In 1935, still in her teens, she appeared as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive. She played opposite Henry Hull that same year in Werewolf of London, the first Hollywood werewolf film. The latter half of the 1940s saw Hobson in perhaps her two most memorable roles: as the adult Estella in David Lean's adaptation of Great Expectations (1946), and as the refined and virtuous Edith D'Ascoyne in the black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

In 1952 she divorced her first husband, film producer Sir Anthony Havelock-Allan (1904-2003). In 1954, she married Brigadier John Profumo (1915-2006), an MP, giving up acting shortly afterwards. Profumo was a prominent politician of Italian descent.

Hobson's last starring role was in the original London production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play The King and I, which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on 8 October 1953. She played Mrs. Anna Leonowens opposite Herbert Lom's King. The show ran for 926 performances.

After Profumo's ministerial career ended in disgrace in 1963, following revelations he had lied to the House of Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler, Hobson stood by him, and they worked together for charity for the remainder of her life, though she did miss their more public personas.

To help make ends meet, Lillian, her sister Dorothy Gish and their mother Mary Gish tried their hand at acting in local productions. Lillian was all of six years old when she first appeared in front of an audience.

For the next 13 years, she and Dorothy appeared before stage audiences with great success. Actually, had she not made her way into films, Lillian quite possibly could have been one of the great stage actresses of all time. Ultimately, though, she found her way onto the big screen. In 1912, she met famed director DW Griffith. Impressed with what he saw, he immediately cast her in what was to be her first film, An Unseen Enemy (1912), followed by The One She Loved (1912) and My Baby (1912).

She would make 12 films for Griffith in 1912. With 25 films in the next two years, Lillian's exposure to the public was so great that she fast became one of the top stars in the industry, right alongside Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart".

Barbara Stanwyck (1907 - 1990) was an American actress, model, and dancer. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong, realistic screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra.
After a short, but notable, career as a stage actress in the late 1920s, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.