but in talkies was only moderately successful, largely due to the public's changing attitudes.

Many of the silent era's leading ladies, such as Gish and Pickford, had been wholesome and
innocent, but by the early 1930s (after the full adoption of sound and before the Motion Picture
Production Code was enforced) these roles were perceived as outdated. The ingenue's diametric
opposite, the vamp, was at the height of its popularity. Gish was increasingly seen as a "silly,
sexless antique" (to quote fellow actress Louise Brooks's sarcastic summary of those who
criticized Gish). Louis Mayer wanted to stage a scandal ("knock her off her pedestal") to garner
public sympathy for Gish, but Lillian didn't want to act both on screen and off, and returned to her
first love, the theater. 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!"
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