On This Day

Year 1896 in Film & Television

Events in Film & TV

  • Jan 4 AFL charters Actors' National Protective Union, NYC
  • Mar 12 1st movie in Netherlands (Kalverstr 220)
  • Apr 23 Vitascope system of movie projection 1st shown at Koster & Bial's Music Hall (NYC)
  • Jul 26 Vitascope Hall, 1st permanent for-profit movie theatre, opens in New Orleans

Birthdays in Film & TV

  • Jan 1 Teinosuke Kinugasa, Japanese actor and director (Gate of Hell, A Page of Madness, Jujiro, Jigoku-mon), born in Mie Ken, Japan (d. 1982)
  • Jan 7 Arnold Ridley, British actor and dramatist (The Ghost Train, Dad's Army), born in Bath, England (d. 1984)
  • Jan 16 Ruth Rose, American screenwriter (d. 1978)
  • Jan 20 George Burns [Nathan Birnbaum], American actor, comedian and singer (Oh God; Burns and Allen), born in NYC, New York (d. 1996)
  • Jan 20 Rolfe Sedan, American actor (Young Frankenstein, Ninotchka, George Burns Show), born in NYC, New York (d. 1982)
  • Jan 20 Isabel Withers, American actress (Possessed, Lady of Burlesque), born in Frankton, Indiana (d. 1968)
  • Feb 8 Orville Caldwell, American actor (Patsy, French Doll, Last Warning), born in Oakland, California (d. 1967)
  • Feb 15 Arthur Shields, Irish actor (River, Enchanted Island), born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1970)
  • Feb 22 Enid Markey, American actress, 1st to play Tarzan's Jane, born in Dillon, Colorado (d. 1981)
  • Feb 29 William A. Wellman, American film director (Star is Born 1937), born in Brookline, Massachusetts (d. 1975)
  • Mar 10 Harry Krimer, French actor (Napoleon, Les vagabonds magnifiques, La course du flambeau), born in Paris, France (d. 1991)
  • Mar 20 Sam Wren, American actor (Marked Woman, The Old Grey Mayor), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1962)
  • Mar 22 Joseph Schildkraut, Austrian actor (Cleopatra, Joseph Schildkraut Presents, Diary of Anne Frank), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1964)
  • Apr 10 Edith Day, American actress (A Romance of the Air), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 1971)
  • Apr 17 Senor Wences, Spanish ventriloquist (his hand acts as a puppet) and comedian, born in Peñaranda de Bracamonte, Salamanca, Spain (d. 1999)
  • May 18 Walter Fitzgerald, English actor, born in Devonport, England (d. 1976)
  • May 30 Howard Hawks, American director and producer (Rio Bravo, Scarface), born in Goshen, Indiana (d. 1977)
  • Jun 7 Vivien Kellems, American industrialist, who battled the Federal tax system as discriminatory against single people, born in Des Moines, Iowa (d. 1975)
  • Jun 9 Aura Abranches, Portuguese actress (Lisboa, O Primo Basilio), born in Lisbon, Portugal (d. 1962)
  • Jun 18 Blanche Sweet, American actress (Home Sweet Home, Avenging Conscience), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1986)
  • Jun 21 Dorothy Stickney, American actress (And So They Were Married), born in Dickinson, North Dakota (d. 1998)
  • Jun 29 Irene Browne, British actress (All at Sea, Peg O' My Heart), born in London, England (d. 1965)
  • Jul 1 Pavel Antokolsky, Russian poet and theatre director (Syn), born in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire (d. 1978)
  • Jul 3 Doris Lloyd, Irish-American actress (Bachelor Father, Charley's Aunt, Sarah & Son), born in Liverpool, England (d. 1968)
  • Jul 16 Evelyn Preer, African-American actress (Homesteader, Spider's Webs), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1932)
  • Jul 25 Jack Perrin, American actor, born in Three Rivers, Michigan (d. 1967)
  • Jul 26 Charles Butterworth, American actor (Mad Genius), born in South Bend, Indiana (d. 1946)
  • Jul 28 Barbara La Marr, American actress (The White Moth), born in Yakima, Washington (d. 1926)
  • Aug 6 Cyril Mockridge, British composer for film and television (Miracle On 34th Street; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), born in London (d. 1979)
  • Aug 18 Alan Mowbray, British actor (Dante, Colonel Flack), born in London, England (d. 1969)
  • Aug 18 Jack Pickford, Canadian-American actor (The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come), born in Toronto, Ontario (d. 1933)
  • Aug 21 Blossom Rock [Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald], American actress (Grandmamma-Addams Family), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1978)
  • Aug 21 Roark Bradford, American writer and humorist (Ol' Man Adan an' His Chillun), born in Lauderdale County, Tennessee (d. 1943)
  • Aug 24 Phil Baker, American comedian (Who's Whose), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1963)
  • Aug 25 Dick Ryan, American actor (For Heaven's Sake, Born to be Bad), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1969)
  • Aug 27 Faina Ranevskaya [Faina Georgievna Feldman], Russian actress, born in Taganrog, Don Voisko Oblast, Russian Empire (d. 1984)
  • Aug 30 Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (Dr Kildare), born in Toronto, Ontario (d. 1983)
  • Sep 4 Antonin Artaud, French songwriter and director (Theatre Seraphin), born in Marseille, France (d. 1948)
  • Sep 17 Denise Grey [Jeanne Marie Laurentine Edouardine Verthuy], Italian actress (Julietta), born in Chatillon, Valle d'Aosta, Italy (d. 1996)
  • Oct 1 Ted Healy [Ernest Lee Nash], American actor and comedian (Mad Love, San Francisco, Soup to Nuts), born in Kaufman, Texas (d. 1937)
  • Oct 8 Julien Duvivier, French film director (La Bandera), born in Lille, France (d. 1967)
  • Oct 14 Bud Flanagan [Chaim Reuben Weintrop], English comedian (duo with Chesney Alley), born in London, England (d. 1968)
  • Oct 15 Melville Cooper, English actor (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Father of the Bride), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1979) [1]
  • Oct 30 Ruth Gordon, American actress (Rosemary's Baby, Harold & Maude), born in Quincy, Massachusetts (d. 1985)
  • Oct 30 Rex Cherryman, American actor (Camille, The Sunshine Trail, In for Thirty Days), born in Grand Rapids, Michigan (d. 1928)
  • Oct 31 Ethel Waters, American actress (Beulah), singer (Stormy Weather), born in Chester, Pennsylvania (d. 1977)
  • Nov 3 Gustaf Tenggren, Swedish-American artist and chief illustrator for The Walt Disney Company during the 1930s (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi, Pinocchio), born in Västra Götaland County, Sweden (d. 1970)
  • Nov 4 Ian Wolfe, American actor (Diary of a Madman, Wizards & Warriors, Houdini, THX-1138, Homebodies), born in Canton, Illinois (d. 1992)
  • Nov 16 Jim Jordan, American actor and radio comedian (Fibber McGee), born in Peoria, Illinois (d. 1988)
  • Nov 23 Ruth Etting, American dancer, singer and actress (Roman scandals), born in David City, Nebraska (d. 1978)
  • Nov 28 Lilia Skala, Austrian actress (House of Games, Flashdance, Charly), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1994)
  • Dec 12 Eslanda Goode, American anthropology, civil rights activist and actor under Paul Robeson, born in Washington, D.C. (d. 1965)
  • Dec 15 Margaret Bannerman, Canadian actress (Elopement), born in Toronto, Ontario (d. 1976)
  • Dec 30 Tom Keene, American actor (Our Daily Bread), born in Rochester, New York (d. 1963)
  • Dec 31 Ronald Adam, British actor (Lost Horizon, The Prisoner of Zenda, Phantom Shot), born in Herefordshire, England (d. 1958)