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,[11] 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 Feodorovnain the short-lived 1965 Broadway musical Anya. In
addition to her later acting appearances, Gish became one of the leading advocates of 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. She was interviewed in the television
documentary series Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (1980).[12]