1919 in film

Years in film
1870s
1880s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890s 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020s 2020

The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• February 5 - Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists
• Oscar Micheaux releases The Homesteader, starring pioneering African-American actress Evelyn Preer, becoming the first African-American to produce and direct a motion picture.
• Harold Lloyd begins holding test screenings of his films and modifying them based on audience feedback, a technique which is still used today.
• Tri-Ergon sound-on-film technology is developed by three German inventors, Josef Engl, Hans Vogt, and Joseph Massole; however, the era of sound films is over 6 years away.
• Ken Hill and Kenny Hill launch Coplin Artists

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

Notable films released in 1919

U.S.A. unless stated

• Anne of Green Gables, directed by William Desmond Taylor; starring Mary Miles Minter and Paul Kelly
• Ask Father, a Harold Lloyd short
• The Avalanche directed by George Fitzmaurice starring Elsie Ferguson
• Back Stage, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
• The Beetle, directed by Alexander Butler - (GB)
• The Better 'Ole - (GB)
• Blind Husbands, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim
• Bolshevism on Trial, directed by Harley Knoles
• The Boy in Blue (Knabe in Blau), directed by F.W. Murnau - (Germany)
• Broken Blossoms, directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess
• Bumping into Broadway, starring Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels
• Captain Kidd's Kids, a Harold Lloyd short
• Daddy-Long-Legs, starring Mary Pickford
• Damaged Goods, directed by Alexander Butler - (GB)
• A Day's Pleasure, a Charlie Chaplin short.
• The Delicious Little Devil, starring Mae Murray and Rudolph Valentino
• Different from the Others, directed by Richard Oswald, starring Conrad Veidt - (Germany)
• The Doll, directed by Ernst Lubitsch - (Germany)
• Don't Change Your Husband, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gloria Swanson
• The Echo of Youth, directed by Ivan Abramson
• The False Faces, directed by Irvin Willat, starring Henry B. Walthall and Lon Chaney
• The First Men in the Moon - (GB)
• From Hand to Mouth, a Harold Lloyd short
• The Grim Game, starring Harry Houdini
• Hawthorne of the U.S.A. directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
• Heart o' the Hills directed by Sidney Franklin, starring Mary Pickford
• Here Comes the Bride directed by John S. Robertson, starring John Barrymore, Faire Binney
• His Majesty, the American, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• The Homesteader, directed by Oscar Micheaux, starring Evelyn Preer
• Intoxication, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Asta Nielsen (Germany)
• The Jack of Hearts, starring Hoot Gibson
• J'accuse, directed by Abel Gance - (France)
• The Knickerbocker Buckaroo, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• The Life Line, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Wallace Beery
• The Lost Battalion
• Love's Prisoner, starring Olive Thomas
• Madame DuBarry, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings - (Germany)
• Male and Female, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan
• The Master Mystery, (serial), starring Harry Houdini
• The Miracle Man, starring Thomas Meighan
• The Mistress of the World, directed by Joe May (Weimar Republic)
• My Lady's Garter, directed by Maurice Tourneur
• My Wife, the Movie Star, directed by Ernst Lubitsch (Germany)
• The Oyster Princess (Die Austerprinzessin) - (Germany)
• The Roaring Road, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
• Sahara, starring Louise Glaum, written by C. Gardner Sullivan
• The Sentimental Bloke - (Australia)
• Sir Arne's Treasure (Herr Arnes pengar), directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Richard Lund - (Sweden)
• A Society Exile directed by George Fitzmaurice starring Elsie Ferguson
• Sons of Ingmar (Ingmarssönerna), directed by Victor Sjöström - (Sweden)
• South (documentary of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition), filmed by Frank Hurley - (GB)
• Sunnyside, a Charlie Chaplin short.
• The Test of Honor, directed by John S. Robertson, starring John Barrymore in his first dramatic movie role, and Constance Binney
• True Heart Susie, starring Lillian Gish and Bobby Harron
• The Valley of the Giants, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
• Victory, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Lon Chaney, Seena Owen, Wallace Beery, Jack Holt
• When the Clouds Roll By, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• The White Heather, directed by Maurice Tourneur
• The Wicked Darling, directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney and Priscilla Dean
• The Witness for the Defense starring Elsie Ferguson and Warner Oland
• Yankee Doodle in Berlin, directed by F. Richard Jones, starring Bothwell Browne, Ford Sterling, Marie Prevost, produced by Mack Sennett
• You're Fired, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid & Wanda Hawley

Short film series

• Harold Lloyd (1913–1921)
• Charlie Chaplin (1914–1923)
• Buster Keaton (1917–1941)

Animated short film series

• Koko the Clown (1919-1934) (first animated movie cartoon series)
• Felix the Cat (1919-1936)

Births

• January 1 - Carole Landis, actress (died 1948)
• January 13 - Robert Stack, actor (died 2003)
• January 21 - Jinx Falkenburg, model, actress (died 2003)
• January 23 - Ernie Kovacs, comedian, actor (died 1962)
• January 24 - Coleman Francis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1973)
• February 5
  • Red Buttons, actor (died 2006)
  • Tim Holt, actor (died 1973)
• February 11 - Eva Gabor, actress (died 1995)
• February 18 - Jack Palance, actor (died 2006)
• March 2 - Jennifer Jones, actress (died 2009)
• March 25 - Jeanne Cagney, actress (died 1984)
• March 29 - Eileen Heckart, actress (died 2001)
• April 13 - Howard Keel, actor (died 2004)
• April 18 - Vondell Darr, child actress (died 2012)
• May 8 - Lex Barker, actor (died 1973)
• May 23 - Betty Garrett, actress (died 2011)
• June 12 - Uta Hagen, actress (died 2004)
• June 14 - Sam Wanamaker, director, actor (died 1993)
• June 19 - Pauline Kael, film critic (died 2001)
• June 24 - Al Molinaro, actor (died 2015)
• June 29 - Slim Pickens, actor (died 1983)
• July 7 - Jon Pertwee, actor (died 1996)
• July 26 - Virginia Gilmore, actress (died 1986)
• August 2 - Nehemiah Persoff, actor
• August 8 - Dino De Laurentiis, producer (died 2010)
• September 2 - Marge Champion, dancer, actress, choreographer
• September 18 - Diana Lewis, actress (died 1997)
• September 26 - Barbara Britton, actress (died 1980)
• October 5 - Donald Pleasence, actor (died 1995)
• November 4
  • Shirley Mitchell, actress (died 2013)
  • Martin Balsam, actor (died 1996)
• November 13
  • Mary Beth Hughes, actress (died 1995)
  • Amelia Bence, actress (died 2016)
• November 15 - Nova Pilbeam, actress (died 2015)
• November 19 - Alan Young, actor (died 2016)

Deaths

• January 14 - Shelley Hull, 34, American stage & film actor, husband of Josephine Hull, brother of Henry Hull
• January 31 - Nat C. Goodwin, 59, veteran stage star & silent film actor
• February 3 - Mary Moore, 29, Irish actress, sister of Joe, Matt, Owen and Tom Moore A Million a Minute
• February 17 - Vera Kholodnaya, 25, Russian silent film actress, A Corpse Living, The Woman Who Invented Love, Her Sister's Rival, Song of Triumphant Love
• April 9 - Sidney Drew, 55, American stage & film actor A Florida Enchantment
• May 3 - Daniel Gilfether, 70, American actor of stage & screen
• May 21 - Lamar Johnstone, 34, American silent film actor
• November 24 - William Stowell, 34, American silent film star

Film debuts

• Vilma Bánky - Im letzten Augenblick
• Shemp Howard - Spring Fever (short)
• Boris Karloff - The Lightning Raider
• Fritz Lang - Halbblut
• Norma Shearer - The Star Boarder (short) (uncredited)
• Otis Skinner - Tom's Little Star

References