Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish, 1921
Born	Lillian Diana Gish (1893-10-14)October 14, 1893 Springfield, Ohio
Died	February 27, 1993(1993-02-27) (aged 99) New York City, New York
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1912–1987
Website
http://www.lilliangish.com/index.php

Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993^[1]) was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987. She was called "The First Lady of American Cinema".

She was a prominent film star of the 1910s and 1920s, particularly associated with the films of director D.W. Griffith, including her leading role in Griffith's seminal Birth of a Nation (1915). Her sound-era film appearances were sporadic, but included memorable roles in the controversial western Duel in the Sun (1946) and the offbeat thriller Night of the Hunter (1955). She did considerable television work from the early 1950s into the 1980s, and closed her career playing, for the first time, opposite Bette Davis in the 1987 film The Whales of August.

The American Film Institute (AFI) named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of all time.^[2] She was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1971, and in 1984 she received an AFI Life Achievement Award.^[3]

Early life[link]

Lillian Diana Gish was born in 1893 in Springfield, Ohio. She was the daughter of Mary Robinson McConnell (an Episcopalian) and James Leigh Gish (who was of German Lutheran descent).^[4] Gish's father left the family before she was old enough to remember him; her mother then took up acting to support the family. She had a younger sister, Dorothy. The family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois, where they lived for several years with Lillian's aunt and uncle, Henry and Rose McConnell. Their mother opened the Majestic Candy Kitchen and the girls helped sell popcorn and candy to patrons of the old Majestic Theater, located next door. The girls attended St. Henry's School, where they acted in school plays. When the theater burned down the family moved to New York where the girls became good friends with a next door neighbor, Gladys Smith. Gladys was a child actress who did some work for director D.W. Griffith. She later took the stage name, Mary Pickford. When Lillian and Dorothy were old enough, they joined the theatre, often traveling separately in different productions. They also took modeling jobs.

The first several generations of Gishes were Dunkard ministers. Her great-great-great grandfather came to America on the ship Pennsylvania Merchant in 1733 and received a land grant from William Penn. Her great-great grandfather was in the American Revolutionary War and is buried in a cemetery in Pennsylvania for such soldiers, a bit of an oddity because Dunkards are supposed to be more pacifist than Amish or Quakers. Letters between her and a Pennsylvania college professor indicate that her knowledge of her family background was limited.

In 1912, their friend Mary Pickford introduced the sisters to D. W. Griffith, and helped get them contracts with Biograph Studios. Lillian Gish would soon become one of America's best-loved actresses. Although she was already nineteen, she gave her age as 16 to the studio.^[5]

Career[link]

The sisters debuted in Griffith's short film An Unseen Enemy (1912). Lillian went on to star in many of Griffith's most acclaimed films, including The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1921). One of the enduring images of Gish's silent film years is the climax of the melodramatic Way Down East, in which Gish's character floats unconscious on an ice floe towards a raging waterfall, her long hair trailing in the water.

Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms

1921 fan magazine cover by Rolf Armstrong

Having appeared in over 25 short films and features in her first two years as a movie actress, Lillian became a major star, becoming known as "The First Lady of the Silent Screen" and appearing in lavish productions, frequently of literary works such as The Scarlet Letter. MGM released her from her contract in 1928 after the failure of The Wind (1928), now recognized by many as among her finest performances and one of the most distinguished works of the late silent period.

She directed one film, Remodeling Her Husband (1920), when D. W. Griffith took his unit on location—he told Gish that he thought the crew would work harder for a girl. Gish never directed again, telling reporters at the time that directing was a man's job.^[6]

With her debut in talkies only moderately successful, she acted on the stage for the most part in the 1930s and early 1940s, appearing in roles as varied as Ophelia in Guthrie McClintic's landmark 1936 production of Hamlet (with John Gielgud and Judith Anderson) and Marguerite in a limited run of La Dame aux Camélias. Of the former, she said, with pride, "I played a lewd Ophelia!".

Lillian Gish as Anna Moore in D. W. Griffith's film Way Down East (1920)

Returning to movies, Gish was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1946 for Duel in the Sun. The scenes of her character's illness and death late in that film seemed intended to evoke the memory of some of her silent film performances. She appeared in films from time to time for the rest of her life, notably in Night of the Hunter (1955) as a rural guardian angel protecting her charges from a murderous preacher played by Robert Mitchum. She was considered for various roles in Gone with the Wind ranging from Ellen O'Hara, Scarlett's mother, which went to Barbara O'Neil,^[7] to prostitute Belle Watling, which went to Ona Munson.

Gish made numerous television appearances from the early 1950s into the late 1980s. Her most acclaimed television work was starring in the original production of The Trip to Bountiful in 1953. She appeared as Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in the short-lived 1965 Broadway musical Anya. In addition to her later acting appearances, Gish became one of the leading advocates on the lost art of the silent film, often giving speeches and touring to screenings of classic works. In 1975, she hosted The Silent Years, a PBS film program of silent films.

Gish in 1973

Gish received a Special Academy Award in 1971 "For superlative artistry and for distinguished contribution to the progress of motion pictures." In 1979, she was awarded the Women in film Crystal Award in Los Angeles^[8] In 1984, she received an American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, becoming only the second female recipient (preceded by Bette Davis in 1977), and the only recipient who was a major figure in the silent era. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1720 Vine Street.

Her last film role was in The Whales of August in 1987 at the age of 93, with Vincent Price, Bette Davis and Ann Sothern, in which she and Davis starred as elderly sisters in Maine. Her final professional appearance was a cameo on the 1988 studio recording of Jerome Kern's Show Boat, starring Frederica von Stade and Jerry Hadley, in which she affectingly spoke the few lines of The Old Lady on the Levee in the final scene. The last words of her long career were, "Good night, dear."

Some in the entertainment industry were angry that Gish did not receive an Oscar nomination for her role in The Whales of August. Gish herself was more complacent, remarking that it saved her the trouble of "losing to Cher" (who did, in fact, win for her performance in Moonstruck).

Personal life[link]

Lillian and her sister Dorothy

Gish never married or had children. The association between Gish and D. W. Griffith was so close that some suspected a romantic connection, an issue never acknowledged by Gish, although several of their associates were certain they were at least briefly involved. For the remainder of her life, she always referred to him as "Mr. Griffith."

She was involved with producer Charles Duell and drama critic and editor George Jean Nathan. In the 1920s, Gish's association with Duell was something of a tabloid scandal because he had sued her and made the details of their relationship public.^[9]

During the period of political turmoil in the United States that lasted from the outbreak of World War II in Europe until the attack on Pearl Harbor, she maintained an outspoken non-interventionist stance. She was an active member of the America First Committee, an anti-intervention organization founded by retired General Robert E. Wood with aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh as its leading spokesman. She said she was blacklisted by the film and theater industries until she signed a contract in which she promised to cease her anti-interventionist activities and never disclose the fact that she had agreed to do so.^[10]

She maintained a very close relationship with her sister Dorothy, as well as with Mary Pickford, for her entire life. Another of her closest friends was actress Helen Hayes; Gish was the godmother of Hayes' son James MacArthur.

Death[link]

She died in her sleep of natural causes on February 27, 1993, at the age of 99 and is interred beside her sister Dorothy at Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City. Her estate, which she left to Hayes (who died a month later) was valued at several million dollars, and went to provide prizes for artistic excellence.

Legacy[link]

• The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
• A street in Massillon, Ohio is named after Gish, who had lived there during an early period of her life and fondly referred to it as her hometown throughout her career.
• Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio is home to the Gish Film Theater and Gallery, which is dedicated to the works of both Dorothy and Lillian Gish.
• Gish was a leading character in The Biograph Girl, a 1980 stage musical about the silent film era.
• The Smashing Pumpkins titled their 1991 debut album, "Gish". Lillian Gish was the only memory that Billy Corgan could recall as to why he named the album "Gish". In the liner notes for the 2012 re-release of the album, Corgan states that his grandmother remembered seeing her once and the name "Gish" stuck.

Filmography[link]

Books[link]

Autobiographical:

• The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me (with Ann Pinchot) (Prentice-Hall, 1969)
• Dorothy and Lillian Gish (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973)
• An Actor's Life For Me (with Selma G. Lanes) (Viking Penguin, 1987)

Biographical and other:

• Lillian Gish an Interpretation – Edward Wagenknecht (University of Washington, 1927)
• Life and Lillian Gish – Albert Bigelow Paine (Macmillan, 1932)
• Lillian Gish: the Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me, by Gish co-authored with Ann Pinchot; ISBN 0-491-00103-7, W.H. Allen 1969, and ISBN 0-916515-40-0 Mercury House, 1988.
• Star Acting – Gish, Garbo, Davis – Charles Affron (E.P. Dutton, 1977)
• A Moment with Miss Gish – Peter Bogdanovich (Santa Teresa Press, 1995)
• Lillian Gish A Life on Stage and Screen – Stuart Oderman (McFarland & Company, 2000)
• Lillian Gish Her Legend, Her Life – Charles Affron (Scribner, 2001)

Documentaries about Gish[link]

• Terry Sanders' 1988 documentary Lillian Gish: An Actor's Life for Me.
• Actress Jeanne Moreau produced a documentary on Gish.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Women's Cinema

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lillian Gish

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lillian Gish

• Lillian Gish at the Internet Movie Database
• Lillian Gish at the TCM Movie Database
• Lillian Gish at the Internet Broadway Database
• Official website
• Lillian Gish Film Festival in Springfield, Ohio
• The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Film Theater

• Extensive Lillian Gish gallery
• Photographs and bibliography
• Lillian Gish photographed by Edward Steichen in November 1934 issue of Vanity Fair. She usually played the sweet innocent but here she plays the role of a harlot in the play Within the Gates.
• Maison 140 was built in 1939, the stylish brick facade building was originally a residential apartment owned by famed silent film star Lillian Gish.

Richard Barthelmess
in A Modern Hero (1934)
Born	Richard Semler Barthelmess (1895-05-09)May 9, 1895 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	August 17, 1963(1963-08-17) (aged 68) Southampton, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1916–1942
Spouse	Mary Hay (1920–1927) 1 daughter Jessica Stewart Sargent (1928–1963)

Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess (May 9, 1895 – August 17, 1963) was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.

Early life[link]

Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut. His father died when he was a baby ^[1] and his mother, Caroline Harris^[2], was a stage actress, so he worked in theatres in his early days, between schooling, doing "walk-ons". This led to acting in college, doing amateur productions. Russian actress Alla Nazimova, a friend of the family, had been taught English by Barthelmess's mother.^[3]

Nazimova in return convinced Barthelmess to try acting professionally and he made his first film appearance in 1916 in the serial Gloria's Romance as an extra. At this time he also appeared as a supporting player in several films starring Marguerite Clark. His next role, in War Brides opposite Alla Nazimova, attracted the attention of legendary director D. W. Griffith, who offered him several important roles, finally casting him opposite Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920).

He soon became one of Hollywood's highest paid performers, starring in such classics as The Patent Leather Kid (1927) and The Noose (1928); he was nominated for Best Actor at the first Academy Awards for his performance in both these films, and he won a Special Citation for producing The Patent Leather Kid. He founded his own production company, Inspiration Film Company, together with Charles Duell and Henry King. One of their films, Tol'able David (1921), in which Barthelmess starred as a teenage mailman who finds courage, was a major success.

With the advent of the sound era, Barthelmess' fortunes changed. He made several films in the new medium, most notably Son of the Gods (1930), The Dawn Patrol (1930), The Last Flight (1931), and The Cabin in the Cotton (1932), Central Airport (1933), and a supporting role as Rita Hayworth's character's husband in Only Angels Have Wings (1939).

Post-acting career[link]

Barthelmess failed to maintain the stardom of his silent film days and gradually left entertainment. He enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve during World War II, served as a lieutenant commander, and never returned to film, preferring instead to live off his investments.^{[citation needed]}

Death[link]

Barthelmess died of cancer in 1963, aged 68, and was interred at the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.

Family[link]

He and first wife, stage and screen star Mary Hay, had one daughter Mary Barthelmess.^[4] In 1927, Barthelmess became engaged to Katherine Young Wilson, a Broadway actress.^[5][6] However, the engagement was called off, possibly due to his affair around this time with the journalist Adela Rogers St. John^[7], and in 1928 he married Jessica Stewart Sargent.

Other[link]

• Barthelmess was one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

• For his contribution as an actor, Richard Barthelmess was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• Barthelmess is a recipient of the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.

• Composer Katherine Allan Lively dedicated her piano composition, Within the Walls of China: A Chinese Episode, to Barthelmess in the sheet music published in 1923 by G. Schirmer, Inc.^[8] An article in The Music Trades reported that Mrs. Lively was inspired by a viewing of the film, Broken Blossoms, and performed the piece for Mr. Barthelmess and his friends in New York in the summer of 1922 ^[9]

Filmography[link]

Features:

• Gloria's Romance (1916)
• War Brides (1916)
• Snow White (1916)
• Just a Song at Twilight (1916)
• The Moral Code (1917)
• The Eternal Sin (1917)
• The Valentine Girl (1917)
• The Soul of a Magdalen (1917)
• The Streets of Illusion (1917)
• Camille (1917)
• Bab's Diary (1917)
• Bab's Burglar (1917)
• Nearly Married (1917)
• For Valour (1917)
• The Seven Swans (1917)
• Sunshine Nan (1918)
• Rich Man, Poor Man (1918)
• Hit-the-Trail Holliday (1918)
• Wild Primrose (1918)
• The Hope Chest (1918)
• Boots (1918)
• The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919)
• Three Men and a Girl (1919)
• Peppy Polly (1919)
• Broken Blossoms (1919)
• I'll Get Him Yet (1919)
• Scarlet Days (1919)
• The Idol Dancer (1920)
• The Love Flower (1920)
• Way Down East (1920)
• Experience (1921)
• Tol'able David (1921)
• The Seventh Day (1922)
• Sonny (1922)
• The Bond Boy (1922)
• Fury (1923)
• The Bright Shawl (1923)
• The Fighting Blade (1923)
• Twenty-One (1923)
• The Enchanted Cottage (1924)
• Classmates (1924)
• New Toys (1925)
• Soul-Fire (1925)
• Shore Leave (1925)
• The Beautiful City (1925)
• Just Suppose (1926)
• Ranson's Folly (1926)
• The Amateur Gentleman (1926)
• The White Black Sheep (1926)
• The Patent Leather Kid (1927)
• The Drop Kick (1927)
• The Noose (1928)
• The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1928)
• Wheel of Chance (1928)
• Out of the Ruins (1928)
• Scarlet Seas (1928)
• Weary River (1929)
• Drag (1929)
• Young Nowheres (1929)
• The Show of Shows (1929)
• Son of the Gods (1930)
• The Dawn Patrol (1930)
• The Lash (1930)
• The Finger Points (1931)
• The Last Flight (1931)
• Alias the Doctor (1932)
• The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
• Central Airport (1933)
• Heroes for Sale (1933)
• Massacre (1934)
• A Modern Hero (1934)
• Midnight Alibi (1934)
• Four Hours to Kill! (1935)
• Spy of Napoleon (1936)
• Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
• The Man Who Talked Too Much (1940)
• The Spoilers (1942)
• The Mayor of 44th Street (1942)

Short Subjects:

• Camille (1926) (home movie by cariacaturist Ralph Barton)
• The Stolen Jools (1931)
• How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 1: The Putter (1931)
• Starlit Days at the Lido (1935)
• Meet the Stars #5: Hollywood Meets the Navy (1941)

References[link]

• The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era by David W. Menefee.
• Richard Barthelmess: A Life in Pictures by David W. Menefee

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Richard Barthelmess at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Barthelmess at AllRovi
• Richard Barthelmess at the Internet Broadway Database
• Photographs of Richard Barthelmess
• Richard Barthelmess at Find a Grave

Donald Crisp
from the trailer for the film Shining Victory (1941).
Born	George William Crisp (1882-07-27)27 July 1882 Bow, London, England, UK
Died	25 May 1974(1974-05-25) (aged 91) Van Nuys, California, US
Occupation	Actor, producer, director, screenwriter
Years active	1908–63
Spouse	Marie Stark (?-1919) (divorced) Jane Murfin (m. 1932–1944) «start: (1932)–end+1: (1945)»"Marriage: Jane Murfin to Donald Crisp" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Donald_Crisp)

Donald Crisp (born George William Crisp, 27 July 1882 – 25 May 1974) was an English film actor. He was also an early producer, director and screenwriter of films. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1942 for his performance in How Green Was My Valley.^[1]

Early life[link]

Donald Crisp was born in Bow, London, at the family home in Bow (historically known as Stratford-atte-Bow) on 27 July 1882. Some sources say he was born in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland in 1880, but U.S. Census records indicate the London birthplace and date are correct.^[2] He was one of eight children (four boys and four girls) born to James and Elizabeth Crisp. He was educated at the University of Oxford and allegedly at Eton College, though the Eton archivist denies this.

Crisp, who always claimed to be of Scottish descent, served as a trooper in the 10th Hussars in the Boer War. This experience, among other things, allowed him to cross paths with a young Winston Churchill just at the start of Churchill's long political career. According to family memories, Crisp's brother-in-law James Needham provided him with the fare to travel to America in 1906.

Early career[link]

While travelling on the ship to America in 1906, Crisp's singing talents during a ship's concert caught the attention of opera impresario John C. Fisher, who immediately offered him a job with his company. He spent his first year in New York in Grand Opera and the following year as a stage director. It was while touring with the company in the United States and Cuba that Crisp first became interested in pursuing a career in the theatre. By 1910, Crisp, now using the name Donald (he retained George as a middle name), was working as a stage manager for the renowned entertainer, composer, playwright and director George M. Cohan. It was during this time he met and befriended film director D.W. Griffith. When Griffith ventured west, to seek his fortune in Hollywood in 1912, Crisp accompanied him.

From 1908 to 1930, Crisp, in addition to directing dozens of films, also appeared in nearly 100 silent films, though many in bit or small parts. One notable exception was his casting by Griffith as General Ulysses S. Grant in Griffith's landmark film The Birth of a Nation in 1915. Another was his role in Griffith's 1919 film Broken Blossoms, as "Battling Burrows", the brutal and abusive father of the film's heroine, Lucy Burrows (played by Lillian Gish).

Director[link]

Crisp worked as an assistant to Griffith for several years and learned much during this time from Griffith, an early master of film story telling who was influential in advancing a number of early techniques, such as cross cutting in editing his films. This experience fostered a similar passion in Crisp to become a director in his own right. His first directing credit was Little Country Mouse, made in 1914. Many directors (and actors) would find themselves turning out a dozen or more films in a single year at this time. Over the next fifteen years, Crisp directed some 70 films in all, most notably The Navigator (1924) with Buster Keaton and Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925) with Douglas Fairbanks.^[3]

When asked later by an interviewer why he eventually gave up directing and returned full time to acting, Crisp commented that directing had become extremely wearisome because he was so often called upon, if not forced, to do favours for studio chiefs by agreeing to employ their relatives in his films. His final directorial effort was the 1930 film The Runaway Bride starring Mary Astor.

Military career[link]

While pursuing a dual career in acting and directing, Crisp managed to serve in the war effort against Germany and her allies during the First World War (1914–1918). Between working for Griffith, other producers and his many acting roles, Crisp managed to return to Britain where he served in the army intelligence section. During the Second World War (1939–1945), Crisp again answered the call to duty at a time when his acting career was at its peak. This time, he served in U.S. Army Reserve, where he rose to the rank of colonel.

Return to acting[link]

With the advent of sound in films, Crisp abandoned directing and devoted himself entirely to acting after 1930. He became a much sought after character actor. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he appeared in a wide range of roles alongside some of the era's biggest stars, including Katharine Hepburn in The Little Minister (1934), Charles Laughton and Clark Gable in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Bette Davis and Henry Fonda in That Certain Woman (1937), Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights (1939), Errol Flynn in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and The Sea Hawk (1940) and Gregory Peck in The Valley of Decision (1945).

A versatile supporting actor, Crisp could be equally good in either lovable or sinister roles. During the same period he was playing loving father figures or charming old codgers in classic films like National Velvet and Lassie Come Home, he also turned in a well received performance as Commander Beach, the tormented presumptive grandfather in Lewis Allen's The Uninvited (1944). Undoubtedly, however, Crisp's most memorable role was as the taciturn but loving father in How Green Was My Valley (1941) directed by John Ford. The film received ten Oscar nominations, winning five, including Best Picture with Crisp winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1941.

Hollywood power broker[link]

While known to audiences as a talented actor and director, few outside the film community realised, then or now, that Crisp was one of the most influential people in Hollywood, wielding more power than most directors, producers and studio executives.

Crisp was an active and important liaison between the film industry and outside business interests. His extensive business, military and entertainment experience, including being a production and studio executive lent themselves well to this task. He became a highly valued adviser whose clear-headed forward thinking proved invaluable to the Bank of America, which was one of the leading sources of working capital for the film industry for many years (an industry whose life blood was loans). Crisp served on the bank's advisory board for several decades, including a stint as its chairman. In this role, he had the ear of its board of directors, and many of the films eventually financed by the bank during the 1930s and 1940s got their most important approval from Crisp.

Later years and legacy[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Crisp eventually became one of the more wealthy members of the film industry. His "banker's sobriety", extensive contacts and clarity of thought allowed him to make good investments, particularly in the real estate market. He continued to appear in films throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s. During more than half a century as an actor in both the early silent and later the sound era, he appeared in as many as 400 two-reel and feature-length productions. His final screen role was as Grandpa Spencer alongside Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara in the 1963 film Spencer's Mountain. This film, adapted from the novel by Earl Hamner Jr., was the basis for the 1970s television series The Waltons, and its theme of a proud but struggling rural family was reminiscent of How Green Was My Valley.

Crisp was in his eighties by the time he quit acting entirely, continuing to work long after financially necessary simply because he enjoyed it. He was married twice. He was divorced from his first wife in 1919. He later married film screenwriter Jane Murfin, whom he divorced in 1944. Crisp died in 1974, a few months short of his 92nd birthday, due to complications from a series of strokes.

Crisp can rightly be called a film pioneer. In addition to being one of the premier character actors of his era, he left behind an extensive list of contributions to the film industry he worked to promote for more than fifty years. He was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

Partial filmography[link]

As an actor[link]

As a director[link]

• Her Father's Silent Partner (1914) (short)
• Ramona (1916)
• Believe Me, Xantippe (1918)
• Appearances (1921) (lost short film)
• The Princess of New York (1921)
• The Bonnie Brier Bush (1921) (also acted)
• Tell Your Children (1922)
• The Navigator (1924)
• Ponjola (1924)(*co-directed with James Young)
• Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925)(* and actor)
• Young April (1926)
• Dress Parade (1927)
• The Cop (1928)
• The Runaway Bride (1930)

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Donald Crisp

• Donald Crisp at the Internet Movie Database
• Donald Crisp at the Internet Broadway Database
• Donald Crisp at Find a Grave
• Literature on Donald Crisp

Joan Rivers
Rivers in 2010
Birth name	Joan Alexandra Molinsky
Born	(1933-06-08) June 8, 1933 (age 79) Brooklyn, New York City New York, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1950–present
Spouse	James Sanger (1955) Edgar Rosenberg (1965–1987; his death)
Website	"joan.co". http://www.joan.co/.

Joan Alexandra Molinsky (born June 8, 1933), better known by her stage name Joan Rivers, is an American television personality, comedian, and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries. Rivers' comic style relies heavily on her ability to poke fun at herself and other Hollywood celebrities.

Early life[link]

Joan Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants Beatrice (née Grushman; January 6, 1906 – October 1975) and Meyer C. Molinsky (December 7, 1900 – January 1985).^[1][2] She was raised in Brooklyn, New York, and her family later moved to Larchmont, in Westchester County, New York. She attended Connecticut College between 1950 and 1952 and graduated from Barnard College in 1954 with a bachelor-of-arts degree in English literature^[3] and anthropology. Before entering show business, Rivers worked at various jobs such as a tour guide at Rockefeller Center,^[4] a writer/proofreader at an advertising agency^[4] and as a fashion consultant at Bond Clothing Stores.^[5] During this period, the agent Tony Rivers advised her to change her name, so she chose Joan Rivers as her stage name.^[6]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

During the late 1950s, Rivers appeared in a short-run play, Driftwood, playing a lesbian with a crush on a character played by a then-unknown Barbra Streisand. The play ran for six weeks.^[7] In 1961, Rivers briefly performed on stage in Chicago at The Second City comedy club. Rivers performed in numerous comedy clubs in the Greenwich Village area of New York City in the early 1960s, including The Bitter End and The Gaslight Cafe,^[8] before making her first appearances as a guest on the TV program The Tonight Show originating from New York, hosted at the time by Jack Paar.^[9]

By 1965, Rivers had a stint on Candid Camera as a gag writer and participant; she was "the bait" to lure people into ridiculous situations for the show. She also made her first appearance on The Tonight Show with new host Johnny Carson, on February 17, 1965.^[10] During the same decade, Rivers made other appearances on The Tonight Show as well as The Ed Sullivan Show, while hosting the first of several talk shows. She had a brief role in The Swimmer (1968), starring Burt Lancaster. A year later, she had a short-lived syndicated daytime talk show; Johnny Carson was her first guest.^[11] In the middle of the 1960s, she released at least two comedy albums, The Next to Last Joan Rivers Album^[12] and Joan Rivers Presents Mr. Phyllis & Other Funny Stories.^[13]

By the 1970s, Rivers was appearing on various television comedy and variety shows, including The Carol Burnett Show and a semi-regular stint on Hollywood Squares. From 1972 to 1976, she narrated The Adventures of Letterman, an animated segment for The Electric Company. In 1973, Rivers wrote the TV movie The Girl Most Likely to..., a black comedy starring Stockard Channing. In 1978, Rivers wrote and directed the film Rabbit Test, starring her friend Billy Crystal. During the same decade, she was the opening act for singer Helen Reddy on the Las Vegas Strip. In July 1970, Joan performed as the opening act for Sergio Franchi during an acclaimed appearance at the Mill Run Theater in Chicago.^[14] Joan also was the opening act for Sergio Franchi (three year contract) at the MGM Grand Hotel from 1974-1976.^[15][16] Joan became a Las Vegas Strip headliner herself in the 1980s.

1980s–1990s[link]

Rivers has spoken of her primary Tonight Show life as having been Johnny Carson's daughter, a reference to his longtime mentoring of her and, during the 1980s, establishing her as his regular guest host by August 1983. It was not her only work, however. On April 9, 1983, she hosted Saturday Night Live.^[17] In the same period, she released a best-selling comedy album on Geffen Records, What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most? The album reached No. 22 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.^[18]

Autograph with famous catchphrase, about 1983

Also in 1984, Rivers published a best-selling humor book, The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abramowitz, a mock memoir of her brassy, loose comedy character. A television special based on the character, a mock tribute called Joan Rivers and Friends Salute Heidi Abramowitz, was not successful with the public.

The decade was controversial for Rivers. She sued female impersonator Frank Marino for $5,000,000 in 1986, after discovering he was using her real stand-up material in the impersonation of her that he included in his popular Las Vegas act. The two comics reconciled, even appearing together on television in later years.^[19]

Also in 1986 came the move that cost Rivers her longtime friendship with Carson, who had first hired her as a Tonight Show writer. The soon-to-launch Fox Television Network announced that it was giving her a late night talk show, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers.^[20] The new network planned to broadcast the show 11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time, making her a Carson competitor. Carson claimed he learned of the show from Fox and not from Rivers herself. In 2008, during an interview with Dr. Pamela Connolly on television's Shrink Rap, Rivers claimed she did call Carson, but he hung up on her at once and repeated the gesture when she called again.

The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers turned out to be flecked by tragedy. When Rivers challenged Fox executives, who wanted to fire her husband Edgar Rosenberg as the show's producer, the network fired them both. On May 15, 1987, three months later, Rosenberg committed suicide in Philadelphia; Rivers blamed the tragedy on his "humiliation" by Fox.^[21] Fox attempted to continue the show with a new name (The Late Show) and rotating guest hosts.

A year after the Late Show debacle, Rivers was a guest on TV's Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special. By 1989, she tried another daytime TV talk show, The Joan Rivers Show,^[22] which ran for five years and won her an Emmy in 1990 for outstanding talk show host.^[23]

In 1994, Rivers and daughter Melissa first hosted the E! Entertainment Television pre-awards show for the Golden Globe Awards.^[24] Beginning in 1995, they hosted the annual E! Entertainment Television pre-awards show for the Academy Awards.^[24] Beginning in 1997, Rivers hosted her own radio show on WOR in New York City.

Rivers also appeared as one of the center square occupants on the 1986-89 version of The Hollywood Squares, hosted by John Davidson.

2000–present[link]

By 2003, Rivers had left her E! red-carpet show for a three-year contract (valued between $6–8 million) to cover award-show red-carpet shows for the TV Guide Channel.^[25]

Joan Rivers poses for a photograph at the Pierre Hotel, May 24, 2001

Rivers appeared in three episodes of the TV show Nip/Tuck during its second, third and seventh season playing herself.^[26][27][28] Rivers appears regularly on television's The Shopping Channel (in Canada) and QVC (in both the United States and the UK), promoting her own line of jewelry under brand name "The Joan Rivers Collection". She was also a guest speaker at the opening of the American Operating Room Nurses' 2000 San Francisco Conference. Both Joan and Melissa Rivers are frequent guests on Howard Stern's radio show, and Joan Rivers often appears as a guest on UK panel show 8 out of 10 Cats.

Rivers was one of only four Americans invited to the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles on April 9, 2005.^[29]

In 2006, Rivers was featured on the adult animated show, Drawn Together as Princess Clara's vagina that had received too much plastic surgery. Clara's 'vajoana' often repeated the phrase "who are you wearing, who are you wearing?".

On August 16, 2007, Rivers began a two-week workshop of her new play, with the working title "The Joan Rivers Theatre Project," at The Magic Theatre in San Francisco.^[30] On December 3, 2007, Rivers performed in the Royal Variety Show 2007 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre, England, with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip present.

In January 2008, Rivers became one of 20 hijackers to take control of the Big Brother house in the UK for one day in spin-off TV show Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack. On June 24, 2008, Rivers appeared on NBC-TV’s show Celebrity Family Feud and competed with her daughter, Melissa against Ice-T and Coco.

Joan Rivers performing in her show at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Rivers and daughter Melissa were contestants in 2009 on the second Celebrity Apprentice. Throughout the season, each celebrity raised money for a charity of his or her choice; Rivers selected God's Love We Deliver.^[31] After a falling out with poker player Annie Duke, following Melissa's on-air firing (elimination) by Donald Trump, Rivers left the green room telling Clint Black and Jesse G. James that she would not be in the next morning. Rivers later returned to the show and on May 3, 2009, she became a finalist in the series. The other finalist was Duke.^[32][33] On the season finale, which aired live on May 10, Joan was announced the winner and hired to be the 2009 Celebrity Apprentice.

Rivers was featured on the show Z Rock as herself and was also a special so-called pink-carpet presenter for the 2009 broadcast of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. She was also roasted in a Comedy Central special, taped on July 26, 2009, and aired on August 9, 2009. From August 2009, Joan began starring in the new reality TV series How'd You Get So Rich? on TV Land.

Joan performing at a London Udderbelly event in 2009

A documentary film about Rivers, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre on May 6, 2010.

In 2011, Rivers appeared in a commercial for Go Daddy, which debuted during the broadcast of Super Bowl XLV.^[34]

Joan and her daughter Melissa Rivers premiered the new show Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best on WE tv. The series follows Joan moving to California to be closer to her family. She moves in with daughter Melissa while searching for a home of her own. It was recently revealed that WE TV has ordered a new season consisting of 10 episodes premiering in January 2012.

In 2011, Rivers was featured as herself in Season 2 of Louis C.K.'s self-entitled show Louie, where she performed on-stage.

Personal life[link]

Rivers' first marriage was in 1955 to James Sanger,^[35] the son of a Bond Clothing Stores merchandise manager. The marriage lasted six months^[36] and was annulled on the basis that Sanger did not want children and had not informed Rivers before the wedding.^[37] Her second marriage was on July 15, 1965^[38] to Edgar Rosenberg, who committed suicide in 1987. Their only child, Melissa Warburg Rosenberg (now known as Melissa Rivers), was born on January 20, 1968. She has one grandson, Melissa's son Cooper (born Edgar Cooper Endicott on December 1, 2000)^[39] who is featured with his mother and grandmother in the WE tv series Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?^[40]

In her book, Bouncing Back (1997), she described how she developed bulimia and contemplated suicide. Eventually, she recovered with counseling and the support of her family.

In 2002, Rivers told the Montreal Mirror that she was a Republican.^[41]

Rivers is open about her multiple cosmetic surgeries and has been a patient of plastic surgeon Steven Hoefflin since 1983. Her first procedure, an eye lift, was performed in 1965 as an attempt to further her career.^[42]

Awards[link]

• In 1990, Rivers won the Daytime Emmy Award (a TV citation) for Outstanding Talk Show Host. The same year, a star in her name was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[43]

Books[link]

• Having a Baby Can Be a Scream (1974, Self-Help/Humour)
• The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abromowitz (1984, Humour)
• Enter Talking (1986, Autobiography)
• Still Talking (1991, Autobiography)
• Jewelry by Joan Rivers (1995, Non-Fiction)
• Bouncing Back: I've Survived Everything ... and I Mean Everything ... and You Can Too! (1997, Autobiography/Self-Help)
• From Mother to Daughter: Thoughts and Advice on Life, Love and Marriage (1998, Self-Help)
• Don’t Count the Candles: Just keep the Fire Lit! (1999, Self-Help)
• Men Are Stupid...And They Like Big Boobs: A Woman's Guide to Beauty Through Plastic Surgery (2008, Non-Fiction)
• Murder at the Academy Awards (R): A Red Carpet Murder Mystery (2009, Fiction)
• I Hate Everyone...Starting With Me (2012, Humour)

Filmography[link]

• Once Upon a Coffee House (1965)
• The Swimmer (1968)
• Rabbit Test (1978) (also director and writer)
• Uncle Scam (1981)
• The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
• Les Patterson Saves the World (1987)
• Spaceballs (1987) (voice)
• Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special (1988)
• Look Who's Talking (1989) (voice)
• Public Enemy # 2 (1993)
• Serial Mom (1994)
• Napoleon (1995) (voice)
• Goosed (1999)
• The Intern (2000)
• Whispers: An Elephant's Tale (2000) (voice)
• The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family' (2002) (documentary)
• Hip! Edgy! Quirky! (2002)
• Shrek 2 (2004) (voice)
• First Daughter (2004)
• The Last Guy on Earth (2007)
• Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010) (documentary)
• Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) (uncredited)
• The Smurfs (2011) (uncredited)
• Tower Heist (2011) (uncredited)

Television work[link]

• That Show starring Joan Rivers (1968–69) (syndicated daytime talk show)^[11]
• The Electric Company (cast member from 1972–1977) (voice)
• Here's Lucy (1973)
• An Audience with Joan Rivers (1984)
• Joan Rivers: Can We Talk? (1986)
• The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers (host from 1986–1987)
• The New Hollywood Squares hosted by John Davidson (center square from 1988–1989)
• The Joan Rivers Show (1989–1993)
• How to Murder a Millionaire (1990)
• Lady Boss (1992)
• Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story (1994)^[44]
• Can We Shop? (1995–present)
• Another World (cast member in 1997)
• E! True Hollywood Story: Joan Rivers (parody episode of show aired April 1, 2001)^[45]
• Jack Dee Live at the Apollo (cast member in 2004, guest host in 2007)
• Nip/Tuck (2004–2005–2010)^[46]
• The Joan Rivers Position (2004–2006)
• An Audience with Joan Rivers (2006)
• 8 out of 10 Cats (2006–2007)
• Joan Rivers: Before Melissa Pulls the Plug (2006)
• Dawn French's Girls Who Do Comedy (in-depth interview BBC 2006)
• The Graham Norton Show (2007)
• Straight Talk (2007)
• Shrink Rap (2008) – With Dr. Pamela Connolly – More4
• Celebrity Family Feud (2008)
• Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack (Celebrity Hijacker) (2008)
• Loose Women (2008)
• The Graham Norton Show (2008)
• Z Rock (2008) – Aunt Joan
• Spaceballs: The Animated Series (2008) (voice)
• Arthur (2008, 2010) (voice) – Bubby (Francine's Grandmother)
• Celebrity Apprentice (2009) – Herself
• How'd You Get So Rich? (2009) – Herself
• The Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers (2009) – Herself
• Celebrity Ghost Stories (2009) – Herself
• The Graham Norton Show (December 31, 2009)
• Celebrity Apprentice 3 (March 14, 2010)
• Fashion Police (September 10, 2010 – present)
• The Graham Norton Show (November 5, 2010)
• Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best (January 25, 2011 – present)
• Louie S02E04 – Joan (July 14, 2011) – Herself
• The Simpsons S23E08 – "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution" (December 4, 2011) (voice) – Annie Dubinsky

Theater work[link]

The following is a selected list of theater work performed by Rivers.

• Broadway Bound by Neil Simon (replacement for Kate, 1988, Broadhurst Theatre)^[47]
• Sally Marr and Her Escorts, a play suggested by the life of Lenny Bruce's mother (co-written with Erin Ladd Sanders and Lonny Price), May 1994, Helen Hayes Theatre, Broadway.
• Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress By A Life In Progress (February 2008, Geffen Playhouse)
• Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress By A Life In Progress (August 2008, Edinburgh Festival Fringe)
• Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress By A Life In Progress (September 2008, Leicester Square Theatre, London)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joan Rivers

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Joan Rivers

• Official website
• Joan Rivers at the Internet Movie Database
• Joan Rivers at the Internet Broadway Database
• Joan Rivers at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• E! Entertainment Bio
• BroadwayWorld.com interview with Joan Rivers, February 19, 2009