GISH, LILLIAN; AND GISH, DOROTHY

born Oct. 14, 1893, Springfield, Ohio, U.S. died Feb. 27, 1993, New York, N.Y. born March 11, 1898, Massillon, Ohio, U.S. died June 4, 1968, Rapallo, Italy in full, respectively, Lillian Diana Gish and Dorothy Elizabeth Gish American actresses who were major figures in the early motion picture industry, particularly in director D.W. Griffith's silent-film classics. Lillian, regarded as one of the most creative cinema artists, was also a stage actress and a revered name in show business for more than half a century. The Gish sisters grew up from roughly 1900 in New York City. Dorothy made her stage debut at age four, Lillian at five. They toured with various companies, often together but occasionally separately. During their years as child actresses they formed close friendships with Mary Pickford (then still known as Gladys Mary Smith), who in 1912 introduced them to Griffith. Immediately struck by their beauty and charm, he gave them small parts in a series of silent movies, beginning with An Unseen Enemy (1912), and the next year placed them under contract to his studio. Almost from the start Lillian was the more popular of the two. An extra measure of winsome appeal in such two-reelers as The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), The Mothering Heart (1913), and Judith of Bethulia (1914) won her a large audience of admirers; and after her appearance in Birth of a Nation (1915), she was established as one of Hollywood's top stars. In Intolerance (1916) and Broken Blossoms (1919) she embodied the ideal of the innocent, vulnerable heroine. Dorothy, the more vivacious sister, attracted a following of her own in The Mountain Rat (1914), The Mysterious Shot (1914), and other films. They appeared together in several of Griffith's greatest films, including Home, Sweet Home (1914), The Sisters (1914), Hearts of the World (1918), and Orphans of the Storm (1922). In 1920 Lillian directed Dorothy in Remodeling Her Husband. They both left Griffith in 1922, Dorothy going to Paramount Studios and Lillian to the Tiffany Company and in 1925 to MGM. Dorothy's subsequent films included Romola (1924, in which Lillian also appeared), Clothes Make the Pirate (1925), and two movies made in England, Nell Gwyn (1926) and Madame Pompadour (1927). Lillian's later films included The White Sister (1923), La Bohme (1926), The Scarlet Letter (1926), The Wind (1928), and One Romantic Night (1930), her first sound picture. With the coming of the talkies they both left the screen for a time and returned to the stage. Dorothy enjoyed a number of Broadway and London successes in Young Love (1928), The Inspector General (1930), By Your Leave (1934), Missouri Legend (1938), Life with Father (1940), Magnificent Yankee (1946), The Man (1950), and other plays. She continued to appear from time to time in films, notably Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944). Her last performances were in a 1956 Broadway revival of Life with Father and in the film The Cardinal (1963). With great success, Lillian played on the stage in Uncle Vanya (1930) and subsequently appeared in Camille (1932), Nine Pine Street (1933), Within the Gates (1934), Hamlet (1936), The Old Maid (1936), The Star Wagon (1937), Life with Father (1940, in which she enjoyed a record run in Chicago while Dorothy was starring with the road company), Mr. Sycamore (1942), Magnificent Yankee (1946), Crime and Punishment (1947), The Curious Savage (1950), The Trip to Bountiful (1953), The Family Reunion (1958), All the Way Home (1960), I Never Sang for My Father (1967), and many others. Her last Broadway appearance was in A Musical Jubilee in 1975. She continued also to appear occasionally in movies, among them The Commandos Strike at Dawn (1943), Miss Susie Slagle's (1946), Duel in the Sun (1947), Night of the Hunter (1955), The Unforgiven (1960), The Comedians (1967), A Wedding (1978), Hambone and Hillie (1984), Sweet Liberty (1986), and her final film, The Whales of August (1987), with Bette Davis. She also appeared on television in a number of distinguished dramatic presentations, most notably in Arsenic and Old Lace with Helen Hayes in 1969. Her autobiographical book The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me was published in 1969, followed by two more volumes of memoirs, Dorothy and Lillian Gish (1973) and An Actor's Life for Me (1987). She was awarded a special honorary Academy Award in 1971. She also received a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute in 1984.