Talk:Lillian Gish

Please sign your posts

 * Please sign your name using three tildes (~). If you use four, you can add a datestamp too. This would be helpful to follow who is suggesting what to whom. Doc 15:09, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Cher Slam
Can anyone source the comment allegedly made by Gish about Cher? It seems very dubious and out of character for her to have publicly criticized another performer.

She didn't criticize or slam Cher, or say anything remotely nasty; in fact she merely faced what another entertainer with her pedigree would have regarded as an insult or a heartbreak with remarkably good spirits, and displayed her class, discretion, goodwill, grace and character; qualities, all of which are in short supply in today's Hollywood.

Rms125a@hotmail.com 01:34, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Not a good source
Gish acted for Biograph long before 1914, for instance in "Musketeers of Pig Alley" (1912). Gish worked with Mary Pickford in 1912, too, and so could hardly have gotten to know her in 1914. The rest of this thin entry seems factually correct, if narrowly slanted.

I fixed that little date problem a while back. True, the article was pretty thin back then; thank goodness others have taken the time to flesh it out a bit.

Relationship w/ Harron?
The questions about Lillian's off-screen relationship w/ DW are well documented, as are her relationships with Duell & George Nathan but I'm wondering where the information about her involvement with Robert Harron comes from - I know Dorothy Gish was seeing Harron for a while but have never heard anything (that I can remember) about Lillian and Bobby being anything more than good friends or on speculation that they were otherwise.

I'm going to remove this material--if a reliable source can be cited, it can always be added again.Devil Doll 01:42, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Thank you, Devil Doll. I actually took the Bobby Harron reference out once before, but somebody put it back in.

DAR membership
Gish was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. If someone wants to work that in somewhere, here is a cite for it:  . The category   should also be added, once it is supported in the article. Crockspot 01:34, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Mary Robinson McConnell's religion
What relevance to the article has the phrase "The sisters' mother, Mary Robinson McConnell (an Episcopalian)" ? This seems to be more about the contributor's (apparent) Anglican sympathies than the subject at hand. El charangista 01:18, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

in need of references
this page is badly in need of some references. somebody must do this. Missy1234 00:37, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Gish/de Guiche
There seems to be some dispute about her original surname - references to de Guiche have been reverted. However, her 'official website' (apparently run on behalf of her estate) lists her Birth Name as Lillian Diana de Guiche. Is there a reason why this should not be used? Pontificake (talk) 08:42, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

"Lilian de Guiche". I agree, knowing the origin of such a woman is most interesting : the "de Guiche" are a very famous family originated from Navarre , in the south-west of France , a mountainous province limiting France with Spain (so , Henry the IVth , our "green-galant"  was king "of France and Navarre" , and by the way , kept a woman of the de Guiche family as a beloved mistress for about eight years ...). Most members of that family are recorded in our history for both their charm and audacity : they could as well dispute to Louis the XIVth the possession of one of the royal mistresses ( about I675), or fall charging at the head of their cavalry squadron against the prussians ( so did two brothers, in I870). "We are what our ancestors made us", said Lao-Tzeu , and we can perfectly detect in the great eyes , gorgeous brown hair and self-restrained but under-burning charm of Miss Lilian Gish all the blood of her navarran lineage ... Besides, her stage-name "Lilian Gish" begins virginally , and ends smackingly  : most arousing ..."El duende" , asi se diria , no ? ( eso para "El Charanguero" Arapaima (talk) 10:32, 31 January 2008

I also feel some of her geneology should perhaps be listed. Why? Her ancestor Joseph Barnard founded Deerfield, Massachusetts. Other ancestors were a brigadier major in the French and Indian War, an Ohio state senator and Lillian's great-grandmother Emily Ward Robinson was the first woman from Ohio to attend Mount Holyoke College. Lillian was also related to President Zachary Taylor. Wayne (talk) 05:51, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
 * According to Lillian Gish's official website which is run by her estate her birthname was Lillian Diana de Guiche. However it is believed that although it was not in fact really her birthname, Lillian herself believed it was as she had no contact with her fathers family and relied on her mother who was obsessed with geneology and the families upper class conections and may have bent the truth. Lillians movie bio (released with Orphans of the Storm) lists her birth name as de Guiche. While her fathers name was indeed Gish the first Gish who immigrated to the USA was Matthias Gisch. The de Guiche name should be included in the page and in fact I believe the English WP is the only version that does not do so.

AND LILIAN GISH SEX-APPEAL ?
Excuse me, but I did not see any hint to what makes after all the main part of an actor's success , what makes masses of people file at the entry of dark halls the world over : sex appeal. Lilian Gish's sex appeal, though ( or because )pudic and subdued , was thought great , and this for many years along. Acounted for that her beautiful classical face oval, superb gorgeous hair , big clear eyes ( black&white movies perfectly enhanced that eye hue , and all those who have stared in Michelle Morgan's fathomless wells when Jean Gabin clutches her and whispers "T'as de beaux yeux , tu sais , you got beautiful eyes , y'know ..." will agree...). Her body, most of the time hidden under the heavy finery à la mode in her times , kept slender and well shaped. So, who , at the end of " The wind" ( I927),  does not want to take away that fine slacks-rigged taut girl from the sand-box in which she cleans the bunch's plates , and install her in the surroundings she deserves ? Later, she could look both maternal and untamable , as when she mounts guard on her porch and repells , pum-gun in hand , the fake preacher prowling in the dark ( "Night of the hunter"). And finally who, seeing her in " Whales in August"( I988 ) , would'nt have elected her for grand-mother ? So, Lilian Gish suceeded in moving and stirring up men from about 19IO to about 199O : who are the actresses who did better ? ( NB : Michelle Morgan & Jean Gabin played in a now classical french B&W movie : " Quai des brumes" ( "Foggy wharf" ...) by Marcel Carné (1938), ans since then , EVERY french male has at least once said in suitable cironstances : "T'as de beaux yeux , tu sais"...). signed 91.164.79.210 (talk) 09:27, 31 January 2008 (UTC) user arapaima, who gives away authorization to use his prose in good earnest ... 2008:OI:31

WP:WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers priority assessment
Per debate and discussion re: assessment of the approximate 100 top priority articles of the project, this article has been included as a top priority article. Wildhartlivie (talk) 11:40, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

America First Party… and Possible Blacklisting
Lillian Gish's involvement with the party are a matter of historical record, but only one website claims she was blacklisted for that, and I have removed. Her biography makes no reference to any blacklisting--Stetsonharry (talk) 20:49, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Birth date and other information
Is Lillian Gish born in 1893? According to [] site,it was said that she was born in 1896 and there are some infomation are not in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Crissiening (talk • contribs) 10:18, 10 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Her birth certificate said 93 but she always said 96. Apparently her mother wanted to get by child labor laws. I suggest we note that. --Monochrome _ Monitor  15:11, 25 October 2015 (UTC)
 * It's obvious she was telling porkies about her age in that article. If she'd been 88 in 1987 that would have made her younger than her sister Dorothy Gish (born March 1898), who was obviously a few years younger than her if you check out photos of them as children. These pictures also suggest there is more than 17 months between them, which would rule out 1896. I know it isn't a reliable source in itself, but this blog quotes an article from October 5th 1902, which gives Lillian's age as 8 years old, thus supporting 1893. Crisso (talk) 12:39, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

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Helen Ray or mother?
In the section Early life, the caption of the picture (with a ref.) says that the actress Lillian Gish and her sister Dorothy appear in the film Her First False Step (1903), but in the article Mary Gish (their mother), the picture's caption announces that the lady is Mary (1900s), i.e. the sister's mother. Which one can be correct? – Hamid Hassani (talk) 09:20, 17 August 2023 (UTC)