Gish is widely regarded as the greatest actress of the silent screen. Beginning with D.W. Griffith in 1912, she had a career lasting until 1987. Gish's deceptively frail looks lead her to specialize in fragile, virginal parts, but her skilled acting and particular talent for hysterical outbursts give these characters a richness they would have lacked in less capable hands. Gish is one of the greatest divas of the silent screen.
There is a wealth of material available on Gish, much more than I can list here. The materials below can get you started and point you to other sources:
Lillian Gish by Mark Garrett Cooper, in the Women Film Pioneers Project
Further Reading
Gish, Lillian. Lillian Gish; the movies, Mr. Griffith, and me Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Gish, Lillian. An Actor's Life for Me. Viking Kestrel, 1987.
Affron, Charles. Lillian Gish : her legend, her life. New York : Scribner, 2001.
Oderman, Stuart. Lillian Gish : a life on stage and screen. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, c2000.
Silent Films Available on Video
An Unseen Enemy (1912), The New York Hat (1912) and The Mothering Heart (1913)
in "A Corner in wheat & selected Biograph shorts, 1909-1913," available from Movies Unlimited The House of Darkness (1913)
in "The Female of the species and other films by D.W. Griffith," available from Movies Unlimited The Battle at Elderbrush Gulch (1913) and The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1913)
in "The Musketeers of Pig Alley and Selected Biograph Shorts," available from Movies Unlimited Judith of Bethulia (1914)
Available from Movies Unlimited Home Sweet Home (1914)
Available from Movies Unlimited The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Available from Image Entertainment (DVD) Intolerance (1916)
Available from Image Entertainment (DVD) Sold For Marriage (1916)
Available from Nostalgia Family Video Hearts of the World (1918)
Available from Movies Unlimited The Romance of Happy Valley (1918)
Available from Movies Unlimited True Heart Susie (1919)
Available from Movies Unlimited The Greatest Question (1919)
Available from Movies Unlimited Broken Blossoms (1919)
Available from Kino Video (DVD) Way Down East (1920)
Available from Movies Unlimited (VHS and DVD) Orphans of the Storm (1921)
Available from Movies Unlimited The White Sister (1923)
Available from Nostalgia Family Video Romola (1925)
Available from Nostalgia Family Video The Wind (1928)
Available from Movies Unlimited
