1899 in film

Events

• 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.
• Jeanne d'Arc becomes the first film of considerable length (10 mins) to be shown entirely in colour.
• King John (a very short silent) becomes the first known film based on a Shakespeare play.
• 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 DanjÅ«rō IX performing a scene from the play Momijigari.

Films released in 1899

• The Biter Bit, produced by Bamforth & Co Ltd
• Cinderella, directed by Georges Méliès
• Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene, produced by Edison Studios>
• The Devil in a Convent, directed by Georges Méliès
• The Dreyfus Affair, a series of docudramas directed by Georges Méliès
• 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, directed by William K. L. Dickson and Walter Pfeffer Dando; may be the first film adaptation of a William Shakespeare play.
• 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
• Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb, directed by Georges Méliès; most likely a lost film

Notable Births

• January 6 â€" Phyllis Haver, American actress (died 1960)
• January 30 - Martita Hunt, actress, 1969
• February 6 - Ramon Novarro, Mexican actor (died 1968)
• February 15 - Gale Sondergaard, American actress (died 1985)
• February 22 - George O'Hara, American actor, screenwriter (died 1966)
• March 14 - Ada Kramm, Norwegian actress (died 1981)
• March 15 - George Brent, American actor (died 1979)
• 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)

References

1. ^ Abel, Richard (2010). Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. London and New York: Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 0415778565. 
2. ^ Herbert, Stephen. "John Alfred Prestwich". Who's Who of Victorian Cinema. Retrieved 2013-02-24.