--- name: "Lillian Gish" canonical: "https://film.one/person/lillian-gish" fi1m_id: "lillian-gish" imdb_id: "nm0001273" tmdb_id: 8828 wikidata_id: "Q104183" roles: ["Actor"] born: "14 October 1893" died: "27 February 1993" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 70 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-24T23:37:45.558915+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Lillian Gish ## Identity Lillian Gish - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/lillian-gish - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** lillian-gish - **IMDb ID:** nm0001273 - **TMDB ID:** 8828 - **Wikidata ID:** Q104183 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Gish, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q104183, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001273/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/8828 Actor. Born 14 October 1893 in Springfield, Ohio, USA. Died 27 February 1993. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 14 October 1893, Springfield, Ohio, USA - **Died:** 27 February 1993 - **Active:** 1915–1955 - **Also known as:** Lillian Diana Gish, The First Lady of American Cinema, Dorothy Elizabeth Carter, 릴리안 기쉬, 릴리안 기시, 릴리언 기쉬, 릴리언 기시 - **Frequently works with:** [D.W. Griffith](https://film.one/person/d-w-griffith.md), [Frank E. Woods](https://film.one/person/frank-e-woods.md), [Mae Marsh](https://film.one/person/mae-marsh.md), [Richard Barthelmess](https://film.one/person/richard-barthelmess.md) - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Average Fi1m score:** 70, as actor, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1910s 63 (3), 1950s 91 (1) - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 3 of 4 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 4, History 2, Crime 1, Romance 1, Thriller 1, War 1 - **Screen time:** 10 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $104m across 3 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Gish, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q104183, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001273/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/8828 ## Streaming the US now - **The Criterion Channel:** [*The Night of the Hunter*](https://film.one/film/the-night-of-the-hunter.md) (91) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages*](https://film.one/film/intolerance-loves-struggle-throughout-the-ages.md) (83) - **Apple TV:** [*Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl*](https://film.one/film/broken-blossoms-or-the-yellow-man-and-the-girl.md) (73) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Lillian Gish > The face of silent cinema, and among the first actors to understand that a close-up wants less, not more. Her heroines suffered for Griffith through the 1910s and 1920s; her best late part, Rachel Cooper in *The Night of the Hunter* (1955), refuses to. She does very little and the camera does the rest. Lillian Gish's habit, from the Griffith years on, was to hold still in close-up and let a thought arrive on her face rather than act it out, at a time when most screen acting was stage acting done nearer the lens. Her heroines were fragile, innocent or suffering, usually all three, and the suffering was often real: for *Way Down East* (1920) she went out onto the ice and into the cold and stayed there. Griffith himself, by her account, gave up trying. "He didn't direct me. He said: 'It doesn't matter. She'll do what she pleases anyway.'" The career has three parts. There is the Griffith period, more than sixty films between his shorts at Biograph in 1912 and *Orphans of the Storm* (1922), taking in *The Birth of a Nation* (1915), which made her a star and has been argued over ever since for what it says, *Broken Blossoms* (1919) and *Way Down East*. There are the late silents away from him, including two films with Victor Sjöström and *The Wind* (1928), her last major silent role and, on most accounts, one of her strongest. Then there is the long third act: supporting parts in sound films from the 1930s, a good deal of stage work in the thirties and forties, and character parts on film and television into the 1980s. Her sister Dorothy was beside her for some forty of those films. Some later critics have found the silent Gish excessive by the standards of talking pictures, and we understand the objection without sharing much of it. The films around her are often broad. She rarely is. What has dated is the melodrama, not the woman standing still in the middle of it. The reason to watch her now is *The Night of the Hunter* (1955). Charles Laughton opens his only film as director on Gish telling a Bible story to a ring of children under a sky full of stars, and brings her back late as Rachel Cooper, an old woman with no patience for a man in a good suit. He uses her as what she had been, the face of silent cinema, all eyes and set jaw, and puts that face opposite Robert Mitchum's preacher. It moved us more than we were ready for, and the reason is plain: for twenty years that face had been asked to be afraid, and here Laughton asks it to be the one thing in the film that is not. Start there; it is the one film of hers we have reviewed, and it needs no allowances made for it. Then go back to the Griffiths and the Sjöströms and make the allowances. She is worth them. ## Biography Lillian Gish was an American actress whose film career spanned from 1912 to 1987. She was born Lillian Diana Gish on 14 October 1893 in Springfield, Ohio, and died on 27 February 1993 in New York City. Gish began her career on stage before entering films. She appeared in numerous silent films directed by D. W. Griffith, including *The Birth of a Nation* (1915) as Elsie Stoneman and *Intolerance* (1916). Her later roles included Rachel Cooper in *The Night of the Hunter* (1955), Mattilda Zachary in *The Unforgiven* (1960), and her final film appearance in *The Whales of August* (1987). She also worked extensively in television from the 1950s onwards. Gish received an honorary Academy Award in 1971 and the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1984. *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, encyclopedia.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) - *The Night of the Hunter* (1955), Fi1m 91, as Rachel Cooper — [page](https://film.one/film/the-night-of-the-hunter.md) - *Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl* (1919), Fi1m 73, as Lucy Burrows — [page](https://film.one/film/broken-blossoms-or-the-yellow-man-and-the-girl.md) - *Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages* (1916), Fi1m 83, as The Woman Who Rocks the Cradle — [page](https://film.one/film/intolerance-loves-struggle-throughout-the-ages.md) - *The Birth of a Nation* (1915), Fi1m 32, as Stoneman's Daughter Elsie — [page](https://film.one/film/the-birth-of-a-nation.md) ## Complete filmography (129) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Flapper* (2021), as (archive footage) - *I Am Not a Racist* (2019), as Elsie (archive footage) (uncredited) - *Night Hunter* (2011), Actor - *Sigrid Holmquist* (2010), as Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage) - *D.W. Griffith - Years of Discovery 1909-1913* (2002), Actor - *Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists* (1998), as Lucy - The Girl (archive footage) - *The Silent Feminists: America's First Women Directors* (1993), Thanks - *The Whales of August* (1987), as Sarah Webber - *Sweet Liberty* (1986), as Cecelia Burgess - *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* (1986), as Mrs Loftus - *Hobson's Choice* (1983), as Miss Molly Winkle - *Hambone and Hillie* (1983), as Hillie Radcliffe - *Thin Ice* (1981), as Grandmother - *A Wedding* (1978), as Nettie Sloan - *Sparrow* (1978), as Widow - *The Love Boat* (1977), series, as Mrs. Williams - *Twin Detectives* (1976), as Billy Jo Haskins - *Arsenic and Old Lace* (1969), as Martha Brewster - *The Comedians* (1967), as Mrs. Smith - *Warning Shot* (1967), as Alice Willows - *Follow Me, Boys!* (1966), as Hetty Seibert - *Mrs. Winchester's House* (1963), as Narrator - *Mr. Novak* (1963), series, as Maude Phipps - *The Great Chase* (1962), Actor - *The Alfred Hitchcock Hour* (1962), series, as Bessie Carnby - *The Spiral Staircase* (1961), as Mrs. Warren - *The Defenders* (1961), series, as Louisa Clarendon, Mrs. Cooper - *The Unforgiven* (1960), as Mattilda Zachary - *Orders to Kill* (1958), as Mrs. Summers - *The Alcoa Hour* (1955), series, as Esther Crampton - *Playwrights '56* (1955), series, Actor - *Film Fun* (1955), as (archive footage) - *The Night of the Hunter* (1955), as Rachel Cooper — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/film/the-night-of-the-hunter.md) - *The Cobweb* (1955), as Victoria Inch - *The Trip to Bountiful* (1953), as Carrie Watts - *Schlitz Playhouse of Stars* (1951), series, as Grandma Moses - *Robert Montgomery Presents* (1950), series, Actor - *Portrait of Jennie* (1948), as Mother Mary of Mercy - *The Philco Television Playhouse* (1948), series, as Abby · Narrator, Carrie Watts - *Duel in the Sun* (1946), as Laura Belle McCanles - *Miss Susie Slagle's* (1946), as Miss Susie Slagle - *Top Man* (1943), as Beth Warren - *Commandos Strike at Dawn* (1942), as Mrs. Bergesen - *His Double Life* (1933), as Alice Chalice - *The Movie Album* (1932), as (archive footage) - *One Romantic Night* (1930), as Princess Alexandra - *The Wind* (1928), as Letty - *The Enemy* (1927), as Pauli Arndt - *Annie Laurie* (1927), as Annie Laurie - *The Scarlet Letter* (1927), as Hester Prynne - *La Bohème* (1926), as Mimi - *Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ* (1925), as Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited) - *Romola* (1924), as Romola - *The White Sister* (1923), as Angela Chiaromonte - *From Farm to Fame* (1922), as Lillian Gish - *Orphans of the Storm* (1921), as Henriette Girard - *Way Down East* (1920), as Anna Moore - *Remodeling Her Husband* (1920), Director, Scenario Writer, Story - *The Greatest Question* (1919), as Nellie Jarvis - *True Heart Susie* (1919), as Susie May Trueheart - *Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl* (1919), as Lucy Burrows — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/broken-blossoms-or-the-yellow-man-and-the-girl.md) - *A Romance of Happy Valley* (1919), as Jennie Timberlake - *The Greatest Thing in Life* (1918), as Jeannette Peret · Story - *Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal* (1918), Actor - *The Great Love* (1918), as Susie Broadplains - *Hearts of the World* (1918), as The Girl - Marie Stephenson - *Souls Triumphant* (1917), as Lillian Vale - *The House Built Upon Sand* (1916), as Evelyn Dare - *The Children Pay* (1916), as Millicent - *Diane of the Follies* (1916), as Diane - *Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages* (1916), as The Woman Who Rocks the Cradle — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/intolerance-loves-struggle-throughout-the-ages.md) - *An Innocent Magdalene* (1916), as Dorothy Raleigh - *Sold for Marriage* (1916), as Marfa - *Daphne and the Pirate* (1916), as Daphne La Tour - *Pathways of Life* (1916), Actor - *The Lily and the Rose* (1915), as Mary Randolph - *Captain Macklin* (1915), as Beatrice - *Enoch Arden* (1915), as Annie Lee - *The Lost House* (1915), as Dosia Dale - *The Birth of a Nation* (1915), as Stoneman's Daughter Elsie — Fi1m 32, [page](https://film.one/film/the-birth-of-a-nation.md) - *His Lesson* (1915), as Participant in Mob Scene (uncredited) - *The Sisters* (1914), as May - *The Folly of Anne* (1914), as Anne - *The Tear That Burned* (1914), as Anita - the Truant - *Man's Enemy* (1914), as Grace Lisle - *The Angel of Contention* (1914), as Nettie - the Angel - *Lord Chumley* (1914), as Eleanor Butterworth - *The Rebellion of Kitty Belle* (1914), as Kitty Belle - *Home, Sweet Home* (1914), as Payne's Sweetheart - *The Quicksands* (1914), Actor - *The Hunchback* (1914), as The Orphan - as an Adult - *The Battle of the Sexes* (1914), as Jane Andrews, the daughter - *Judith of Bethulia* (1914), as The Young Mother - *The Green-Eyed Devil* (1914), as Mary Miller - *A Duel for Love* (1914), Actor - *The Conscience of Hassan Bey* (1913), as The Rugmaker's Daughter - *The Battle at Elderbush Gulch* (1913), as Melissa Harlow - *The Blue or the Gray* (1913), Actor - *Madonna of the Storm* (1913), as The Mother - *So Runs the Way* (1913), as Fred's Wife - *A Modest Hero* (1913), as The Wife - *A Woman in the Ultimate* (1913), as Verda - *An Indian's Loyalty* (1913), as The Ranchero's Daughter - *During the Round-Up* (1913), as The Ranchero's Daughter - *The Mothering Heart* (1913), as The Wife - *A Timely Interception* (1913), as The Farmer's Daughter - *Just Gold* (1913), as The First Brother's Sweetheart - *The House of Darkness* (1913), as The Nurse - *The Lady and the Mouse* (1913), as The First Sister - *The Left-Handed Man* (1913), as The Old Soldier's Daughter - *A Misunderstood Boy* (1913), as The Daughter - *The Little Tease* (1913), as Girl in bandana - *The Stolen Bride* (1913), Actor - *The Unwelcome Guest* (1913), as At Auction (uncredited) - *Oil and Water* (1913), as In First Audience (uncredited) - *A Cry for Help* (1912), as The Maid - *The Burglar’s Dilemma* (1912), as Birthday Wellwisher - *The New York Hat* (1912), as Customer in Shop / Outside Church - *Brutality* (1912), as At Theatre - *The Informer* (1912), as Walk on role - *My Baby* (1912), Actor - *Gold and Glitter* (1912), as The Young Woman - *The Musketeers of Pig Alley* (1912), as The Little Lady - *The Painted Lady* (1912), as Belle at Ice Cream Festival - *The One She Loved* (1912), Actor - *In the Aisles of the Wild* (1912), as The Younger Daughter - *So Near, Yet So Far* (1912), as A Friend - *Two Daughters of Eve* (1912), as In Theatre Crowd - *An Unseen Enemy* (1912), as Eldest Sister ## Gallery - ![Lillian Gish](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-0eadd6f4a3f9.jpg) Lillian Gish — Bain News Service; Uploaded by Calliopejen; Edited by jjron., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Lillian_Gish-edit1.jpg/1280px-Lillian_Gish-edit1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Lillian Gish as Princess Alexandra in One Romantic Night (1930) from The New Movie, Feb. 1930](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-424746eb6c13.jpg) Lillian Gish as Princess Alexandra in One Romantic Night (1930) from The New Movie, Feb. 1930 — Kenneth Alexander, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Lillian_Gish_as_Princess_Alexandra.jpg/1280px-Lillian_Gish_as_Princess_Alexandra.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Taken from the December, 1929 edition of Photoplay Magazine](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-e2750f3089fe.png) Taken from the December, 1929 edition of Photoplay Magazine — Photoplay, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Photoplay_1929.12_-_68_-_Lillian_Gish.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Promotional photograph for Jed Harris' 1930 production of Uncle Vanya, starring Lillian Gish](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-edcd569dea32.jpg) Promotional photograph for Jed Harris' 1930 production of Uncle Vanya, starring Lillian Gish — Kenneth Alexander, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Lillian-Gish-Uncle-Vanya-1930.jpg/1280px-Lillian-Gish-Uncle-Vanya-1930.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Lillian Gish](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-135c6666003e.jpg) Lillian Gish — Image via TMDB - ![Lillian Gish](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-94889328dc2b.jpg) Lillian Gish — Image via TMDB - ![Lillian Gish](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-02dfca41b109.jpg) Lillian Gish — Image via TMDB - ![Lillian Gish in Paris in 1983](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-bafcf9658926.jpg) Lillian Gish in Paris in 1983 — Menerbes, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Lilian_Gish.jpg/1280px-Lilian_Gish.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Lauren Bacall and Lillian Gish in The Cobweb (1955) publicity still.](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-b0dd110f116d.jpg) Lauren Bacall and Lillian Gish in The Cobweb (1955) publicity still. — Unknown photographerUnknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Lauren_Bacall_and_Lillian_Gish_1955.jpg/1280px-Lauren_Bacall_and_Lillian_Gish_1955.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Lillian Gish](https://film.one/media/person/95265/gallery-79f4cd1ec62c.jpg) Lillian Gish — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1947: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *Duel in the Sun* ### Golden Globes — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1967: Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (nominated), for *The Comedians* ### Other awards — 6 won, 1 nominated - Independent Spirit Awards 1988: Best Female Lead (nominated), for *The Whales of August* - National Board of Review Award for Best Actress 1987: National Board of Review Award for Best Actress (won), for *The Whales of August* - AFI Life Achievement Award 1984: AFI Life Achievement Award (won) - Kennedy Center Honors 1982: Kennedy Center Honors (won) - Ohio Women's Hall of Fame 1980: Ohio Women's Hall of Fame (won) - Crystal Award 1979: Crystal Award (won) - Academy Honorary Award 1970: Academy Honorary Award (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/lillian-gish