Lillian Gish

Born: 1893-10-14

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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lillian Gish, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.


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Way Down East

as Anna Moore
Released: 1920-09-03

A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild...

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The Unforgiven

as Mattilda Zachary
Released: 1960-04-06

The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their beloved adopted...

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Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

as The Woman Who Rocks the Cradle
Released: 1916-09-04

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven...

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The Night of the Hunter

as Rachel Cooper
Released: 1955-08-26

In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the...

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Duel in the Sun

as Laura Belle McCanles
Released: 1946-12-31

Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds...

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The Birth of a Nation

as Stoneman's Daughter Elsie
Released: 1915-02-08

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons,...

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Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

as Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)
Released: 1925-12-25

Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with...

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Portrait of Jennie

as Mother Mary of Mercy
Released: 1948-12-25

A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.

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And the Oscar Goes To...

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2014-02-01

The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND...

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The Love Goddesses

as (archive footage)
Released: 1965-03-03

This insightful documentary features some of the major and most beautiful actresses to grace the...

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Orphans of the Storm

as Henriette Girard
Released: 1921-12-28

France, on the eve of the French Revolution. Henriette and Louise have been raised together as...

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Broken Blossoms

as Lucy Burrows
Released: 1919-05-13

The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a...

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Sweet Liberty

as Cecelia Burgess
Released: 1986-05-16

Michael has written a schollarly book on the revolutionary war. He has sold the film rights. The...

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AFI Life Achievement Award: 50th Anniversary Special

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2023-12-30

TCM host Ben Mankiewicz hosts this 50th anniversary special, with archival footage from 50 years...

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The Cobweb

as Victoria Inch
Released: 1955-06-07

Patients and staff at a posh psychiatric clinic clash over who chooses the clinic’s new drapes -...

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Night of 100 Stars

as Self
Released: 1982-03-08

The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took...

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Night of 100 Stars II

as Self
Released: 1985-03-10

This special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited...

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The Wind

as Letty
Released: 1928-09-15

When Letty Mason relocates to West Texas, she finds herself unsettled by the ever-present wind...

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The Musketeers of Pig Alley

as The Little Lady
Released: 1912-10-31

A man recognizes the thief who had previously robbed him as one of the men involved in an...

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Follow Me, Boys!

as Hetty Seibert
Released: 1966-12-01

Lem Siddons is part of a traveling band who has a dream of becoming a lawyer. Deciding to settle...

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The Comedians

as Mrs. Smith
Released: 1967-10-31

American and British tourists get caught up in political unrest in Haiti.

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Warning Shot

as Alice Willows
Released: 1967-01-18

Hounded by the press for shooting a doctor, an ousted Los Angeles policeman works his own case.

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La Bohème

as Mimi
Released: 1926-03-13

It is 1830 in Paris and the rent is due, but the money is not there. An article here, a painting...

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A Wedding

as Nettie Sloan
Released: 1978-08-29

Muffin's wedding to Dino Corelli is to be a big affair. Except the ageing priest isn't too sure...

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The Painted Lady

as Belle at Ice Cream Festival
Released: 1912-10-24

A lonely young woman lives with her strict father who forbids her to wear make-up. One day at an...

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The Scarlet Letter

as Hester Prynne
Released: 1927-01-08

In Puritan Boston, seamstress Hester Prynne and kindly Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale fall in love....

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The Whales of August

as Sarah Webber
Released: 1987-10-14

Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.

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The Spiral Staircase

as Mrs. Warren
Released: 1961-10-04

Based on the screenplay by Mel Dinelli, this story revolves around Helen Warren, a beautiful...

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Cannes: All Access

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2007-10-27

From its simple beginnings in 1939 in a sleepy beach town in the south of France, the...

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Arsenic and Old Lace

as Martha Brewster
Released: 1969-04-02

A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs,...

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Hobson's Choice

as Miss Molly Winkle
Released: 1983-12-21

Daughter of the owner of a shoe store rebels against her father by marrying one of his employees.

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The Women Who Run Hollywood

as Herself (archive footage)
Released: 2016-05-16

The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who...

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True Heart Susie

as Susie May Trueheart
Released: 1919-06-01

Susie secretly loves her neighbor, William Jenkins, but neither, it seems, can confess their...

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Commandos Strike at Dawn

as Mrs. Bergesen
Released: 1942-12-30

A gentle widower, enraged at Nazi atrocities against his peaceful Norwegian fishing village,...

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Miss Susie Slagle's

as Miss Susie Slagle
Released: 1946-03-04

A student nurse falls in love with a young intern in 1910 Baltimore, but tragedy ensues when he...

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Romola

as Romola
Released: 1924-12-06

In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces...

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The Legend of Rudolph Valentino

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 1961-05-24

A documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life,...

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An Unseen Enemy

as Eldest Sister
Released: 1912-09-09

The physician's death orphans his two adolescent daughters. Their older brother is able to...

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Orders to Kill

as Mrs. Summers
Released: 1958-07-25

A grounded American fighter pilot is switched to espionage on a special job in which he must...

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Judith of Bethulia

as The Young Mother
Released: 1914-03-08

Griffith adapts the story of the Apocryphal Book of Judith to the screen. During the siege of...

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In the Aisles of the Wild

as The Younger Daughter
Released: 1912-10-14

A widower and his two daughters live in the wilds of the north woods. They form the acquaintance...

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Thin Ice

as Grandmother
Released: 1981-02-17

A teacher falls in love with a student, and deals with the reactions of the people around her.

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Hambone and Hillie

as Hillie Radcliffe
Released: 1983-04-24

An elderly woman searches for her lost dog. Director Roy Watts' 1984 drama stars Lillian Gish,...

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The New York Hat

as Customer in Shop / Outside Church
Released: 1912-12-05

To fulfill a dying mother's bequest for her daughter, the town pastor purchases the daughter a...

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A Romance of Happy Valley

as Jennie Timberlake
Released: 1919-01-26

John Logan leaves his parents and sweetheart in bucolic Happy Valley to make his fortune in the...

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Home, Sweet Home

as Payne's Sweetheart
Released: 1914-05-16

John Howard Payne leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his...

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Brutality

as At Theatre
Released: 1912-12-02

An abusive father and husband attends a play one night and sees that the "villain" in the piece...

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Charles Laughton Directs 'The Night of the Hunter'

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2002-08-15

An assembled compilation of footage from rushes, outtakes, and behind-the-scenes moments...

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Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2008-08-29

This documentary traces the life and work of the legendary "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford,...

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The Enemy

as Pauli Arndt
Released: 1927-12-08

Carl Behrend, son of a wealthy businessman, marries Pauli Arndt, daughter of a pacifist...

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One Romantic Night

as Princess Alexandra
Released: 1930-04-30

A princess is forced to choose between a charming tutor and a rakish prince.

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A Timely Interception

as The Farmer's Daughter
Released: 1913-06-07

A farmer has saved all his life to pay for his daughter's wedding, but when his brother is fired...

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Enoch Arden

as Annie Lee
Released: 1915-04-08

Seamen Enoch Arden returns home after a long absence marooned on a desert island. At home he...

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Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal

as uncredited
Released: 1918-11-17

Instead of buying bonds, Lillian buys new clothes. Then she has a dream that her home has been...

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Langlois

as Self
Released: 1970-09-19

Documentary portrait of Henri Langlois, co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française.

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An Innocent Magdalene

as Dorothy Raleigh
Released: 1916-06-18

When Dorothy's Southern, aristocratic father Colonel Raleigh refuses to let her marry Forbes...

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Top Man

as Beth Warren
Released: 1943-09-17

In this WW II musical, a young man suddenly finds himself in charge of his family when his...

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Black Shadows on a Silver Screen

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 1975-04-19

Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a...

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Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists

as Lucy - The Girl (archive footage)
Released: 1998-01-01

The careers of D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin are...

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So Near, Yet So Far

as A Friend
Released: 1912-09-29

It's love at first sight for the Boy, but obstacles-- namely shyness, and the temerity of other...

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The House of Darkness

as The Nurse
Released: 1913-05-10

A potentially violent patient in an insane asylum is calmed when he hears a nurse playing the...

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Twin Detectives

as Billy Jo Haskins
Released: 1976-05-01

Identical twin brothers who own a detective agency hatch a plan to expose a phony group of...

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

as Mrs Loftus
Released: 1986-02-10

Adventurous Huck Finn prefers rafting on the Mississippi River rather than being a part of...

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The Battle of the Sexes

as Jane Andrews, the daughter
Released: 1914-04-12

Frank Andrews is a successful businessman. He has always found pride and joy in the company of...

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His Double Life

as Alice Chalice
Released: 1933-12-14

Priam Farrel is a celebrated artist but a social recluse. When his valet dies of a sudden...

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The Battle at Elderbush Gulch

as Melissa Harlow
Released: 1913-12-01

Two young girls are sent away to live with their uncle, which sets off a chain of events...

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The Greatest Question

as Nellie Jarvis
Released: 1919-12-27

Young Nellie Jarvis, daughter of a wandering couple, witnesses the murder of a woman by a man...

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Annie Laurie

as Annie Laurie
Released: 1927-05-10

The story of the famous battle between the Scots clans of Macdonald and Campbell, and the young...

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The Comedians in Africa

as Self (uncredited)
Released: 1967-08-31

Behind the scenes short documentary about the cast and crew during the filming of The Comedians.

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The Burglar’s Dilemma

as Birthday Wellwisher
Released: 1912-12-16

In this latter day Cain and Abel story, a jealous brother strikes down his sibling just as a...

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The White Sister

as Angela Chiaromonte
Released: 1923-09-05

Angela Chiaromonte is the daughter of a wealthy Italian prince who is killed in a fall from his...

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The Mothering Heart

as The Wife
Released: 1913-06-21

A young couple struggle to get ahead, the wife always assuaging the troubles of her melancholy...

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Two Daughters of Eve

as In Theatre Crowd
Released: 1912-09-19

Calumny is one of the most despicable crimes against our neighbor, and while the wife in this...

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A Cry for Help

as The Maid
Released: 1912-12-23

Knocked down by an automobile, the intoxicated tramp is taken to the doctor's house, received...

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I Am Not a Racist

as Elsie
Released:

A parody of D. W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation", "I Am Not a Racist" rearranges the scenes...

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My Baby

as uncredited
Released: 1912-11-14

When the double wedding takes two daughters away from the old man at once, the youngest, now the...

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Screen Snapshots (Series 1, No. 20)

as Herself
Released: 1921-02-22

Intimate views of the movie stars of the Silent Era, at work and play; featuring Sessue...

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The Greatest Thing in Life

as Jeannette Peret
Released: 1918-12-22

A lost film. Leo Peret has a small quiet tobacco shop in Greenwich Village. Edward Livingston, a...

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The Lady and the Mouse

as The First Sister
Released: 1913-04-26

The question is, would the young tramp really have fallen in love with the groceryman's daughter...

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The Unwelcome Guest

as At Auction (uncredited)
Released: 1913-03-15

Just before she dies, an elderly married woman stashes the horde of money she's secretly...

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Daphne and the Pirate

as Daphne La Tour
Released: 1916-03-04

Philip de Mornay, a courtier in the French royal court of the 18th century, falls in love with...

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Hearts of the World

as The Girl - Marie Stephenson
Released: 1918-03-11

A group of youngsters grow up and love in a peaceful French village. But war intrudes and peace...

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The Informer

as Walk on role
Released: 1912-11-21

The young lover leaving home at the opening of the war to join the Confederate Army, tells his...

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An Indian's Loyalty

as The Ranchero's Daughter
Released: 1913-08-15

Suspected of theft, the Indian was discharged on the ranch-hand's accusation, but the foreman's...

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D.W. Griffith - Years of Discovery 1909-1913

as uncredited
Released: 2002-09-10

In the span of five years, pioneering director D.W. Griffith delivered some 450 films for the...

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The Angel of Contention

as Nettie - the Angel
Released: 1914-07-05

Nettie is beloved by all the boys in the mining camp. Magoon, a big, jovial miner, loves her...

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Sold for Marriage

as Marfa
Released: 1916-04-15

A poor Russian girl's beauty leads her unscrupulous uncle to bring her to the United States....

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The Tear That Burned

as Anita - the Truant
Released: 1914-11-08

The Tear That Burned is a silent movie drama.

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The Rebellion of Kitty Belle

as Kitty Belle
Released: 1914-06-14

Kitty, the pretty young wife of a Texas businessman, feels neglected and unwanted as her husband...

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Lillian Gish

as Herself
Released: 1983-01-01

New York, summer 1983. Jeanne Moreau goes to meet Lillian Gish to film a portrait of her. The...

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Souls Triumphant

as Lillian Vale
Released: 1917-05-19

Lillian Vale is the naïve and unworldly daughter of minister Josiah Vale. Swept off her feet by...

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The One She Loved

as uncredited
Released: 1912-10-21

Roy Norris, a young author, proposes to pretty Mary Ford and is accepted. The first year or more...

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Night Hunter

as uncredited
Released: 2011-04-01

In this handmade film, composed of more than four thousand collages, the actress Lillian Gish is...

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The Little Tease

as Girl in bandana
Released: 1913-04-12

The supposition was that she was born a tease, for from her first teeth to the time she was...

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Gold and Glitter

as The Young Woman
Released: 1912-11-11

As the husband leaves for the lumber regions, his wife gives him a memory message to be opened...

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The Sisters

as May
Released: 1914-11-29

May and her younger sister, Carol, live in a small town. May is the more lovely of the two, but...

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Sigrid Holmquist

as Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage)
Released: 2010-10-08

The story of Swedish silent film actress Sigrid Holmquist's life (1899-1970), by using the...

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Moving Pictures: 'The Night of the Hunter'

as Self
Released: 1995-02-19

Short documentary about Charles Laughton's 1995 film "The Night of the Hunter," with interviews...

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Mrs. Winchester's House

as Narrator
Released: 1963-10-31

Documentary about the life and legend of Sarah L. Winchester, heiress to the Winchester...

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The Lost House

as Dosia Dale
Released: 1915-03-25

Before his niece and ward, Dosia Dale, comes of age, her uncle, who has spent her entire...

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Oil and Water

as In First Audience (uncredited)
Released: 1913-02-10

A stage dancer (Sweet) and a serious-type homebody (Walthall) discover, after marriage, that...

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The Children Pay

as Millicent
Released: 1916-11-26

What will become of the Children in a home divided....

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Lillian Gish: The Actor's Life for Me

as Herself, Archive footage
Released: 1988-07-11

Called "the first lady of the silent screen," Lillian Gish was the archetypal silent film...

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The Great Love

as Susie Broadplains
Released: 1918-08-11

Jim Young of Youngstown, Pennsylvania, reads of the German war atrocities and decides to enlist...

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A Woman in the Ultimate

as Verda
Released: 1913-09-03

The unwilling dupe of her step-father, she became the decoy of the wealthy young man, but at the...

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From Farm to Fame

as Lillian Gish
Released: 1922-10-01

A two-reel comedy featuring Corliss Palmer, First Prize Winner of the 1920 Fame and Fortune...

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The Flapper

as (archival footage)
Released: 2021-04-08

The buoyant energy of a modern woman who bobs her hair and dances to jazz is too often...

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The Love Boat

as Mrs. Williams
First aired: 1977-09-24

Passengers who search for romantic nights aboard a beautiful ship travelling to tropical or...

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The Dick Cavett Show

as Self - Guest
First aired: 1968-06-06

The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various...

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The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

as Bessie Carnby
First aired: 1962-09-20

A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of...

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Robert Montgomery Presents

as uncredited
First aired: 1950-01-30

Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC...

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The Philco Television Playhouse

as Abby
First aired: 1948-10-03

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC...

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The Philco Television Playhouse

as Narrator
First aired: 1948-10-03

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC...

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The Philco Television Playhouse

as Carrie Watts
First aired: 1948-10-03

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC...

TV Show page

The Ed Sullivan Show

as Self
First aired: 1948-06-20

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June...

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The Kennedy Center Honors

as Self
First aired: 1978-12-28

The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their...

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The American Film Institute Salute to ...

as Self
First aired: 1973-04-02

In 1973 the American Film Institute initiated its Life Achievement Award, to be presented to a...

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Tony Awards

as Self - Presenter
First aired: 1956-04-01

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award,...

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Tony Awards

as Self - Award Accepter
First aired: 1956-04-01

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award,...

TV Show page

The Defenders

as Louisa Clarendon
First aired: 1961-09-16

The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed...

TV Show page

The Defenders

as Mrs. Cooper
First aired: 1961-09-16

The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed...

TV Show page

Mr. Novak

as Maude Phipps
First aired: 1963-09-24

Mr. Novak is an American dramatic series starring James Franciscus in the title role, which...

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The Alcoa Hour

as Esther Crampton
First aired: 1955-10-16

The Alcoa Hour is an American anthology television series that was aired live on NBC from 1955...

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Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

as Grandma Moses
First aired: 1951-10-05

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars is an anthology series that was telecast from 1951 until 1959 on CBS....

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Hollywood

as Self
First aired: 1980-01-08

A 1980 documentary series exploring the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios...

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