<Archive obituary> Miss Dorothy Gish (1898-1968)
Michael Rhodes
<Miss Dorothy Gish>
<Star of early films>
<The Times, June 6, 1968>
Miss Dorothy Gish, who died at Rapallo (? My cutting is torn here, a
letter is missing - the place name is shown as *Rapal o*) on Tuesday
at the age of 70, was the sister of Lillian Gish, and their careers
followeda very similar pattern, on the stage and in films. Both of
them made their name in the cinema and then left Hollywood to return
to the theatre after the coming of sound; and both were brought into
the limelight of the film world by that great pioneer director of the
early silent films, D.W. Griffith. The two sisters appeared together
in "The Orphans of the Storm", the last of Griffith's really
outstanding productions, which he made in 1922. It is a film which
will always be remembered in connexion with their name.
Dorothy Gish was born at Massillon, Ohio, on March 11, 1898. She began
her stage career in 1902, and made her first appearance in New York a
year later, as Little Willie in "East Lynne." By 1912 she had made a
name for herself in juvenile parts and she then joined the Old
Biograph Film Company, whose inspiration was D.W. Griffith, a director
far in advance of his time, and one with an axceptional talent for
discovering and developing young players. There is no doubt that
Dorothy and Lillian Gish owed a great deal to him.
Griffith's star began to wane soon after the completion of "The
Orphans of the Storm", but Dorothy Gish remained in films until 1928,
when seh decided (as her sister was to do two years later) that the
time had come for her return to the theatre. In October of that year
she played Fay Hilary in "Young Love" at the Masque Theatre in New
York. In the following summer she played the same part at the Arts
Theatre in London.
Thereafter she devoted herself very largely to the theatre, chiefly in
the United States, and unlike her sister she did not feel drawn back
to the cinema late in her career.
As a film actress she never quite achieved the same distinction as
Lillian, who possessed a deeper sensitivity and a wider emotional
range, and who was perhaps more fortunate in the parts she was given
by D.W. Griffith when she was at the height of his powers. But just as
Griffith was one of the outstanding pioneers of the early silent film
so were the Gish sisters pioneers in the birth of emotional and
romantic acting on the screen.
-- Michael Rhodes (please delete the x to e-mail me)
Bob Champ
> <Archive obituary>
>
> <Miss Dorothy Gish>
>
> <Star of early films>
>
> <The Times, June 6, 1968>
>
> Miss Dorothy Gish, who died at Rapallo (? My cutting is torn here, a
> letter is missing - the place name is shown as *Rapal o*) on Tuesday
> at the age of 70, was the sister of Lillian Gish, and their careers
> followeda very similar pattern, on the stage and in films. Both of
> them made their name in the cinema and then left Hollywood to return
> to the theatre after the coming of sound; and both were brought into
> the limelight of the film world by that great pioneer director of the
> early silent films, D.W. Griffith. The two sisters appeared together
> in "The Orphans of the Storm", the last of Griffith's really
> outstanding productions, which he made in 1922. It is a film which
> will always be remembered in connexion with their name.
>
I have the DVD of "Orphans of the Storm" and Dorothy Gish certainly
shines in it as a young blind woman who finds herself alone in Paris
during the height o the French Revolution. It is a beautifully
rendered performance in a film that every lover of films should see.
Bob Champ