Vintage style icons: Lillian Gish

This double image of Gish helped to adjust audiences to the notion of a working woman, and while her popularity fell away throughout the Twenties and she was replaced by increasingly sophisticated, sassy female leads, her importance in paving the way for such artists should not be forgotten. A hugely talented actress, when Gish’s cinematic appeal waned she turned to the stage, perhaps most notably appearing as Ophelia in a 1936 production of Hamlet.

Gish’s career was not, however, without controversy. Griffith’s seminal 1915 epic Birth of a Nation, in which Gish stars, continues to be criticised for its overtly racist content and apparent glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Throughout the Thirties Gish herself was an outspoken critic of American intervention in the Second World War right up until the attack on Pearl Harbour in1941.

In spite of this, Gish’s all-American image endured and she never entirely retired from the screen. In 1946 she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the Western Duel in the Sun. Her love affair with performing continued throughout her lifetime and her final appearance on the big screen was alongside Bette Davis in The Whales of August in 1987.

In 1999 the American Film Institute named her 17th in their list of the 25 greatest female stars of all time, and she had the longest career of all the stars listed – male or female.

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Tags: Lillian Gish, vintage style icon

Category: 1920s and earlier, Vintage news, Vintage Style Icons