The year 1921 in film involved some significant events.
Events
- October 21 â" George Melford's wildly successful silent film The Sheik, which will propel its leading actor Rudolph Valentino to international stardom, is premiered in Los Angeles.
- October 26 â" The Chicago Theatre, which will be the oldest surviving French-style Baroque Revival grand movie palace, opens.
Top grossing films (U.S.)
Notable films released in 1921
U.S.A. unless stated
- The Ace of Hearts, directed by Wallace Worsley, starring Lon Chaney and Leatrice Joy
- Action, directed by John Ford;, starring Hoot Gibson
- The Adventures of Mr. Pickwick, directed by Thomas Bentley, starring Frederick Volpe â" (GB)
- The Adventures of Tarzan, directed by Robert F. Hill and Scott Sidney, starring Elmo Lincoln
- The Affairs of Anatol, directed by Cecil B. DeMille; starring Gloria Swanson and Wallace Reid
- After Midnight, directed by Ralph Ince
- After Your Own Heart, directed by George Marshall, starring Tom Mix
- Among Those Present, starring Harold Lloyd
- L'Atlantide (Missing Husbands), directed by Jacques Feyder â" (France)
- Die Bergkatze (The Wild Cat), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Victor Janson â" (Germany)
- The Bigamist, starring Guy Newall, Ivy Duke â" (GB)
- The Blot, directed by Lois Weber; starring Claire Windsor
- The Boat, a Buster Keaton short
- The Bonnie Brier Bush, directed by and starring Donald Crisp â" (GB)
- Brewster's Millions, directed by Joseph Henabery, starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
- Brownie's Little Venus, starring Baby Peggy
- Bullets or Ballots, the film debut of Mary Astor
- The Call of Youth, starring Mary Glynne
- Camille, starring Alla Nazimova, Rudolph Valentino, Rex Cherryman and Patsy Ruth Miller
- The Conquering Power, directed by Rex Ingram; starring Rudolph Valentino and Alice Terry
- Desire (Sehnsucht), directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Conrad Veidt â" (Germany)
- Destiny (Der müde Tod), directed by Fritz Lang, starring Lil Dagover and Walter Janssen â" (Germany)
- Disraeli directed by Henry Kolker, starring George Arliss
- Dracula's Death (Drakula halála), directed by Károly Lajthay â" (Hungary)
- El Dorado, directed by Marcel L'Herbier, starring Ãve Francis and Jaque Catelain â" (France)
- Experience, directed by George Fitzmaurice; starring Richard Barthelmess and Lilyan Tashman
- The Fire Eater, directed by B. Reeves Eason, starring Hoot Gibson
- Fool's Paradise, directed by Cecil B. DeMille; starring Conrad Nagel, Mildred Harris, Theodore Kosloff and Baby Peggy
- Forever, directed by George Fitzmaurice, starring Wallace Reid and Elsie Ferguson
- The Four Feathers, directed by René Plaissetty â" (GB)
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, directed by Rex Ingram; starring Rudolph Valentino
- Get-Rich-Quick Peggy, starring Baby Peggy
- The Goat, a Buster Keaton short
- Golfing, starring Baby Peggy
- The Gunsaulus Mystery, directed by Oscar Micheaux, starring Evelyn Preer
- Hail the Woman, directed by John Griffith Wray, starring Florence Vidor
- The Haunted Castle (Schloss Vogeloed), directed by F. W. Murnau â" (Germany)
- The Haunted House, a Buster Keaton short
- The High Sign, directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton
- Humor Risk, the Marx Brothers debut, never released
- The Idle Class, a Charles Chaplin short
- The Indian Tomb (Das Indische Grabmal), starring Conrad Veidt â" (Germany)
- JánoÅ¡Ãk, starring Theodor PiÅ¡tÄk â" (Czechoslovakia)
- Jim the Penman, directed by Kenneth Webb, starring Lionel Barrymore
- Journey into the Night (Der Gang in die Nacht), directed by F.W. Murnau â" (Germany)
- The Kid, directed by & starring Charlie Chaplin with Edna Purviance and Jackie Coogan
- Land of My Fathers directed by Fred Rains and starring John Stuart and Yvonne Thomas â" (GB)
- Leaves from Satan's Book (Blade af Satans bog), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer â" (Denmark)
- Little Lord Fauntleroy, directed by Alfred E. Green and Jack Pickford, starring Mary Pickford
- Lucky Carson, directed by Wilfrid North, starring Earle Williams and Betty Ross Clarke
- The Lotus Eater, directed by Marshall Neilan, starring John Barrymore and Colleen Moore
- The Love Light, directed by Frances Marion, starring Mary Pickford
- The Lucky Dog, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
- The Mechanical Man (L'uomo meccanico), directed by Andre Deed â" (Italy)
- Miss Lulu Bett, directed by William C. deMille, starring Lois Wilson and Milton Sills
- A Muddy Bride, starring Baby Peggy
- My Boy, starring Jackie Coogan
- Never Weaken, a Harold Lloyd short
- The Nut, directed by Theodore Reed, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Marguerite De La Motte
- The Offenders, directed by Fenwick L. Holmes, starring Margery Wilson
- On with the Show, starring Baby Peggy
- Orphans of the Storm, directed by D.W. Griffith; starring Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish
- Passion Flower, starring Norma Talmadge
- Peck's Bad Boy, directed by Sam Wood, starring Jackie Coogan
- The Phantom Carriage (Korkarlen), directed by & starring Victor Sjöström â" (Sweden)
- The Playhouse, a Buster Keaton short
- The Queen of Sheba, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, starring Betty Blythe
- A Sailor-Made Man, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, starring Harold Lloyd
- Sentimental Tommy, directed by George Fitzmaurice; starring Gareth Hughes
- Seven Years Bad Luck, directed by and starring Max Linder
- The Sheik, directed by George Melford, starring Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres
- The Silver Lining, directed by Roland West, starring Coit Albertson and Jewel Carmen
- The Sky Pilot, directed by King Vidor
- Squibs directed by George Pearson and starring Betty Balfour â" (GB)
- Sybil directed by Jack Denton, starring Evelyn Brent â" (GB)
- Third Class Male, starring Baby Peggy
- The Three Musketeers, directed by Fred Niblo, starring Douglas Fairbanks
- Through the Back Door, directed by Alfred E. Green and Jack Pickford, starring Mary Pickford
- Tol'able David directed by Henry King; starring Richard Barthelmess
- Les Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers), directed by Henri Diamant-Berger â" (France)
- White and Unmarried
- Woman's Place, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Constance Talmadge
- The Wonderful Thing, starring Norma Talmadge
Comedy film series
- Harold Lloyd (1913â"1938)
- Charlie Chaplin (1914â"1940)
- Lupino Lane (1915â"1939)
- Buster Keaton (1917â"1944)
- Laurel and Hardy (1921â"1945)
Animated short film series
- Aesop's Film Fables (1921â"1934)
- Felix the Cat (1919â"1936)
- Koko the Clown (1919â"1963)
Births
- January 3 â" John Russell, actor (died 1991)
- January 27 â" Donna Reed, actress (died 1986)
- January 31
- Carol Channing, actress
- Mario Lanza, singer, actor (died 1959)
- February 8 â" Lana Turner, actress (died 1995)
- February 16 â" Vera-Ellen, actress, dancer (died 1981)
- February 22 â" Giulietta Masina, actress (died 1994)
- February 24 â" Abe Vigoda, actor
- February 26 â" Betty Hutton, actress (died 2007)
- March 3 â" Diana Barrymore, actress (died 1960)
- March 4 â" Joan Greenwood, actress (died 1987)
- March 8 â" Cyd Charisse, actress, dancer (died 2008)
- March 12 â" Gordon MacRae, actor, singer (died 1986)
- March 25 â" Simone Signoret, actress (died 1985)
- March 28 â" Dirk Bogarde, actor (died 1999)
- April 10 â" Chuck Connors, actor (died 1992)
- April 16 â" Peter Ustinov, actor (died 2004)
- April 23 â" Janet Blair, actress (died 2007)
- May 2 â" Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker (died 1992)
- May 23 â" Grigory Chukhray, Ukrainian film director (died 2001)
- May 31 â" Alida Valli, actress (died 2006)
- June 8 â" Alexis Smith, actress (died 1993)
- June 19 â" Louis Jourdan, actor
- June 21
- Jane Russell, actress (died 2011)
- Judy Holliday, actress (died 1965)
- July 3 â" Susan Peters, actress (died 1952)
- July 23 â" Robert Brown, actor (died 2003)
- August 3 â" Marilyn Maxwell, actress (died 1972)
- August 8 â" Esther Williams, actress, swimmer (died 2013)
- August 19 â" Gene Roddenberry, American screenwriter and producer (died 1991)
- September 8 â" Harry Secombe, actor, singer (died 2001)
- September 27 â" Miklós Jancsó, Hungarian director (died 2014)
- September 30 â" Deborah Kerr, actress (died 2007)
- October 13 â" Yves Montand, singer, actor (died 1991)
- November 3 â" Charles Bronson, actor (died 2003)
- November 5 â" Moritz Yomtov, screenwriter (died 1992)
- November 22 â" Rodney Dangerfield, actor, comedian (died 2004)
- November 23 â" Fred Buscaglione, Italian actor and singer (died 1960)
- December 4 â" Deanna Durbin, actress (died 2013)
- December 26 â" Steve Allen, actor, composer, comedian, author (died 2000)
Deaths
- May 17 â" Karl Mantzius, Danish actor, theatre director, writer
- June 20 â" George Loane Tucker, American actor, screenwriter and director
- September 9 â" Virginia Rappe, American actress
- September 17 â" Van Dyke Brooke, American actor, screenwriter and film director
Film debuts
- George Arliss
- Basil Rathbone
- Carole Lombard in A Perfect Crime (1921)
- Fredric March