1959 in film

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Years in film
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The year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.

Events

• The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters.
• September 18 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx marries his second wife, Barbara Blakely.
• November 18 - William Wyler's film Ben-Hur premieres at Loews Theater in New York City.
• Sammy Davis, Jr. and May Britt start dating.
• The film of Mise Éire, made by George Morrison for Gael Linn, is premiered at the Cork Film Festival, the first feature-length Irish language film.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

#	Film	Studio	Actors	Gross
1.	Ben-Hur	MGM	Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd	$36.992 m
2.	Sleeping Beauty*	Disney	Mary Costa and Eleanor Audley	$21.998 m
3.	North by Northwest	MGM	Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason	$12.703 m
4.	Some Like It Hot	United Artists	Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon	$10.128 m
5.	Pillow Talk	Universal	Doris Day and Rock Hudson	$9.670 m
6.	Imitation of Life	Universal	Lana Turner and John Gavin	$9.618 m
7.	Suddenly, Last Summer	Columbia	Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Katharine Hepburn	$6.375 m
8.	The Nun's Story	Warner Bros.	Audrey Hepburn	$5.750 m
9.	Rio Bravo	Warner Bros.	John Wayne, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson	$5.650 m
10.	Anatomy of a Murder	Columbia	James Stewart and Lee Remick	$5.500 m
11.	On the Beach	United Artists	Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner	$4.803 m
12.	Operation Petticoat	Universal	Cary Grant and Tony Curtis	$3.950 m

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)

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

Notable films released in 1959

U.S.A. unless stated

• 4D Man, starring Robert Lansing and Lee Meriwether
• The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, starring Lou Costello and Dorothy Provine
• The 39 Steps, starring Kenneth More - (Britain)
• The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups), directed by François Truffaut, starring Jean-Pierre Léaud - (France)

A

• The Adventures of Buratino (Priklyucheniya Buratino) - (USSR)
• Al Capone, starring Rod Steiger
• Alias Jesse James, starring Bob Hope
• The Alligator People, starring Beverly Garland
• Anari, starring Raj Kapoor - (India)
• Anatomy of a Murder, directed by Otto Preminger, starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden, George C. Scott
• The Angry Hills, starring Robert Mitchum and Gia Scala
• The Angry Red Planet (aka Invasion of Mars)
• Argument About Basia (Awantura o Basię) - (Poland)

B

• Bad Girls Don't Cry (La notte brava), starring Rosanna Schiaffino - (Italy)
• Ballad of a Soldier (Ballada o soldate), directed by Grigori Chukhrai - (U.S.S.R.)
• Battle Beyond the Sun (Nebo zovet) - (U.S.S.R.)
• Battle in Outer Space, directed by Ishirō Honda - (Japan)
• The Battle of the Sexes, starring Peter Sellers - (Britain)
• The Beat Generation, starring Steve Cochran and Mamie Van Doren
• Ben-Hur, directed by William Wyler, starring Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins - winner of 11 Academy Awards and 4 Golden Globes
• The Best of Everything, starring Hope Lange, Stephen Boyd, Joan Crawford
• The Big Circus, starring Victor Mature, Rhonda Fleming, Red Buttons, Gilbert Roland, Kathryn Grant
• The Big Fisherman, starring Howard Keel
• The Big Operator, starring Mickey Rooney, Steve Cochran, Mamie Van Doren
• The Birth of Japan (Nippon Tanjō), starring Toshiro Mifune - (Japan)
• Black Orpheus, directed by Marcel Camus - winner of Palme d'Or, Golden Globe, Oscar and Bafta - (Brazil/France/Italy)
• Blessings of the Land (Biyaya ng lupa), starring Rosa Rosal - (Philippines)
• Breakout, starring Hazel Court
• The Bridge (Die Brücke), directed by Bernhard Wicki - (West Germany)
• A Bucket of Blood, directed by Roger Corman
• But Not for Me, directed by Walter Lang, starring Clark Gable, Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb

C

• Career, starring Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Anthony Franciosa
• Carlton-Browne of the F.O., starring Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, John Le Mesurier - (Britain)
• Carry On Nurse, starring Shirley Eaton and Kenneth Connor - (Britain)
• Carry On Teacher, starring Kenneth Connor and Leslie Phillips - (Britain)
• The Chasers (Jakten) - (Norway)
• Come Dance with Me, starring Brigitte Bardot - (France/Italy)
• Compulsion, starring Orson Welles, Bradford Dillman, Dean Stockwell, Diane Varsi, E. G. Marshall
• Court Martial (Kriegsgericht) - (West Germany)
• Les Cousins, directed by Claude Chabrol - (France)
• The Crimson Kimono, directed by Samuel Fuller, starring James Shigeta
• La Cucaracha (aka The Soldiers of Pancho Villa), starring María Félix and Dolores del Río - (Mexico)

D

• Danger Within, starring Richard Todd, Bernard Lee, Richard Attenborough - (Britain)
• Darby O'Gill and the Little People, starring Sean Connery
• Date With Death, starring Gerald Mohr
• Day of the Outlaw, starring Robert Ryan, Tina Louise, Burl Ives
• The Death Ship (Das Totenschiff), starring Horst Buchholz - (West Germany)
• Destiny of a Man (Sudba cheloveka), directed by Sergei Bondarchuk - (U.S.S.R.)
• The Devil's Disciple, starring Laurence Olivier, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas - (U.S./Britain)
• The Diary of Anne Frank, directed by George Stevens, starring Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters, Richard Beymer, Diane Baker, Ed Wynn
• Dil Deke Dekho, starring Shammi Kapoor - (India)
• Donald in Mathmagic Land (short subject)
• Don't Give Up The Ship, starring Jerry Lewis
• Dust on the Brain (Støv på hjernen) - (Norway)

E-F

• Expresso Bongo, starring Laurence Harvey and Cliff Richard - (Britain)
• The FBI Story, starring James Stewart
• Face of a Fugitive, starring Fred MacMurray
• The Facts of Murder (Un maledetto imbroglio), directed by and starring Pietro Germi with Claudia Cardinale - (Italy)
• Fires on the Plain (Nobi), directed by Kon Ichikawa - (Japan)
• The Five Pennies, starring Danny Kaye
• Floating Weeds (Ukikusa), directed by Yasujirō Ozu - (Japan)
• Follow a Star, starring Norman Wisdom, Ron Moody, Hattie Jacques - (Britain)
• The Fugitive Kind, directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward

G-H

• The Gazebo, starring Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Carl Reiner
• Il Generale della Rovere, directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
• Gidget, starring Sandra Dee
• Girls Town, starring Mamie Van Doren
• Good Morning (Ohayō), directed by Yasujirō Ozu - (Japan)
• La grande guerra (The Great War), directed by Mario Monicelli, starring Alberto Sordi and Vittorio Gassman - (Italy)
• The Gunfight at Dodge City, starring Joel McCrea
• The Hanging Tree, directed by Delmer Daves, starring Gary Cooper, Karl Malden, George C. Scott
• The Hangman, starring Robert Taylor and Tina Louise
• Hannibal, starring Victor Mature and Rita Gam
• Happy Anniversary, starring David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor
• Hiroshima Mon Amour, directed by Alain Resnais - (France/Japan)
• A Hole in the Head, starring Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Carolyn Jones, Eddie Hodges
• Holiday for Lovers, starring Jane Wyman, Clifton Webb, Jill St. John
• A Home for Tanya (Otchiy dom) - (USSR)
• Honeymoon (Luna de miel), directed by Michael Powell - (Britain/Spain)
• The Horse Soldiers, starring John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers
• The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee - (Britain)
• House on Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price

I-J

• Il Vedovo, directed by Dino Risi
• I'm Alright Jack, directed by the Boulting Brothers, starring Peter Sellers and Ian Carmichael - (Britain)
• Imitation of Life, directed by Douglas Sirk, starring Lana Turner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner, Juanita Moore
• It Happened to Jane, starring Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs
• It Started with a Kiss, starring Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford
• The Jazz Singer, a television film starring Jerry Lewis
• Jet Over the Atlantic, starring Guy Madison and Virginia Mayo
• Jet Storm, starring Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker, Diane Cilento, Mai Zetterling - (Britain)
• John Paul Jones, starring Robert Stack
• The Journey, starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr
• Journey to the Center of the Earth, starring James Mason and Pat Boone

K-L

• Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers), directed by and starring Guru Dutt - (India)
• Kapò, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, starring Susan Strasberg - (Italy/France/Yugoslavia)
• Killers of Kilimanjaro, starring Robert Taylor, Anthony Newley, Anne Aubrey
• The Last Angry Man, starring Paul Muni
• Last Train from Gun Hill, starring Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Earl Holliman
• The Law (La Legge), starring Gina Lollobrigida and Yves Montand - (Italy)
• El Lazarillo de Tormes, winner of Golden Bear - (Spain)
• Le Signe du Lion, directed by Éric Rohmer
• The Legend of Tom Dooley, starring Michael Landon
• Letter Never Sent (Neotpravlennoye pismo) - (USSR)
• Libel, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Dirk Bogarde and Olivia de Havilland - (Britain)
• Li'l Abner, directed by Melvin Frank, starring Peter Palmer, Leslie Parrish, Stella Stevens, Julie Newmar, Stubby Kaye
• Look Back in Anger, directed by Tony Richardson, starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom - (Britain)

M-N

• Magic Boy (Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke) - Japanese animated film
• Make Mine a Million, directed by Lance Comfort and starring Arthur Askey and Sid James - (Britain)
• The Man in the Net, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Alan Ladd and Carolyn Jones
• The Man Who Could Cheat Death, starring Anton Diffring and Hazel Court
• Marked for Murder, starring Keith Andes and Hazel Court
• The Master and His Servants (Herren og hans tjenere) - (Norway)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (Sen noci svatojánské), an animated puppet film by Jiří Trnka - (Czechoslovakia)
• The Miracle, starring Carroll Baker and Roger Moore
• Mise Éire - (Ireland)
• The Mouse That Roared, starring Peter Sellers and Jean Seberg - (Britain)
• The Mummy, starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee - (Britain)
• My Second Brother, directed by Shōhei Imamura - (Japan)
• Nazarin, directed by Luis Buñuel - (Mexico)
• Never So Few, starring Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Steve McQueen
• Night Train (Pociąg) - (Poland)
• The Nightingale's Prayer (Doaa al-Karawan) - (Egypt)
• No Name on the Bullet, starring Audie Murphy
• North by Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
• North West Frontier, aka Flame Over India, starring Kenneth More and Lauren Bacall - (Britain)
• The Nun's Story, directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Audrey Hepburn

O-P

• Odd Obsession (Kagi), directed by Kon Ichikawa - (Japan)
• Odds Against Tomorrow, starring Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan
• On the Beach, directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins
• Operation Petticoat, starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis
• Our Man in Havana, directed by Carol Reed, starring Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, Noël Coward, Ernie Kovacs - (Britain)
• The Overcoat (Shinel) - (USSR)
• Paigham, directed by S. S. Vasan, starring Dilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala, Raaj Kumar, B. Saroja Devi - (India)
• Pickpocket, directed by Robert Bresson - (France)
• Pillow Talk, starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson
• El Pisito (The Little Apartment), directed bt Marco Ferreri - (Spain)
• Plan 9 from Outer Space, directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr., starring Tor Johnson, Vampira, Bela Lugosi
• Porgy and Bess, a musical directed by Otto Preminger, starring Dorothy Dandridge and Sidney Poitier, music by George and Ira Gershwin
• Pork Chop Hill, starring Gregory Peck

Q-R

• The Rest Is Silence (Der Rest ist Schweigen), starring Hardy Kruger - (West Germany)
• Ride Lonesome, starring Randolph Scott
• Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks, starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan, Angie Dickinson
• The Rookie, starring Julie Newmar, Tommy Noonan, Peter Marshall
• Room at the Top, directed by Jack Clayton, starring Simone Signoret and Laurence Harvey - (Britain)
• The Roots of Heaven, directed by John Huston, starring Errol Flynn, Trevor Howard, Juliette Greco, Eddie Albert, Orson Welles

S

• Sampo (The Day the Earth Froze) - (U.S.S.R./Finland)
• Sapphire, directed by Basil Dearden - (Britain)
• Say One for Me, starring Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner
• The Scapegoat, starring Alec Guinness and Bette Davis - (Britain)
• Serious Charge, starring Anthony Quayle - (Britain)
• Shadows, directed by John Cassavetes
• The Shaggy Dog, starring Fred MacMurray, Jean Hagen, Tommy Kirk
• The Shakedown, starring Donald Pleasence and Hazel Court
• Shake Hands with the Devil, starring James Cagney - (U.S.A./Ireland)
• Sleeping Beauty (Walt Disney animation)
• Solomon and Sheba, starring Yul Brynner and Gina Lollobrigida
• Some Like It Hot, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien, George Raft
• SOS Pacific, starring Richard Attenborough - (Britain)
• The Sound and the Fury, starring Yul Brynner and Joanne Woodward
• Stars (Sterne) - (East Germany/Bulgaria)
• A Stranger in My Arms, starring Jeff Chandler, June Allyson, Mary Astor, Sandra Dee
• Suddenly, Last Summer, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Katharine Hepburn

T-V

• Tarzan's Greatest Adventure, directed by John Guillerman, starring Gordon Scott, Anthony Quayle, Sean Connery
• Telegrame - (Romania)
• Ten Seconds to Hell, directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Jack Palance
• Terror Is a Man, starring Francis Lederer - (U.S./Philippines)
• That Kind of Woman, directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Sophia Loren and Tab Hunter
• There Will Be No Leave Today (Segodnya uvolneniya ne budet), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky - (USSR)
• These Thousand Hills, starring Richard Egan, Don Murray, Lee Remick
• They Came to Cordura, starring Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin, Richard Conte, Dick York, Tab Hunter
• Third Man on the Mountain, starring Michael Rennie
• Tiger Bay, starring John Mills and Hayley Mills - (Britain)
• Tommy the Toreador, starring Tommy Steele - (Britain)
• Too Many Crooks, starring Terry-Thomas and George Cole - (Britain)
• Train Without a Timetable (Vlak bez voznog reda) - (Yugoslavia)
• The Trap, starring Richard Widmark, Lee J. Cobb, Earl Holliman, Tina Louise
• Up Periscope, starring James Garner and Edmond O'Brien
• Il vedovo (The Widower), directed by Dino Risi, starring Alberto Sordi - (Italy)
• La vida alrededor (Life Around Us) - (Spain)
• Violent Summer (Estate violenta), starring Jean-Louis Trintignant - (Italy/France)

W-Z

• Warlock, starring Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, Anthony Quinn, Dorothy Malone, Dolores Michaels and Deforest Kelley
• The Wasp Woman, starring Susan Cabot
• We are Altogether Crazy (Vi er allesammen tossede) - (Denmark)
• Westbound, starring Randolph Scott
• When the Woman Butts In (Kam čert nemůže) - (Czechoslovakia)
• The Wild and the Innocent, starring Audie Murphy, Joanne Dru, Sandra Dee
• Woman Obsessed, starring Susan Hayward
• The Wonderful Country, starring Robert Mitchum and Julie London
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil, starring Harry Belafonte and Inger Stevens
• The World of Apu (Apur Sansar), directed by Satyajit Ray - (India)
• The Wreck of the Mary Deare, starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston - (Britain/U.S.)
• Yellowstone Kelly, starring Clint Walker and Edd Byrnes
• Yesterday's Enemy, directed by Val Guest, starring Stanley Baker - (Britain)
• The Young Philadelphians, starring Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Brian Keith, Alexis Smith, Robert Vaughn

Short Film Series

• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Bugs Bunny (1940–1962)
• Yosemite Sam (1945–1963)
• Speedy Gonzales (1953–1968)
• The Three Stooges (1934–1959)

Births

• January 5 – Clancy Brown, American actor & voice actor
• January 17 - Momoe Yamaguchi, former Japanese actress & singer
• January 22 - Linda Blair, American actress
• February 22 - Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
• March 6 - Tom Arnold, American actor & comedian
• March 8 - Aidan Quinn, Irish/American actor
• March 15 - Renny Harlin, Finnish director & producer
• March 18 - Luc Besson, French director & producer
  • Irene Cara, American actress & singer
• March 22 - Matthew Modine, American actor
• March 23 - Catherine Keener, American actress
• April 15 - Emma Thompson, English actress
• April 17 - Sean Bean, English actor
• June 11 - Hugh Laurie, English actor
• June 22 - Wayne Federman, American actor & comedian
• June 30 - Vincent D'Onofrio, American actor
• July 26 - Kevin Spacey, American actor
• August 10 - Rosanna Arquette, American actress
• August 14 - Marcia Gay Harden, American actress
• August 29 - Rebecca De Mornay, American actress
• October 21 - Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
• November 14 - Paul McGann, British actor
• November 19 - Allison Janney, American actress
• November 28 - Judd Nelson, American actor
• December 13 - Johnny Whitaker, American actor
• December 29 - Patricia Clarkson, American actress
• December 31 - Val Kilmer, American actor

Deaths

• January 21 - Cecil B. DeMille, director and 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
• May 3 – Troy Sanders, score arranger and composer
• June 16 - George Reeves, actor (Superman TV-Series)
• June 18 - Ethel Barrymore, actress
• August 6 - Preston Sturges, director
• October 7 - Mario Lanza, singer and actor
• October 14 - Errol Flynn, actor
• October 23 - Gerda Lundequist, actress
• November 20 – Sylvia Lopez, European actress
• November 25 - Gérard Philipe, French actor

Film Debuts

• James Coburn
• Mia Farrow
• Richard Harris
• Martin Landau
• George C. Scott
• Liv Ullmann