
Acting
Lillian Gish
Born 1893-10-14 · Springfield, Ohio, USA
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987. She was a prominent film star of the 1910s and 1920s, particularly associated with the films of director D.W. Griffith, including her leading role in Griffith's seminal Birth of a Nation (1915). Her sound-era film appearances were sporadic, but included memorable roles in the controversial western Duel in the Sun (1946) and the offbeat thriller Night of the Hunter (1955). She did considerable television work from the early 1950s into the 1980s, and closed her career playing, for the first time, opposite Bette Davis in the 1987 film The Whales of August. The American Film Institute (AFI) named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of all time. She was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1971, and in 1984 she received an AFI Life Achievement Award.
Acting credits
7.9In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
The Night of the Hunter
1955
7.1The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916
8.0Based on the first centenary of the largest exporter of films in the world, that is Hollywood, is the story told by its protagonists, actors and writers and other people who made life in this business, interspersing images of famous movies.
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
1995
5.3Michael Burgess is an academic who has written a scholarly book on the American Revolution which Hollywood has bought the film rights to. The arrival of the film crew seriously disrupts him as actors want to change their characters, directors want to re-stage battles, and he becomes infatuated with Faith who will play the female lead in the movie. At the same time, he is fighting with his crazy mother who thinks the Devil lives in her kitchen, and his girlfriend who is talking about commitment.
Sweet Liberty
1986
6.4Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad.
Duel in the Sun
1946
5.9Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
The Birth of a Nation
1915
6.2The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their beloved adopted daughter was stolen from the Kiowa tribe.
The Unforgiven
1960
6.8This special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited from a seven-hour live entertainment marathon that was taped February 17, 1985, at New York's Radio City Music Hall, this sequel to the 1982 "Night of 100 Stars" special features 288 celebrities.
Night of 100 Stars II
1985
5.7Patients and staff at a posh psychiatric clinic clash over who chooses the clinic’s new drapes – but drapes are the least of their problems.
The Cobweb
1955
6.7Lem Siddons is part of a traveling band who has a dream of becoming a lawyer. Deciding to settle down, he finds a job as a stockboy in the general store of a small town. Trying to fit in, he volunteers to become scoutmaster of the newly formed Troop 1. Becoming more and more involved with the scout troop, he finds his plans to become a lawyer being put on the back burner, until he realizes that his life has been fulfilled helping the youth of the small town.
Follow Me, Boys!
1966
6.7In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.
Romola
1924
6.6Adventurous Huck Finn prefers rafting on the Mississippi River rather than being a part of civilization.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1986
7.2A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.
Portrait of Jennie
1948
7.3Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1925
7.3When Letty Mason relocates to West Texas, she finds herself unsettled by the ever-present wind and sand. Arriving at her new home at the ranch of her cousin, Beverly, she receives a surprisingly cold welcome from his wife, Cora. Soon tensions in the family and unwanted attention from a trio of suitors leave Letty increasingly disturbed.
The Wind
1928
5.9Two young girls are sent away to live with their uncle, which sets off a chain of events resulting in an Indian attack on the town.
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
1913
It was Christmas Eve in the south, but the spirit of peace and love did not pervade the northern girl's heart. The gallantry of the young southern swains, however, was more than manifest, when a drunken band of Unionists entered the house, among them her sweetheart. From him was protection needed most. His rival, a Confederate soldier, showed her that character is far above political principle, and true love came into its own.
The Blue or the Gray
1913
A detective agency's chipper mailroom boy (Randy Herman) finds clues the private eyes miss.
Sparrow
1978
5.8The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.
Night of 100 Stars
1982
5.3Documentary portrait of Henri Langlois, co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française.
Langlois
1970
6.9The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl
1919
7.0Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.
The Whales of August
1987
6.4Hounded by the press for shooting a doctor, an ousted Los Angeles policeman works his own case.
Warning Shot
1967
6.0A TV special on the 100th anniversary of the birth of film.
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
1987
