LILLIAN GISH - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 191219

LILLIAN GISH. Photograph signed: "Lillian Gish". B/w, 4x5¾. LILLIAN GISH (1896-1993), born Lillian de Guiche, began her career as child actress "Baby Lillian" at the age of five. Lillian and her sister, Dorothy (1898-1968), who often toured with Lillian, made their film debuts (along with their mother, Mary Gish) in D.W. Griffith's film, An Unseen Enemy in 1912. Over the next several years, Lillian, who is credited as being the first true actress for recognizing the crucial differences between stage and film work and delivering carefully crafted performances, would make a number of films for Griffith, including The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Way Down East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1922). In 1923, she went to MGM, where she made La Boheme and The Scarlet Letter (both 1926). In 1930, Gish appeared in her first sound film, One Romantic Night (1930). Lillian, who was known as "The First Lady of the Silent Screen", was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Duel in The Sun (1946) and received an honorary Oscar in 1970 for her contributions to film. In 1936, the year before he appeared with Gish in this play, BURGESS MEREDITH (1907-1997) made his film debut in Winterset, reprising the stage role written for him by Maxwell Anderson. In 1937, he also appeared in There Goes the Groom, one in a long string of feature films in a career that spanned nearly five decades. Meredith, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards for The Day of the Locust (1975) and Rocky (1976), also appeared in Of Mice and Men (1939), Advise and Consent (1962), In Harm's Way (1965), Batman (1966), Foul Play (1978), three Rocky sequels (Rocky II, 1979; Rocky III, 1982; Rocky V, 1990, in flashbacks), Grumpy Old Men (1993) and its sequel, Grumpier Old Men (1995, his final film). Meredith was also a frequent guest on television shows, including The Twilight Zone and Batman (playing the Penguin both on television and in the film), and appeared on television movies, winning an Emmy in 1977 for Tail Gunner Joe. He was briefly married to actress Paulette Goddard in the 1940s. Fine condition.