Lillian Gish

LILLIAN GISH d1993. American actress, director and screenwriter. Her film acting career spanned 75 years and she was called "The First Lady of American Cinema" and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her as the 17th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema. Films and performances from the silent era include ; Intolerance (1916) / Broken Blossoms (1919) / Way Down East (1920) / Orphans of the Storm (1921) / La Bohème (1926) and The Wind (1928). At the dawn of the sound era, she returned to the stage and appeared in film infrequently, including well-known leading roles in the western Duel in the Sun (1946) and the thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the former. She also had major supporting roles in Portrait of Jennie (1948) / A Wedding (1978) and Sweet Liberty (1986). She also did considerable television work from the early 1950s into the 1980s and closed her career (playing opposite Bette Davis) in the 1987 film The Whales of August. She died in New York aged 99 on February 27th 1993