Evening star., 1945-06-10
HOLLYWOOD.

1obbI WOoO.
IT'S a different Lillian Gish tina
we meet today on the set Of Davit
o. Selznick's Duel in the Sun
She's still as slim and golden hairet
as she was when she made her frs
picture 33 years ago (they had tt
gray her hair little to make he,
fook old enough to be Gregory Peck
mother but there are other diff
ferences, too.
Lillian Gish left the screen in 1880
one of the little girls who grew W
with it during the great days, Davlc
Wark Griffith, the elder Selznick
Won Stroheim, Pickford, Fairbanks
the Talmadges. Chaplin, Lloyd anc
the rest. She has returned to it al
internationally known stage ane
screen actress who has played a!
frequently in continental Europe a!
she did in America.
It was Griffith who gave her those
f7uttery mannerisms. and most o.
them are gone now. Virtue end.
lessly battled vice in the Griffith
pictures, and always eventually tri.
umphed. Lillian fitted perfectly intt
the pattern, and finally made the
Griffith mannerisms more hers thar
his: but she parted with him in 1921
and made some of her greatest pic.
lures after she left. For D. W. she
had made The Birth of Nation,
Intolerance" Broken Blossoms,
Hearts of the World" and Way
Down East" After Griffith she was
to make THE White Sister" "Ro-
mola." The Wind" and half a dozen
others.
Found Patrons Weary.
She was ready to retire from pic
lures by the time talk came to them
People" she says, were tired of
my face. I had been acting since l
was years old. wanted a change
and so did every one else
She's wrong there. of course In
1890, she opened as Helena in Uncle
Vanya" at the Cort Theater in New
York, and was smash hit. Those
who had accredited her evanescent
quality on the screen to camera
tricks learned for the first time that
she was the same on the stage as or
the screen.
Laurence Stallings, who worked
with her on the MGM lot. used tt
say, She's so darned beautiful ane
so fragile she makes you feel like
fainting when you pass her, JUS
to keep her company"
Devoting herself to the stage, she
Hamlet" and created leading role
in "9 Pine Street." Camille,
within the Gates" The Sta
Wagon" and The Old Maid" com
muting regularly between Broadwa.
and the chief theaters of Europe.
In 1943 she made two small screel
appearances, wanting to try out tn
old medium once more She was S
well received that Paramount of
fered her the leading role in mis-
Susie Slagle"
Was she as well liked as she ha
been before?
Recently the Paramount peopl
previewed their picture at the West
wood Village Theater. The vilag
is a college town. Nothing but kid
kids who had grown up while Lii
liam Gish was absent from tn
screen. But the previeW cards wer
raves. Give us more of Lillial
Gish,' said better than half of then
They'll get more of her now il
this big Selznick opus, in which sh
co-stsrs with Jennifer Jones. Josepl
Cotton Gregory Peck and Lione
Barrymore.
Lillian Gish was born in Spring
field. Ohio, the daughter of Jane
Leigh Gish and Mary Robinson Nc
Connell Gish, who had been al
actress before her marriage. Whel
Lillian's father died, Mrs. Gish tool
her two girls, then aged 4 and {
back onto the stage with her.
Lillian remembers the first plac
m which she and her famous siste
Dorothy appeared. 1t was I'm Con
vict Stripes" at Rising Sun, Ohio
xn 1912. at the Biograph Studio i