Lillian Gish, a fragile-looking but resilient actress whose career stretched from the silent era to the television age, has died at age 99.
Miss Gish, one of the last surviving stars of silent film, died in her sleep Saturday evening at her Manhattan home, said James Frasher, her manager for the last 25 years."She was film. Film started in 1893, and so did she," Frasher said.
Her film career spanned more than 100 films over 75 years, starting with one- and two-reelers in 1912 and ending with 1987's "The Whales of August." Even before that, she was a child stage actress.
"She was the best," said Mike Kaplan, who produced "The Whales of August."
Miss Gish was a favorite of director D.W. Griffith and charmed generations of moviegoers as the pure-hearted daughter in his 1915 Civil War epic "The Birth of a Nation."
Records of Clark County, Ohio, indicate she was born in Springfield on Oct. 14, 1893, although she insisted in a 1987 interview that she was only 88 years old.
Her father drifted away when she was a small child, and her mother, Mary, took her two daughters to New York City. Out of desperation, Mrs. Gish went on the stage. Lillian and her sister, Dorothy, a year younger, soon followed - Lillian got her first role at the age of 5.
It was Mary Pickford, who had known the sisters on stage and became a lifelong friend, who persuaded Griffith in 1912 to cast the Gishes in his silent films.
The introduction to Griffith was the start of a close friendship and professional partnership. He encouraged Lillian's dance and voice lessons and in 1920 made her director of a movie starring her sister, "Remodeling Her Husband."
Together, Griffith and Miss Gish made 40 films, including the groundbreaking "The Birth of a Nation," which President Woodrow Wilson said was "like writing history with lightning."
Miss Gish titled her 1969 autobiography "The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me," and she always referred to him in interviews as "Mr. Griffith," though some said he was the love of her life.
In 1922, urged by the independent director to cash in on her growing fame, she moved on to other studios. MGM gave her a rare deal in 1925, including artistic control of her films.
She spent much of the rest of her career in the theater.
Her later film credits included "Duel in the Sun" and "Night of the Hunter." On television, she portrayed Grandma Moses and appeared in "The Day Lincoln was Shot." She also starred in the original television production of "The Trip to Bountiful."
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized her work in 1970, presenting her with an honorary Oscar, and the American Film Institute presented her with its lifetime achievement award for 1984. In 1982, she received the Kennedy Center Honor.