1919 in film

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)
• 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
• 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 (1913â€"1921)
• Charlie Chaplin (1914â€"1923)
• Buster Keaton (1917â€"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)
• 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
• 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
  • Martin Balsam, actor (died 1996)
  • Shirley Mitchell, actress (died 2013)
• November 13 - Mary Beth Hughes, actress (died 1995)
• November 15 - Nova Pilbeam, actress
• November 19 - Alan Young, actor

§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