The year 1959 in film involved some significant events. [edit] Events [edit] Top grossing films (U.S.) (*) After theatrical re-issue(s)
source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1959.shtml [edit] Awards Academy Awards: - Best Picture: Ben-Hur - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Best Director: William Wyler - Ben-Hur
- Best Actor: Charlton Heston - Ben-Hur
- Best Actress: Simone Signoret - Room at the Top
- Best Supporting Actor: Hugh Griffith - Ben-Hur
- Best Supporting Actress: Shelley Winters - The Diary of Anne Frank
- Best Foreign Language Film: Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), directed by Marcel Camus, Brazil / France / Italy
Golden Globe Awards: - Drama:
- Best Picture: Ben-Hur
- Best Actor: Anthony Franciosa - Career
- Best Actress: Elizabeth Taylor - Suddenly, Last Summer
- Musical or comedy:
- Best Picture (tie): Some Like It Hot
- Best Picture (tie): Porgy and Bess
- Best Actor: Jack Lemmon - Some Like It Hot
- Best Actress: Marilyn Monroe - Some Like It Hot
- Other
- Best Director: William Wyler - Ben-Hur
Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival): - Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), directed by Marcel Camus, France
Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival): - Il Generale della Rovere (General della Rovere), directed by Roberto Rosselini, Italy / France
- La grande guerra (The Great War), directed by Mario Monicelli, Italy / France
Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival): - Les Cousins (The Cousins), directed by Claude Chabrol, France
[edit] Films released in 1959 - The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock
- The 39 Steps
- 4D Man
- The 400 Blows
- Anatomy of a Murder, starring James Stewart and Lee Remick
- The Angry Red Planet
- Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)
- The Atomic Submarine
- Ballad of a Soldier (Ballada o soldate)
- Battle in Outer Space
- The Beat Generation, starring Steve Cochran and Mamie Van Doren
- Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston
- The Best of Everything, starring Hope Lange, Stephen Boyd and Joan Crawford
- Beyond This Place (also known as Web of Evidence)
- The Big Fisherman
- The Big Operator, starring Mickey Rooney, Steve Cochran and Mamie Van Doren
- Black Orpheus Palme d'Or winner
- Career
- Carlton-Browne of the F.O., starring Peter Sellers and Terry-Thomas and John Le Mesurier
- Carry On Nurse
- Carry On Teacher
- La Casa del Terror
- Come Dance With Me, starring Brigitte Bardot
- Les Cousins
- A Date with Death
- The Diary of Anne Frank, starring Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters, Richard Beymer, Diane Baker and Ed Wynn
- Donald in Mathmagic Land (short subject)
- Don't Give Up The Ship
- The FBI Story
- Fires on the Plain
- The Five Pennies
- The Fugitive Kind, starring Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward
- The Giant Behemoth
- Il Generale della Rovere
- Gidget, starring Sandra Dee
- Girls Town, starring Mamie Van Doren
- La grande guerra (The Great War)
- The Hanging Tree
- Happy Anniversary
- Hercules and the Queen of Lydia (also known as Ercole e la regina di Lidia and Hercules Unchained)
- Hiroshima Mon Amour
- A Hole in the Head
- The Horse Soldiers
- The Hound of the Baskervilles
- House on Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price
- Imitation of Life, starring Lana Turner and John Gavin with Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner and Juanita Moore
- It Started with a Kiss
- The Jazz Singer (performance)
- Journey to the Center of the Earth
- John Paul Jones
- Kapò
- Killer Shrews
- The Last Angry Man, starring Paul Muni
- Last Train from Gun Hill
- Magic Boy (Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke)
- The Miracle
- Mise Éire
- The Mummy
- North by Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason
- The Nun's Story, starring Audrey Hepburn
- Operation Petticoat
- On the Beach, starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins
- Pillow Talk, starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson
- Plan 9 from Outer Space'', Directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. Starring Tor Johnson and Vampira and Bela Lugosi
- Porgy and Bess, starring Dorothy Dandridge and Sidney Poitier
- Pork Chop Hill
- Rio Bravo, starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Angie Dickinson
- Room at the Top, starring Simone Signoret and Laurence Harvey
- Sampo (The Day the Earth Froze)
- Sapphire
- The Shaggy Dog
- Sleeping Beauty (Walt Disney animation)
- Solomon and Sheba
- Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon
- SOS Pacific
- Suddenly, Last Summer, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn
- Terror is a Man
- Wild Strawberries (U.S. release)
- The World, the Flesh and the Devil
- The Wreck of the Mary Deare
- The Young Philadelphians, starring Paul Newman and Barbara Rush
[edit] Short Film Series [edit] Births - January 22 - Linda Blair, actress
- February 22 - Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
- March 18 - Luc Besson, French director
- - Irene Cara, actress, singer
- March 22 - Matthew Modine, American actor
- April 15 - Emma Thompson, British actress
- April 17 - Sean Bean, English actor
- June 11 - Hugh Laurie, British actor
- July 26 - Kevin Spacey, American actor
- July 29 - Sanjay Dutt, Indian actor
- August 10 - Rosanna Arquette, American actress
- October 21 - Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
- November 14 - Paul McGann, British actor
- November 19 - Allison Janney, American actress
- December 29 - Patricia Clarkson, American actress
- December 31 - Val Kilmer, American actor
[edit] Deaths - January 21 - Cecil B. DeMille, American director & producer
- February 1 - Madame Sul-Te-Wan, actress
- February 4 - Una O'Connor, actress
- March 3 - Lou Costello, comedian and actor, half of Abbott and Costello comedy team
- February 5 - Gwili Andre, actress
- June 16 - George Reeves, actor (Superman)
- June 18 - Ethel Barrymore, actress
- August 6 - Preston Sturges, American director
- October 14 - Errol Flynn, actor
- October 23 - Gerda Lundequist, actress
- November 20 – Sylvia Lopez, European actress
- November 25 - Gérard Philipe, French actor
[edit] Film Debuts |
