1899 in film

The following is an overview of the events of 1899 in film, including a list of films released and notable births.

List of years in film
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Events

• September
  • King John, a silent compilation of three short scenes from a forthcoming stage production by Herbert Beerbohm Tree with film direction by William Kennedy Dickson and Walter Pfeffer Dando, is filmed in London, the first known film based on a Shakespeare play.
  • Mitchell and Kenyon of Blackburn in the north of England release three fiction films under the 'Norden' brand which attract national attention – The Tramp's Surprise, The Tramps and the Artist and Kidnapping by Indians, the latter being the first Western.
• November – The oldest surviving Japanese film, Momijigari, is shot by Tsunekichi Shibata in Tokyo as a record of kabuki actors Onoe Kikugorō V and Ichikawa Danjūrō IX performing a scene from the play Momijigari.
• T. C. Hepworth invents Biokam, a 17.5 mm format which also is the first format to have a center perforation.
• John Alfred Prestwich invents a 13 mm amateur format.

Films released in 1899

• Beauty and the Beast, produced for Pathe (French)
• The Biter Bit, produced by Bamforth & Co Ltd
• Cagliostro's Mirror, directed by George Melies
• Cinderella, directed by Georges Méliès
• Cleopatra, directed by George Melies, later re-released as Cleopatra's Tomb
• Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene, produced by Edison Studios
• The Demon Barber, produced by American Mutoscope
• The Devil in a Convent, directed by Georges Méliès, later re-released as The Sign of the Cross
• The Dreyfus Affair, a series of docudramas directed by Georges Méliès
• The Haunted House, directed by Siegmund Lubin
• How Would You Like to Be the Ice Man?
• The Jeffries-Sharkey Fight, a documentary that is in all likelihood lost; running over two hours, this is one of the oldest feature films.
• King John
• Kidnapping by Indians
• The Kiss in the Tunnel, directed by George Albert Smith; has been cited as cinema's first example of narrative editing
• Major Wilson's Last Stand
• A Midnight Episode, directed by George Melies, aka A Good Bed
• The Miser's Doom (British), directed by Walter R. Booth
• Pillar of Fire (aka The Column of Fire), directed by George Melies, adapting a scene from the novel "She" by H. Rider Haggard
• Raising Spirits, directed by George Melies

Notable births

• January 6 – Phyllis Haver, American actress (died 1960)
• January 30 – Martita Hunt, English actress, 1969
• February 6 – Ramon Novarro, Mexican actor (died 1968)
• February 15 – Gale Sondergaard, American actress (died 1985)
• February 21 – Sigrid Holmquist, Swedish actress (died 1970)
• February 22 – George O'Hara, American actor, screenwriter (died 1966)
• March 14 – Ada Kramm, Norwegian actress (died 1981)
• March 23 – Dora Gerson, German actress (died 1943)
• March 27 – Gloria Swanson, American actress (died 1983)
• May 10 – Fred Astaire, American actor/dancer (died 1987)
• June 15 – Einar Hanson, Swedish actor (died 1927)
• June 30 – Madge Bellamy, American actress (died 1990)
• July 1 – Charles Laughton, British-American actor (died 1962)
• July 7 – George Cukor, American director (died 1983)
• July 14 – Martha Mansfield, American actress (died 1923)
• July 17 – James Cagney, American actor (died 1986)
• August 13 – Alfred Hitchcock, British director (died 1980)
• August 19 – Colleen Moore, American actress (died 1988)
• August 28 – Charles Boyer, French actor (died 1978)
• November 11 – Pat O'Brien, American actor (died 1983)
• November 17 – Douglas Shearer, Canadian-born American pioneer motion-picture sound engineer (died 1971)
• December 16 – Noël Coward, English actor, playwright and composer of popular music (died 1973)
• December 25 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (died 1957)

External links

• 1899 in film playlist on YouTube