Films in History

Events 1 - 100 of 761

• 1880-02-04 Steele MacKay's play "Hazel Kirke" premieres in New York City

• 1895-03-30 British inventor Birt Acres films Oxford and Cambridge boat race
• 1896-04-23 Vitascope system of movie projection 1st shown at Koster & Bial's Music Hall, New York City
• 1901-12-04 Anne Russell's play "'Girl and the judge" premieres in New York
• 1908-08-17 Booth Tarkington & Harry Leon Wilson's play "Man from Home" premieres in New York
• 1913-03-25 Home of vaudeville, Palace Theatre, opens (NYC) starring Ed Wynn

• 1915-10-09 Louis Kaufmans comedy "Unchastened Woman" premieres in New York City
• 1916-09-05 "Intolerance", silent film directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Vera Lewis and Ralph Lewis, is released
• 1917-01-11 Guy Bolton & PG Wodehouse's "Have a Heart" premieres in New York

• 1924-02-04 George Kelly's play "Show-Off," premieres in New York City
• 1925-06-26 "The Gold Rush", directed, starring and written by Charlie Chaplin, is released
• 1925-12-21 "Battleship Potemkin", Soviet silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein, starring Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barksy and Grigori Aleksandrov, premieres in Moscow
• 1926-08-06 "Don Juan" starring John Barrymore is released by Warner Bros, the 1st feature-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects

• 1927-02-05 "The General", American silent film directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, starring Al Boasberg, premieres in New York City

• 1927-08-12 "Wings", one of only two silent films - the other being The Artist in 2011 - to win an Oscar for best picture, opens starring Clara Bow (Outstanding Picture 1929)

• 1928-09-11 1st ever TV drama WGY's "Queens Messenger" broadcast in the New York area starring Izetta Jewell
• 1928-11-26 Philip Barry's play "Holiday" premieres in New York City
• 1928-12-12 Robert Nichols and Maurice Browne's play "Wings over Europe" premieres in New York City
• 1929-02-01 "The Broadway Melody" directed by Harry Beaumont and starring Bessie Love is released. 1st film with sound to win an Oscar (Outstanding Picture 1930)
• 1929-11-04 John L. Balderston's play "Berkeley Square" starring Leslie Howard premieres in NYC

• 1930-04-21 "All Quiet on the Western Front" based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Louis Wolheim and Lew Ayres premieres in Los Angeles (Academy Awards Outstanding Production 1930)
• 1931-01-26 "Cimarron" directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne premieres in New York. 1st western to win Best Outstanding Production/Picture (1931)
• 1931-01-30 "City Lights", American silent romantic comedy film directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring himself and Virginia Cherrill, premieres at Los Angeles Theater

• 1931-05-11 "M" Fritz Lang's first sound film starring Peter Lorre premieres in Berlin

• 1932-02-03 "Shanghai Express" directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook and Anna Mae Wong premieres in Los Angeles

• 1932-07-28 "White Zombie" - 1st feature length zombie film directed by Victor Halperin and starring Bela Lugosi is released in the US

• 1932-12-22 "The Mummy" directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff is released in the US - 1st Mummy horror film

• 1933-11-17 Marx brothers film "Duck Soup" directed by Leo McCarey and starring the Marx Brothers is released in the US

• 1933-12-29 "Sons of the Desert" film directed by William A. Seiter starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is released
• 1934-02-22 "It Happened One Night" directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert opens at NY's Radio City Music Hall (Academy Awards Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay 1935)
• 1934-09-12 "L'Atalante", French film directed by Jean Vigo, starring Michel Simon, Dita Parlo and Jean Dasté, is released
• 1934-09-28 "Judge Priest" film directed by John Ford, starring Will Rogers is released

• 1934-12-28 Film "Bright Eyes" premieres starring Shirley Temple and featuring the song "On the Good Ship Lollipop"
• 1935-02-22 "The Little Colonel" premieres starring Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore and Bill Robinson, featuring famous stair dance with Hollywood's first interracial dance couple

• 1935-09-07 Romantic comedy film "Page Miss Glory" starring Marion Davies premieres in the USA

• 1936-02-05 "Modern Times", silent film directed by, written by and starring Charlie Chaplin, is released
• 1936-02-07 Felix the Cat, animated film released by Van Beuren Studios licensed from Otto Messmer

• 1936-09-04 "Swing Time", directed by George Stevens, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, is released
• 1936-12-16 John Monks and Fred Finklehoff's play "Brother Rat" premieres in New York City
• 1937-07-19 Joris Ivens' "Spanish Earth" premieres in Hollywood

• 1939-07-07 "The Rules of the Game", French film directed by Jean Renoir, starring Nora Gregor and Paulette Dubost, premieres in Paris

• 1939-11-09 Romantic comedy film "Ninotchka" directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Greta Garbo premieres

• 1940-03-21 "Rebecca" based on the book by Daphne du Maurier, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine premieres in Miami, Florida (Best Picture 1941)
• 1940-07-19 Nazi occupiers in Netherlands forbid anti-nazi films
• 1940-10-15 "The Great Dictator", a satiric social commentary film by and starring Charlie Chaplin released

• 1940-11-13 "Fantasia" animated film by Walt Disney, starring Leopold Stokowski and Deems Taylor, is released

• 1941-10-28 "How Green Was My Valley" based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn, directed by John Ford and starring Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O'Hara premieres in New York (Best Picture 1942)
• 1941-12-05 "Sullivan's Travels", directed by Preston Sturges and starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake, is released

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• 1885-11-10 Esther Dale, American actress (Curly Top; The Egg and I; Ma and Pa Kettle films), born in Beaufort, South Carolina (d. 1961)
• 1887-08-27 James Finlayson, Scottish-American stage and silent and "talkie" film actor (Laurel and Hardy films), born in Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland (d. 1953)
• 1888-07-16 Percy Kilbride, American stage and screen actor (The Egg and I; Ma and Pa Kettle films), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1964)
• 1888-11-24 Rudolf Klein-Rogge, German actor and prototype for silent films master criminal (Metropolis, Spies), born in Cologne, Germany (d. 1955)
• 1890-02-24 Marjorie Main [Mary Tomlinson], American vaudeville and screen actress (The Egg and I; Ma and Pa Kettle films), born near Acton, Indiana (d. 1975)

• 1895-09-26 Fay Holden, British actress (Mother-Andy Hardy films), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1973)
• 1897-09-10 David L. Snell, American pianist and composer for films (MGM Studio), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 1967) 

• 1911-03-23 Charles Joseph A Russhon, USAF lt col/liaison (James Bond films)
• 1911-12-03 Nino Rota [Giovanni Rota Rinaldi], Italian classical and film score composer (Il cappello di paglia di Firenze; The Godfather (I & II; 16 Fellini films), born in Milan, Italy (d. 1979)

• 1916-11-23 Michael Gough, English actor (Hammer Horror Films, Search for the Nile), born in Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya (d. 2011)
• 1922-02-07 Josephine "Hattie" Jacques, British comedy actress (Carry on films, Hancock's Half Hour), born in Kent, England (d. 1980)
• 1922-10-27 Poul Bundgaard, Danish comic actor (Olsen-banden films) and operetta singer (Royal Danish Theatre, 1958-73), born in Hellerup, Denmark (d. 1998)
• 1923-07-22 Mukesh [Mathur], Indian "playback singer" for Bollywood films, born in Delhi, British India (d. 1976)
• 1927-05-04 Owen "Terry" Scott, British actor and comedian (Terry and June, Carry On Films), born in Watford, Hertfordshire (d. 1994)
• 1929-06-11 Lennie Niehaus, American jazz saxophonist and film composer (Clint Eastwood films), born in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 2020)
• 1930-05-09 Joan Sims, British actress ("Carry on" films, As Time Goes By), born in Laindon, Essex, England (d. 2001)

• 1932-04-29 King Hu, Chinese film director and actor (wuxia films), born in Beijing, Republic of China (d. 1997)
• 1935-07-31 Mort Crim, American broadcast journalist, author, and inspiration for the Ron Burgundy character in the "Anchorman" films, born in West Frankfort, Illinois
• 1936-10-28 Carl Davis, American conductor and composer for silent films, born in NYC, New York
• 1937-08-06 Barbara Windsor, British actress and Dame (Carry On films, EastEnders). born in London, England (d. 2020)

• 1944-07-17 Catherine Schell [Katherina Freiin Schell von Bauschlott], Hungarian-born British actress (two Pink Panther films), born in Budapest, Hungary
• 1946-10-26 Holly Woodlawn, transgender Puerto Rican actress (Warhol films), born in Juana Díaz (d. 2015)
• 1948-10-17 Margot Kidder, Canadian American actress (Lois Lane in Superman films, Amityville Horror), born in Yellowknife, Canada (d. 2018)

• 1951-06-09 James Newton Howard, American film composer (The Hunger Games; M. Night Shyamalan films), born in Los Angeles, California
• 1952-06-05 Mukesh Bhatt, Indian film producer (Vishesh Films), born in Mumbai, India

• 1955-07-18 Teresa Ann Savoy, British actress in Italian Films (Caligula; Salon Kitty), born in London, England (d. 2017)

• 1960-11-10 Neil Gaiman, English writer of graphic novels, films and fiction (American Gods, The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane), born in Portchester, Hampshire, England
• 1964-03-16 Gore Verbinski, American movie director ( Pirates of the Caribbean films; Rango), born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee

• 1971-03-07 Matthew Vaughn, British producer and director (Kingsman films), born in London, England
• 1972-05-14 Gabriel Mann [Mick], American actor (Bourne films - "Danny Zorn"; Revenge -"Norman"), born in Middlebury, Vermont
• 1978-06-18 Tara Platt, American actress and voice actress for Japanese anime films (Temari-Naruto), born in Fairfax, Virginia
• 1978-07-21 Justin Bartha, American actor (National Treasure films), born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• 1983-05-12 Domhnall Gleeson, Irish actor (Harry Potter films, The Revenant), born in Dublin, Ireland
• 1988-06-20 Shefali Chowdhury, Welsh actress (Harry Potter films), born in Denbigh, Wales

• 1953-10-09 James Finlayson, Scottish-American stage, and silent and "talkie" film actor (Laurel and Hardy films), dies of a heart attack at 66
• 1955-04-30 Rudolf Klein-Rogge, German actor and prototype for silent films master criminal (Metropolis, Spies), dies at 69

• 1961-07-23 Esther Dale, American actress (Curly Top; The Egg and I; Ma and Pa Kettle films), dies after surgery at 75
• 1964-12-11 Percy Kilbride, American stage and screen actor (The Egg and I; Ma and Pa Kettle films), dies at 76

• 1967-03-27 David L. Snell, American pianist and composer for films (MGM Studio), dies at 69
• 1973-06-23 Fay Holden, actress (Mother-Andy Hardy films), dies at 77
• 1975-04-10 Marjorie Main [Mary Tomlinson], American vaudeville and screen actress (The Egg and I; Ma and Pa Kettle films), dies of lung cancer at 85
• 1976-08-27 Mukesh [Mathur], Indian "playback singer" for Bollywood films, dies of a heart attack at 53
• 1980-06-18 Terence Fisher, English film director (Hammer Films), dies at 76
• 1980-10-06 Josephine "Hattie" Jacques, British comedy actress (Carry on films, Hancock's Half Hour), dies of a heart attack at 58

• 1993-11-28 Kenneth Connor, English comedian and actor, best known for his "Carry On" films, dies of cancer at 75
• 1994-07-26 Owen "Terry" Scott, British actor and comedian (Terry and June, Carry On Films), dies of cancer at 67
• 1997-01-14 King Hu, Chinese film director, (wuxia films) dies at 64
• 1998-06-03 Poul Bundgaard, Danish comic actor (Olsen-banden films) and operetta singer (Royal Danish Theatre, 1958-73), dies at 75
• 2001-06-28 Joan Sims, British actress ("Carry on" films, As Time Goes By), dies from liver failure and diverticulitis at 71
• 2008-12-18 Jack Douglas, English actor (Carry On films), dies at 81
• 2011-03-17 Michael Gough, English actor (Hammer Horror Films, Search for the Nile), dies at 94
• 2015-12-06 Holly Woodlawn, transgender Puerto Rican actress (Warhol films), dies at 69
• 2017-01-09 Teresa Ann Savoy, British actress in Italian films (Caligula; Salon Kitty), dies of cancer at 61
• 2018-05-13 Margot Kidder, Canadian American actress (Lois Lane in Superman films, Amityville Horror), dies at 69
• 2020-05-28 Lennie Niehaus, American jazz saxophonist and film composer (Clint Eastwood films), dies at 90
• 2020-12-10 Barbara Windsor, British actress and Dame (Carry On films, EastEnders). dies at 83

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• Sandra Oh
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