Silent film star giving first or last performance (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
swan song
'last performance' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'silent film star giving first' is the wordplay.
'silent film star' becomes 'swanson' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'giving first' becomes 'g' (sst letter of 'giving').
'swanson'+'g'='SWAN-SONG'
'or' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for swan song that I've seen before include "Bird music for last act before death or retirement" , "Farewell performance" , "Last act or work, as of noble bird" , "Final performance, to the tune of an aquatic bird" , "A last performance, as of noble bird" .)