you got sick of playing them - to make them more interesting was hard work.
(imdb.com)
[on Richard Barthelmess] The most beautiful face of any man who went before the camera.
(imdb.com)
I`ve never been in style, so I can`t go out of style.
(imdb.com)
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.
(imdb.com)
The older I get, the more I believe in what I can`t explain or understand, even more than the things that are explainable and understandable.
(brainyquote.com)
[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.
(imdb.com)
[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.
(imdb.com)
The stage was our school, our home, our life.
(brainyquote.com)
A happy life is one spent in learning, earning, and yearning.
(brainyquote.com)
What you get is a living, what you give is a life.
(brainyquote.com)
Marriage is a business. A woman cannot combine a career and marriage ... I should not wish to unite the two. (1919)
(imdb.com)
I believe that marriage is a career in itself. I have preferred a stage career to a marriage career. (1939)
(imdb.com)
I don`t care for modern films -- all crashing cars and close-ups of people`s feet.
(imdb.com)
Young man, if God had wanted you to see me that way, he would have put your eyes in your bellybutton.
(brainyquote.com)
Lionel Barrymore first played my grandfather, later my father, and finally, he played my husband. If he`d lived, I`m sure I`d have played his mother. That`s the way it is in Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older.
(imdb.com)
I can`t remember a time when I wasn`t acting, so I can`t imagine what I would do if I stopped now.
(imdb.com)
[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.
(imdb.com)
Oh, well. At least I won`t have to lose to Cher. (after failing to receive a best actress nomination for The Whales of August)
(imdb.com)
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.
(imdb.com)
Never get caught acting.
(brainyquote.com)
Trivia
Lillian and her sister Dorothy were once offered the chance of buying the Sunset Strip in Hollywood for $300. The Gish sisters talked the matter over, weighing the pros and cons. They then went down to fashionable Bullock's and bought a dress each instead.
(imdb.com)
Related, on her mother's side, to U.S. President Zachary Taylor.
(imdb.com)
Every year on Gish's birthdate, October 14, New York's Museum of Modern Art shows at least one of her films or TV performances.
(imdb.com)
Daughter of actress Mary Gish.
(imdb.com)
American Film Institute Life Achievement Award [1984]
(imdb.com)
Interred at Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York City, New York, USA.
(imdb.com)
The Smashing Pumpkins first Album was named "Gish" after her.
(imdb.com)
Blue eyes
(imdb.com)
Was named #17 Actress, The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends
(imdb.com)
After her amicable parting with D.W. Griffith she joined MGM 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, MGM had Garbo on the set of The Scarlet Letter (1926) every day to watch Gish work as part of her apprenticeship.
(imdb.com)
Gish was taught how to shoot by notorious outlaw Al J. Jennings, who was in one of her films. 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. She found that she liked shooting and over the years had developed into an expert shot.
(imdb.com)
Ended her relationship with George Jean Nathan when she discovered he was Jewish by birth, although his mother was a convent-educated convert to Roman Catholicism and he himself shared Gish's right-wing views.
(imdb.com)
In 1970 she wrote to congratulate California's First Lady Nancy Davis 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.
(imdb.com)
Left her entire estate, which was valued at several million dollars, to Helen Hayes.
(imdb.com)
She once autographed an 8mm copy of her film The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913) for a young filmmaker named Harry McDevitt.
(imdb.com)
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.
(imdb.com)
Career spanned 75 years.
(imdb.com)
Sister of Dorothy Gish.
(imdb.com)
She was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party and an active anti-communist. She went to her grave denying that The Birth of a Nation (1915) was racist, despite ongoing protests that it was a glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. She was thrilled to be invited to the White House by President Warren G. Harding following the premiere of Orphans of the Storm (1921), and met with Benito Mussolini, whom she greatly admired, while filming Romola (1924) in Italy. She was an ardent supporter of the America First Committee, which was opposed to the United States entering World War II, and refused to vote for either Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Wendell Willkie in 1940 because both "were more interested in other countries than in their own.".
(imdb.com)
Was of French, English and German descent.
(imdb.com)
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."
(imdb.com)
On 11 June 1976, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Film Theater was dedicated on the Bowling Green State University campus in Bowling Green, Ohio, USA.
(imdb.com)
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.
(imdb.com)
John Gilbert was infatuated with her, and would mess up his "love scenes" with her in the filming of Boheme, La (1926) on purpose, so he could keep kissing her.
(imdb.com)
Is portrayed by Mackenzie Phillips in The Silent Lovers (1980) (TV)
(imdb.com)
She and Dorothy Gish both started working for D.W. Griffith in the early days of 'American Mutoscope & Biograph [us]'. While it's been claimed that Griffith was immediately infatuated with Lillian, in their first film for him, Biograph's 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.".
(imdb.com)
Lillian and her sister Dorothy were once offered the chance of buying the Sunset Strip in Hollywood for $300. The Gish sisters talked the matter over, weighing the pros and cons. They then went down to fashionable Bullock`s and bought a dress each instead.
She never married or had children.
Member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Left her entire estate, which was valued at several million dollars, to Helen Hayes.
Ended her relationship with George Jean Nathan when she discovered he was Jewish by birth, although his mother was a convent-educated convert to Roman Catholicism and he himself shared Gish`s conservative views.
In 1970 she wrote to congratulate California`s First Lady Nancy Davis 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.
She was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party and an active anti-communist. She went to her grave denying that The Birth of a Nation (1915) was racist, despite ongoing protests that it was a glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. She was thrilled to be invited to the White House by President Warren G. Harding following the premiere of Orphans of the Storm (1921), and met with Benito Mussolini, whom she greatly admired, while filming Romola (1924) in Italy. She was an ardent supporter of the America First Committee, which was opposed to the United States entering World War II, and refused to vote for either Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Wendell Willkie in 1940 because both "were more interested in other countries than in their own.".
Gish was taught how to shoot by notorious outlaw Al J. Jennings, who was in one of her films. 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. She found that she liked shooting and over the years had developed into an expert shot.
She and Dorothy Gish both started working for D.W. Griffith in the early days of `American Mutoscope & Biograph [us]`. While it`s been claimed that Griffith was immediately infatuated with Lillian, in their first film for him, Biograph`s 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.".
Is portrayed by Mackenzie Phillips in The Silent Lovers (1980) (TV)
Was named #17 Actress, The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends
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.
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."
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.
John Gilbert was infatuated with her, and would mess up his "love scenes" with her in the filming of Boheme, La (1926) on purpose, so he could keep kissing her.
After her amicable parting with D.W. Griffith she joined MGM 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, MGM had Garbo on the set of The Scarlet Letter (1926) every day to watch Gish work as part of her apprenticeship.
Related, on her mother`s side, to U.S. President Zachary Taylor.
She once autographed an 8mm copy of her film The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913) for a young filmmaker named Harry McDevitt.
Every year on Gish`s birthdate, October 14, New York`s Museum of Modern Art shows at least one of her films or TV performances.
Career spanned 75 years.
Interred at Saint Bartholomew`s Episcopal Church, New York City, New York, USA.
On 11 June 1976, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Film Theater was dedicated on the Bowling Green State University campus in Bowling Green, Ohio, USA.
The Smashing Pumpkins first Album was named "Gish" after her.
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