1917 in film
Encyclopedia
The year 1917 in film involved some significant events.

Events

  • Foundation of Universum Film AG
    Universum Film AG
    Universum Film AG, better known as UFA or Ufa, is a film company that was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry during the Weimar Republic and through World War II, and a major force in world cinema from 1917 to 1945...

     (UƒA), as a propaganda film company, in Berlin
    Berlin
    Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

    .
  • Technicolor
    Technicolor
    Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

     System 1, a two-color process, is introduced. The first film to use it was The Gulf Between
    The Gulf Between (1917 film)
    The Gulf Between was the first motion picture made in Technicolor, the fourth feature-length color movie, and the first feature-length color movie produced in the United States. Today, the film is considered a lost film, with only a few frames of film extant. The Gulf Between was directed by Wray...

    .
  • World's first feature-length
    Feature film
    In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

     animated film is made in Argentina
    Argentina
    Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

     by Quirino Cristiani
    Quirino Cristiani
    Quirino Cristiani was an Argentine animation director and cartoonist, responsible for the world's first two animated feature films as well as the first animated feature film with sound, even though the only copies of these two films were lost in a fire...

     (El Apóstol
    El Apóstol
    El Apóstol was a 1917 Argentine animated film utilizing cutout animation, and the world's first animated feature film...

    )
  • Movette, another revision of the 17.5 mm film format, is made available.
  • Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

     makes his film debut.
  • April 25 - Thomas Lincoln Tally
    Thomas Lincoln Tally
    Thomas Lincoln Tally on or near April 16, 1902, opened his Electric Theater in Los Angeles, the first movie theatre in that city and the first movie theater in California known to have been built from the ground up inside a larger building on the ground floor...

    , in a meeting in New York, co-founds the First National Exhibitors Circuit
    First National
    First National was an association of independent theater owners in the United States that expanded from exhibiting movies to distributing them, and eventually to producing them as a movie studio, called First National Pictures, Inc. It later merged with Warner Bros.-Early history:The First National...

    .

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Rank Title Gross
1. Cleopatra
Cleopatra (1917 film)
Cleopatra was directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starred Theda Bara in the title role. Fritz Leiber, Sr. played Julius Caesar and Thurston Hall played Mark Antony....

2. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her two stern aunts in the village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy for life inspires her aunts, but she faces many trials in her young life, gaining...

3. The Poor Little Rich Girl
The Poor Little Rich Girl
The Poor Little Rich Girl is a 1917 American comedy-drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur. Adapted by Frances Marion from the 1913 play by Eleanor Gates. The Broadway play actually starred future screen actress Viola Dana...


Films released in 1917

U.S. unless stated
  • Golden Rule Kate
    Golden Rule Kate
    Golden Rule Kate is a 1917 silent era western drama motion picture starring Louise Glaum, William Conklin, Jack Richardson, Mildred Harris, and John Gilbert.Directed by Reginald Barker from a story written by Monte M...

    , a Louise Glaum
    Louise Glaum
    Louise Glaum was an American actress. Best known for her role as a femme fatale in silent era motion picture dramas, she was credited with giving one of the best characterizations of a vamp in her early career....

     drama western feature
  • The Man Without a Country
    The Man Without a Country (1917 film)
    The Man Without a Country is an American silent film adaptation of Edward Everett Hale's The Man Without a Country. It was directed by Ernest C. Warde, and starred Florence La Badie, Holmes Herbert, and J. H. Gilmour, and released by Thanhouser Film Corporation...

    , starring Florence La Badie
    Florence La Badie
    Florence La Badie was an American actress in the early days of the silent film era. Though little known today, she was a major star between 1911 and 1917, her career was at its height and climbing when she died unexpectedly due to injuries sustained during an automobile accident.-Early life:While...

  • The Adventurer
    The Adventurer (film)
    The Adventurer is a short comedy film made in 1917 written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. It is the last out of the twelve films made while he was under contract for the Mutual Film Corporation.- Plot and characters :...

    , a Charlie Chaplin short.
  • The Bad Boy
    The Bad Boy (1917 film)
    The Bad Boy is an American crime drama film directed by Chester Withey and starring Robert Harron, Richard Cummings, Mildred Harris and actress Colleen Moore, who made her film debut in The Bad Boy.-Plot summary:...

    , starring Robert Harron
    Robert Harron
    Robert "Bobby" Harron was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era. Although he acted in scores of films, he is possibly best remembered for his roles in the D.W. Griffith directed films Intolerance and The Birth of a Nation...

    , Mildred Harris
    Mildred Harris
    Mildred Harris was an American film actress. Harris began her career in the film industry as a popular child actress at age eleven. At the age of fifteen, she was cast as a harem girl in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance . She appeared as a leading lady through the 1920s but her career slowed with...

     and Colleen Moore
    Colleen Moore
    Colleen Moore was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era.-Early life:...

  • Big Timber
  • Bucking Broadway
    Bucking Broadway
    Bucking Broadway is a 1917 film by John Ford, probably his sixth feature film. Long thought to be lost, along with about 60 of Ford's 70 silent films, it was found in 2002 in the archives of the CNC . It was subsequently restored and digitized...

    , directed by John Ford
    John Ford
    John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

    .
  • The Butcher Boy
    The Butcher Boy (1917 film)
    The Butcher Boy is a 1917 short comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. This was the first in Arbuckle's series of films with the Comique Film Corporation, and Keaton's film debut.- Plot :...

    , a 'Fatty' Arbuckle
    Fatty Arbuckle
    Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd...

     / Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

     short (Keaton's film debut).
  • Camille
    Camille (1917 film)
    Camille is a silent film based on the 1852 novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, adapted by Adrian Johnson, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, and starring Theda Bara as Marguerite Gauthier. The film was made by Fox Film Corporation when it and many other early film studios in...

    , starring Theda Bara
    Theda Bara
    Theda Bara , born Theodosia Burr Goodman, was an American silent film actress – one of the most popular of her era, and one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "The Vamp" . The term "vamp" soon became a popular slang term for a sexually predatory woman...

  • The Cinderella Man
  • Cleopatra
    Cleopatra (1917 film)
    Cleopatra was directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starred Theda Bara in the title role. Fritz Leiber, Sr. played Julius Caesar and Thurston Hall played Mark Antony....

    , starring Theda Bara
    Theda Bara
    Theda Bara , born Theodosia Burr Goodman, was an American silent film actress – one of the most popular of her era, and one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "The Vamp" . The term "vamp" soon became a popular slang term for a sexually predatory woman...

  • Coney Island
    Coney Island (1917 film)
    Coney Island is a 1917 short silent film comedy written and directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and starring Arbuckle and Buster Keaton.-Synopsis:...

    , a 'Fatty' Arbuckle
    Fatty Arbuckle
    Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd...

     / Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

     short.
  • The Cure, a Charlie Chaplin short.
  • The Dying Swan (Umirayushchii Lebed) (U.S.S.R.)
  • Easy Street
    Easy Street (film)
    Easy Street is a 1917 short comedy film by Charlie Chaplin.In the film, the police are failing to maintain law and order and so it is Chaplin, as the Little Tramp character, who steps forward to rid the street of bullies, help the poor, save women from madmen and generally keep the peace.-Plot:As...

    , starring Charlie Chaplin
  • El Apóstol
    El Apóstol
    El Apóstol was a 1917 Argentine animated film utilizing cutout animation, and the world's first animated feature film...

    , animated by Quirino Cristiani
    Quirino Cristiani
    Quirino Cristiani was an Argentine animation director and cartoonist, responsible for the world's first two animated feature films as well as the first animated feature film with sound, even though the only copies of these two films were lost in a fire...

     (Argentina)
  • The Gay Lord Quex
    The Gay Lord Quex (film)
    The Gay Lord Quex is a 1917 British silent comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Ben Webster, Irene Vanbrugh and Lilian Braithwaite...

    directed by Maurice Elvey
    Maurice Elvey
    Maurice Elvey was the most prolific film director in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year....

     and starring Ben Webster
    Ben Webster (actor)
    Ben Webster was a British-born actor, and the husband of actress Dame May Whitty, and father of the British-American stage actress, Margaret Webster. His father, W. S. Webster, was the son of the famous actor Benjamin Nottingham Webster.Ben Webster was born on June 2, 1864 in London and married...

     and Irene Vanbrugh
    Irene Vanbrugh
    Dame Irene Vanbrugh DBE , née Barnes, was an English actress. The daughter of a clergyman, Vanbrugh followed her elder sister Violet into the theatrical profession, and sustained a career for more than 50 years....

     (U.K.)
  • Great Expectations
    Great Expectations (1917 film)
    Great Expectations is a 1917 silent drama film directed by Robert G. Vignola and Paul West, based on the 1861–1862 novel by Charles Dickens. Jack Pickford stars as Pip and Louise Huff as Estella.-Plot:...

    , starring Jack Pickford
    Jack Pickford
    Jack Pickford was a Canadian-born American actor. He was best known for his tabloid lifestyle, marriage to the top starlets of his day, and being of the famous Pickford acting family.-Early life:...

  • The Gulf Between
    The Gulf Between (1917 film)
    The Gulf Between was the first motion picture made in Technicolor, the fourth feature-length color movie, and the first feature-length color movie produced in the United States. Today, the film is considered a lost film, with only a few frames of film extant. The Gulf Between was directed by Wray...

    , All color movie.
  • His Wedding Night
    His Wedding Night
    His Wedding Night is a 1917 short comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle, Al St. John, and Buster Keaton, and directed by Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Drugstore soda clerk* Al St...

    , a 'Fatty' Arbuckle
    Fatty Arbuckle
    Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd...

     / Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

     short.
  • Her Right to Live
    Her Right to Live
    Her Right to Live is a 1917 dramatic silent film released by the Vitagraph Studios.-Plot:Polly Biggs is the eldest of a family of orphaned children who are taken in by their uncle, Mayor Hoadley . Hoadley despises the children and has only taken them in as good publicity for the upcoming election....

    , starring Peggy Hyland
    Peggy Hyland
    Peggy Hyland was an English silent film actress from Worcestershire, England.-Education:She was educated in England and the convents of Europe. The first convent she attended was Seroule in Verviers, on the frontier of Belgium...

    , Antonio Moreno
    Antonio Moreno
    Antonio "Tony" Moreno was a notable Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.- Biography :...

    , Mae Costello
    Mae Costello
    Mae Costello was an American stage and film actress of the early twentieth-century.-Early life:Born Mae Altschuk in Brooklyn, New York, she was the daughter of Lewis Altschuk and Catherine Callender. As a teenager she began performing in stage productions in stock theater companies throughout the...

     and John S. Robertson
    John S. Robertson
    John Stuart Robertson was a Canadian born actor and later film director perhaps best known for his 1920 screen adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring John Barrymore. He broke into filmmaking in 1915 with Vitagraph, then with Famous Players-Lasky, making 57 features in his career...

    , directed by Paul Scardon
    Paul Scardon
    Paul Scardon was an actor, a producer, and a director on both Australian and New York stages. He directed Blanche Sweet in Unwilling Husband, Bessie Barriscale in some of her most successful productions, and most of the melodramas which starred his wife, actress Betty Blythe...

  • The Immigrant
    The Immigrant
    The Immigrant is a 1917 American comedy short film starring the Charlie Chaplin Tramp character as an immigrant coming to the United States who is accused of theft on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, and befriends a young woman along the way...

    , starring Charlie Chaplin
  • Joan the Woman
    Joan the Woman
    Joan the Woman is a 1916 silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Geraldine Farrar as Joan of Arc.It was the first film to use the Handschiegl Color Process for certain scenes...

    , starring Geraldine Farrar
    Geraldine Farrar
    Geraldine Farrar was an American soprano opera singer and film actress, noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice." She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers".- Early life and opera career :Farrar was born in Melrose,...

    ; directed by Cecil B. DeMille
    Cecil B. DeMille
    Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...

  • The Little American
    The Little American
    The Little American is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The film stars Mary Pickford as an American woman who is in love with both a German and a French soldier during World War I.-Plot:...

    , starring Mary Pickford
    Mary Pickford
    Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

    ; directed by Cecil B. DeMille
    Cecil B. DeMille
    Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...

    .
  • A Little Princess, starring Mary Pickford
    Mary Pickford
    Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

    , Norman Kerry
    Norman Kerry
    Norman Kerry was an American actor whose career spanned over twenty-five years in the motion picture industry beginning in the silent era at the end of World War I.-Biography:...

     and ZaSu Pitts
    ZaSu Pitts
    ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...

    , directed by Marshall Neilan
    Marshall Neilan
    Marshall Ambrose Neilan was an American motion picture actor, screenwriter, film director, and producer.-Early life:...

    .
  • A Man There Was (Terje Vigen) (Sweden)
  • Oh Doctor!
    Oh Doctor!
    Oh Doctor! is a 1917 short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Dr. Fatty Holepoke* Buster Keaton - Junior Holepoke* Al St. John - Gambler* Alice Mann - Vamp* Alice Lake - Maid...

    , a 'Fatty' Arbuckle
    Fatty Arbuckle
    Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd...

     / Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

     short.
  • One Law for Both
    One Law for Both
    One Law for Both is a 1917 silent film directed by Ivan Abramson.-Plot:Elga Pulsaki and her brother Ossip emigrate to the United States from Russia to escape persecution...

    directed by Ivan Abramson
    Ivan Abramson
    Ivan Abramson was a director of American silent films active in the 1910s and 1920s.Abramson emigrated to the United States from Russia in the 1880s and soon became involved in Jewish newspaper field. In 1905 he founded an opera company. In 1914, he founded Ivan Film Productions to produce...

  • The Poor Little Rich Girl
    The Poor Little Rich Girl
    The Poor Little Rich Girl is a 1917 American comedy-drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur. Adapted by Frances Marion from the 1913 play by Eleanor Gates. The Broadway play actually starred future screen actress Viola Dana...

    , starring Mary Pickford
    Mary Pickford
    Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

    .
  • Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
    Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
    Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her two stern aunts in the village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy for life inspires her aunts, but she faces many trials in her young life, gaining...

  • A Reckless Romeo
    A Reckless Romeo
    A Reckless Romeo is a 1917 short silent comedy film directed by and starring Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle.-Production background:The film was produced by the Comique Film Corporation when it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey...

    , a 'Fatty' Arbuckle
    Fatty Arbuckle
    Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd...

     short.
  • The Rough House
    The Rough House
    The Rough House is a short comedy film written and directed by and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. The Rough House was Keaton's first film as a director.-Cast:* Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle - Mr Rough...

    , a 'Fatty' Arbuckle
    Fatty Arbuckle
    Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd...

     / Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

     short.
  • Souls Triumphant
    Souls Triumphant
    Souls Triumphant is a 1917 drama film directed by John B. O'Brien.-Cast:* Lillian Gish - Lillian Vale* Wilfred Lucas - Robert Powers* Spottiswoode Aitken - Josiah Vale* Louise Hamilton - Hattie Lee* Kate Bruce* Jennie Lee...

  • Straight Shooting
    Straight Shooting
    Straight Shooting is a 1917 Western film directed by John Ford and featuring Harry Carey. Prints of this film survive in the International Museum of Photography and Film at George Eastman House.-Cast:* Harry Carey - Cheyenne Harry* Duke R...

    , directed by John Ford
    John Ford
    John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

    .
  • Teddy at the Throttle
    Teddy at the Throttle
    Teddy at the Throttle is a silent film starring Bobby Vernon and Gloria Swanson.-Cast:* Bobby Vernon as Bobbie Knight* Gloria Swanson as Gloria Dawn* Wallace Beery as Henry Black* May Emory as The Guardian's Sister...

    , a Keystone comedy with Gloria Swanson
    Gloria Swanson
    Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...

    .
  • Tom Sawyer
    Tom Sawyer (1917 film)
    Tom Sawyer is a 1917 Paramount Pictures silent film starring Jack Pickford, Robert Gordon, and Clara Horton; it is based on Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer....

    , starring Jack Pickford
    Jack Pickford
    Jack Pickford was a Canadian-born American actor. He was best known for his tabloid lifestyle, marriage to the top starlets of his day, and being of the famous Pickford acting family.-Early life:...

  • The Tornado
    The Tornado
    The Tornado is a 1917 short Western film directed by John Ford. It was Ford's debut film as a director. The film is considered to be lost.-Cast:* John Ford - Jack Dayton * Jean Hathaway - Jack's mother...

    , directed by John Ford
    John Ford
    John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

     (his debut)
  • Wild and Woolly
    Wild and Woolly
    Wild and Woolly is a 1917 silent film which tells the story of one man's personal odyssey from sophisticated Easterner to Western tough guy. It stars Douglas Fairbanks, Eileen Percy, Walter Bytell and Sam De Grasse....

  • The Wild Girl, starring Eva Tanguay
    Eva Tanguay
    Eva Tanguay was a Canadian-born singer and entertainer who billed herself as "the girl who made vaudeville famous".-Early life:...

     and Thomas J. Moore
    Thomas J. Moore
    Thomas J. "Tom" Moore was an Irish-born American actor and director. He appeared in at least 186 motion pictures from 1908 to 1954...


Comedy film series

  • Harold Lloyd
    Harold Lloyd
    Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....

    (1913–1938)
  • Charlie Chaplin
    Charlie Chaplin
    Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

    (1914–1940)
  • Lupino Lane
    Lupino Lane
    Lupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...

    (1915–1939)
  • Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

    (1917–1944)

Births

  • January 5 - Jane Wyman
    Jane Wyman
    Jane Wyman was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...

    , actress (d. 2007
    2007 in film
    This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...

    )
  • January 2 - Vera Zorina
    Vera Zorina
    Vera Zorina was a Norwegian ballerina, musical theatre actress and choreographer.-Background:Vera Zorina was born Eva Brigitta Hartwig in Berlin, Germany. Her father Fritz was a German and her mother Billie Hartwig was Norwegian. Both were professional singers...

    , dancer, actress (d. 2003
    2003 in film
    The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...

    )
  • January 10 - Hilde Krahl
    Hilde Krahl
    Hilde Krahl was an Austrian film actress. She appeared in 70 films between 1936 and 1994.She was born Hildegard Kolačný in Brod, Austria-Hungary and died in Vienna, Austria...

    , actress (d. 1999
    1999 in film
    The year 1999 in film involved several noteworthy events and has been called "The Year That Changed Movies". Several significant feature films, including Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvar's first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, science fiction The Matrix, Deep...

    )
  • January 24 - Ernest Borgnine
    Ernest Borgnine
    Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...

    , actor
  • February 6 - Zsa Zsa Gabor
    Zsa Zsa Gabor
    Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that...

    , actress
  • February 21 - Lucille Bremer
    Lucille Bremer
    Lucille Bremer was an American film actress and dancer.Bremer was born in Amsterdam, New York and began her career as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, aged 16. Bremer, along with fellow stars Vera-Ellen and June Allyson, appeared as a 'Pony Girl' in the Broadway musical Panama...

    , actress (d. 1996
    1996 in film
    Major releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...

    )
  • March 12 - Googie Withers
    Googie Withers
    Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...

    , actress
  • March 22 - Virginia Grey
    Virginia Grey
    Virginia Grey was an American actress.She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of ten in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin as Little Eva...

    , actress (d. 2004
    2004 in film
    The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...

    )
  • April 14 - Valerie Hobson
    Valerie Hobson
    Valerie Hobson was a British actress who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s...

    , actress (d. 1998
    1998 in film
    -Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...

    )
  • April 29 - Maya Deren
    Maya Deren
    Maya Deren , born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s...

    , experimental filmmaker (d. 1961
    1961 in film
    The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB...

    )
  • May 1 - Danielle Darrieux
    Danielle Darrieux
    Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux is a French actress and singer, who has appeared in more than 110 films since 1931. She is one of France's great movie stars and her eight-decade career is among the longest in film history....

    , actress
  • May 10 - Margo, actress (d. 1985
    1985 in film
    -Events:* 3 December - Roger Moore steps down from the role of James Bond after twelve years and seven films. He is replaced by Timothy Dalton.* The Academy Award for Best Picture was won by Out Of Africa, while the highest grossing film was Back to the Future.* Bliss wins AFI Award for best Movie...

    )
  • May 21 - Raymond Burr
    Raymond Burr
    Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...

    , actor (d. 1993
    1993 in film
    The year 1993 in film involved many significant films, including the blockbuster hits Jurassic Park, The Fugitive and The Firm. -Events:...

    )
  • May 25 - Steve Cochran
    Steve Cochran
    Steve Cochran was an American film, television, and stage actor, the son of a California lumberman. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1939...

    , actor (d. 1965
    1965 in film
    The year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...

    )
  • June 7 - Dean Martin
    Dean Martin
    Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...

    , singer, actor (d. 1995
    1995 in film
    -Top grossing films:-Events:* March 22 - The Dogme 95 movement is officially announced in Paris by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.* March 28 - Actress Julia Roberts and singer Lyle Lovett announce their plans for separation....

    )
  • April 29 - Celeste Holm
    Celeste Holm
    Celeste Holm is an American stage, film, and television actress, known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman's Agreement , as well as for her Oscar-nominated performances in Come to the Stable and All About Eve...

    , actress
  • June 30 - Lena Horne
    Lena Horne
    Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...

    , singer, actress
  • July 17 - Phyllis Diller
    Phyllis Diller
    Phyllis Diller is an American actress and comedian. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes jokes about a husband named "Fang" while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder...

    , comedian, actress
  • August 6 - Robert Mitchum
    Robert Mitchum
    Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...

    , actor (d. 1997
    1997 in film
    -Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...

    )
  • August 25 - Mel Ferrer
    Mel Ferrer
    Mel Ferrer was an American actor, film director and film producer.-Early life:Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Catalan and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer , was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St....

    , actor (d. 2008
    2008 in film
    This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...

    )
  • September 9 - Rolf Wenkhaus
    Rolf Wenkhaus
    Rolf Wenkhaus was a German child actor who is most likely recalled for his role of Emil Tischbein in the 1931 film Emil and the Detectives.Born in Berlin, Germany, Rolf Wenkhaus was the son of actor Kurt Wenkhaus...

    , actor (d. 1942
    1942 in film
    The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...

    )
  • September 11 - Herbert Lom
    Herbert Lom
    Herbert Lom is a Czech film actor, best known for his role as former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movie series.-Life and career:...

    , actor
  • October 7 - June Allyson
    June Allyson
    June Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss . From 1959–1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology...

    , actress (d. 2006
    2006 in film
    - Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...

    )
  • October 7 - Helmut Dantine
    Helmut Dantine
    Helmut Dantine was a film actor remembered for playing many Nazis in thriller films of the 1940s. The Vienna-born actor appeared uncredited in Casablanca early in his career .Dantine's father was the head of the Austrian railway system...

    , actor (d. 1982
    1982 in film
    -Events:* March 26 = I Ought to Be in Pictures, starring Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret and Dinah Manoff is released. Manoff would not appear in another movie until 1987's Backfire.* June = PG-rated film E.T...

    )
  • October 17 - Alice Pearce
    Alice Pearce
    Alicia “Alice” Pearce was an American actress. Brought to Hollywood by Gene Kelly to reprise her Broadway performance in the film version of On the Town , Pearce played comedic supporting roles in several films, before being cast as Gladys Kravitz in Bewitched in 1964...

    , actress (d. 1966
    1966 in film
    The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...

    )
  • October 17 - Marsha Hunt, U.S. actress
  • October 22 - Joan Fontaine
    Joan Fontaine
    Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....

    , actress
  • November 4 - Virginia Field
    Virginia Field
    Virginia Field was a British-born film actress.Born Margaret Cynthia Field in London, her father was the judge of England's Leicester County Court Circuit. Her mother was a cousin of Robert E...

    , actress (d. 1992
    1992 in film
    The year 1992 in film involved many significant films. -Top grossing films:-Awards:Academy AwardsGolden Globe AwardsNational Film Awards...

    )
  • December 7 - Hurd Hatfield
    Hurd Hatfield
    William Rukard Hurd Hatfield was an American actor.-Biography:The son of William Henry Hatfield , an attorney who served as deputy attorney general for New York, and his wife, the former Adele Steele, Hatfield was born in New York City, and was educated at Columbia University before travelling to...

    , actor (d. 1998
    1998 in film
    -Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...

    )
  • December 22 - Frankie Darro
    Frankie Darro
    Frankie Darro was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist.-Early life:Darro...

    , actor (d. 1976
    1976 in film
    The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...

    )

Deaths

  • January 17 - Matt Snyder, American actor,(*one of the oldest people acting in film at the time of his death)
  • February 19 - Marshall Farnum, director, brother of Dustin
    Dustin Farnum
    Dustin Lancy Farnum was an American singer, dancer and an actor in silent movies during the early days of motion pictures. After a great success in a number of stage roles, in 1914 he landed his first film role in the movie 'Soldiers of Fortune', and later in Cecil B. DeMille's The Squaw Man...

     and William Farnum
    William Farnum
    William Farnum was a major movie actor. One of three brothers, Farnum grew up in a family of actors. He made his acting debut at the age of ten in Richmond, Virginia in a production of Julius Caesar, with Edwin Booth playing the title character...

  • February 21 - Fred Mace
    Fred Mace
    Fred Mace was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 156 films between 1909 and 1916. Mace worked for Mack Sennett at Keystone Studios...

    , actor & comedian
  • April 26 - Dent Gilbert, cinematographer, 25 years old
  • May 20 - Edward Mawson, American actor
  • June 23 - Walter Hitchcock, stage & screen actor (born 1871 or 72)
  • July 2 - Herbert Beerbohm Tree
    Herbert Beerbohm Tree
    Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...

    , stage & screen star
  • October 13 - Florence La Badie
    Florence La Badie
    Florence La Badie was an American actress in the early days of the silent film era. Though little known today, she was a major star between 1911 and 1917, her career was at its height and climbing when she died unexpectedly due to injuries sustained during an automobile accident.-Early life:While...

    , pioneer actress
  • October 25 - Jack Standing
    Jack Standing
    Jack Standing was an English actor.The brother of Wyndham Standing , who also was a famous actor in the early days of film, Jack Standing had first appeared in Broadway musicals such as The Belle of New York and Floradora before he went to the Biograph company in 1909...

    , silent film actor, age 30, son of Herbert Standing and brother of Guy Standing
    Guy Standing
    Commander Sir Guy Standing KBE RNVR was an English actor.-Biography:Standing served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve throughout the First World War, reaching the rank of Commander. In 1918, he was part of the British War Mission to the United States...

     & Wyndham Standing
    Wyndham Standing
    Wyndham Standing was an English film actor. He appeared in 131 films between 1915 and 1948. A popular and much beloved leading man in the silent film era, he starred and costarred along many famous names of the day, both men and women. He and Ronald Colman were the stars of the now lost classic...

    .
  • December 20 - Eric Campbell
    Eric Campbell (actor)
    Alfred Eric Campbell was an English actor who for many years was wrongly believed to be Scottish....

    , actor & a main member of Charles Chaplin's stock company.

Film Debuts

  • Marion Davies
    Marion Davies
    Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....

  • Vittorio De Sica
    Vittorio de Sica
    Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....

  • Richard Dix
    Richard Dix
    Richard Dix was an American motion picture actor who achieved popularity in both silent and sound film. His standard on-screen image was that of the rugged and stalwart hero.-Early life:...

  • Elsie Ferguson
    Elsie Ferguson
    Elsie Louise Ferguson was an American stage and film actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Benson Ferguson, a successful attorney...

  • John Ford
    John Ford
    John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

     - director
  • Mary Garden
    Mary Garden
    Mary Garden , was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century...

  • Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

  • Stan Laurel
    Stan Laurel
    Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...

  • Bela Lugosi
    Béla Lugosi
    Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...

  • ZaSu Pitts
    ZaSu Pitts
    ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...

  • Marjorie Rambeau
    Marjorie Rambeau
    Marjorie Rambeau was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:Rambeau was born in San Francisco, California to Marcel Rambeau and Lilian Garlinda Kindelberger. Her parents split up when she was a girl. She and her mother went to Nome, Alaska where young Marjorie dressed as a boy, sang and...

  • Loretta Young
    Loretta Young
    Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...

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