The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiere

Premiere

A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...

d in the year (considered as a percentage of the population in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom at that time).

Events

Motion picture historians and film often rate 1939 as "the greatest year in the history of Hollywood." Hollywood movies produced in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 were at the height of their Golden Age (in spite of many cheaply-made or indistinguished films also being produced, something one expects with any year in commercial cinema), and during 1939 there were the premiere

Premiere

A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...

s of an outstandingly large number of exceptional motion pictures, many of which have been honored as all-time classic films.

• August 15 - The Wizard of Oz
  The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
  The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
  
   premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
  
  .

• October 17 - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...
  
  premiered in Washington, D.C.

• December 15 - Gone with the Wind
  Gone with the Wind (film)
  Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
  
   premiered in Atlanta, Georgia
  Atlanta, Georgia
  Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
  
  , with a three-day-long festival.

• Canada
  Canada
  Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
  
   establishes a National Film Commission, predecessor of the National Film Board of Canada
  National Film Board of Canada
  The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
  
  , with John Grierson
  John Grierson
  John Grierson was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. According to popular myth, in 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" to describe a non-fiction film.-Early life:Grierson was born in Deanston, near Doune, Scotland...
  
   as first Commissioner.

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture

1939 was one of the years in which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

 nominated ten films for Best Picture, but they are all worth at least mentioning here, in alphabetical order:

• Dark Victory
  Dark Victory
  Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...
  
  
• Gone With the Wind
  Gone with the Wind
  The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
  
  (The winner)
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips
  Goodbye, Mr. Chips
  Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a novel by James Hilton, published in the United States in June 1934 by Little, Brown and Company and in the United Kingdom in October of that same year by Hodder & Stoughton...
  
  
• Love Affair
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...
  
  
• Ninotchka
  Ninotchka
  Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...
  
  
• Of Mice and Men
  Of Mice and Men
  Of Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California, USA....
  
  
• Stagecoach
• The Wizard of Oz
  The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
  The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
  
  
• Wuthering Heights
  Wuthering Heights
  Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre...
  
  

These films came from a wide variety of film genres and sources for their stories and settings, including these:
Historical novel

Historical novel

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...

s (Gone with the Wind), contemporary affairs (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Of Mice and Men), love stories, classic novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s (Wuthering Heights), a fantasy-musical (The Wizard of Oz), a tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 (Dark Victory), a story of the Old West (Stagecoach), and a comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 (Ninotchka).

The five nominees for Best Director of 1939 all went on to become legendary film directors with multiple stellar films to their credit. In alphabetical order: Frank Capra

Frank Capra

Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...

, Victor Fleming

Victor Fleming

Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...

, John Ford

John Ford

John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

, Sam Wood

Sam Wood

Samuel Grosvenor "Sam" Wood was an American film director, and producer, who was best known for directing such Hollywood hits as A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and The Pride of the Yankees...

, and William Wyler

William Wyler

William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...

.

Top films in gross income

These figures are not necessarily the sums that were taken in during 1939 - and in particularly for films that made their premieres in October, November, and December. Note that the number one film in this list premiered in mid-December, and it certainly did not take in $400,000,000 in December 1939.

Rank	Title	Studio	Actors	Worldwide Gross
1.	Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind (film) Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...	Selznick International Pictures/MGM	Vivien Leigh Vivien Leigh Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark... , Clark Gable Clark Gable William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh... , Olivia de Havilland Olivia de Havilland Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland... , Leslie Howard Leslie Howard Leslie Howard may refer to:*Leslie Howard , English stage performer who became star of Hollywood films during 1930s*Leslie Howard , Australian-born British pianist and composer... , Hattie McDaniel Hattie McDaniel Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind .... , Butterfly McQueen Butterfly McQueen Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen was an American actress. Originally a dancer, the 28-year-old McQueen first appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, then continued as an actress in film in the 1940s, then moving to television acting in the 1950s .-Early life:Born...	$400,176,459
2.	The Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...	MGM	Judy Garland Judy Garland Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage... , Ray Bolger Ray Bolger Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:... , Jack Haley Jack Haley John Joseph "Jack" Haley was an American stage, radio, and film actor best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man and Kansas farmworker Hickory in The Wizard of Oz.-Career:... , Bert Lahr Bert Lahr Bert Lahr was an American actor and comedian. Lahr is remembered today for his roles as the Cowardly Lion and Kansas farmworker Zeke in The Wizard of Oz, but was also well-known for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and on Broadway.-Early life:Lahr was born in New York City, of German-Jewish heritage...	$16,538,431
3.	Ninotchka Ninotchka Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...	MGM	Greta Garbo Greta Garbo Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
4.	Dodge City Dodge City (1939 film) Dodge City is a 1939 American Western film starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Bruce Cabot. Directed by Hungarian-turned-Hollywood filmmaker Michael Curtiz and based on a story by Robert Buckner, it was filmed in early Technicolor...	Warner Bros.	Errol Flynn Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:... , Olivia de Havilland Olivia de Havilland Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland... , Bruce Cabot Bruce Cabot Bruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...
5.	Mr Smith Goes to Washington	Columbia	James Stewart James Stewart (actor) James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime... , Jean Arthur Jean Arthur Jean Arthur was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur... , Claude Rains Claude Rains Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
6.	Jesse James Jesse James (1939 film) Jesse James is a western movie directed by Henry King and starring Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly, and Randolph Scott. Written by Nunnally Johnson, the film is loosely based on the life of the notorious outlaw for which the film derives its name...	20th Century Fox	Tyrone Power Tyrone Power Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,... , Henry Fonda Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
7.	The Old Maid	Warners Bros.	Bette Davis Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional... , Miriam Hopkins Miriam Hopkins Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...
8.	The Women The Women (1939 film) The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code in order for it to be released.The film...	MGM	Norma Shearer Norma Shearer Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s... , Joan Crawford Joan Crawford Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre.... , Rosalind Russell Rosalind Russell Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame... , Joan Fontaine Joan Fontaine Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
9.	The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is an American biographical musical comedy, released in 1939 and directed by H.C. Potter. The film stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, and Walter Brennan....	RKO Pictures	Fred Astaire Fred Astaire Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute... , Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
10.	Goodbye, Mr. Chips Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film) Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...	MGM	Robert Donat Robert Donat Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr... , Greer Garson Greer Garson Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...
11.	Another Thin Man Another Thin Man Another Thin Man is a 1939 American film that is the third film in the six-volume series, The Thin Man. It again stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, and is based on the writings of Dashiell Hammett. Their son, Nicky Jr., is also introduced in the film. The cast includes...	MGM	William Powell William Powell William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles... , Myrna Loy Myrna Loy Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
12.	The Little Princess	20th Century Fox	Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...

Academy Awards

• Best Picture
  Academy Award for Best Picture
  The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
  
  : Gone with the Wind
  Gone with the Wind (film)
  Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
  
  - David O. Selznick
  David O. Selznick
  David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
  
  , Selznick International
• Best Director: Victor Fleming
  Victor Fleming
  Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...
  
  - Gone with the Wind
  Gone with the Wind (film)
  Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
  
  
• Best Actor
  Academy Award for Best Actor
  Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
  
  : Robert Donat
  Robert Donat
  Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...
  
  - Goodbye, Mr. Chips
  Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
  Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...
  
  
• Best Actress
  Academy Award for Best Actress
  Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
  
  : Vivien Leigh
  Vivien Leigh
  Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...
  
  - Gone with the Wind
  Gone with the Wind (film)
  Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
  
  
• Best Supporting Actor
  Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
  Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
  
  : Thomas Mitchell
  Thomas Mitchell (actor)
  Thomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...
  
  - Stagecoach
• Best Supporting Actress
  Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
  Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
  
  : Hattie McDaniel
  Hattie McDaniel
  Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
  
  - Gone with the Wind
  Gone with the Wind (film)
  Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
  
  

Select List of films premiered in 1939

U.S.A. unless stated

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939 film)
  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a 1939 film adaptation of Mark Twain's classic novel of the same name, starring Mickey Rooney in the title role.-Cast:*Mickey Rooney as Huckleberry Finn*Walter Connolly as the 'King'*William Frawley as the 'Duke'...
  
  , starring Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
  
   and Rex Ingram
  Rex Ingram (actor)
  Rex Ingram was an American stage, film, and television actor.-Early life and career:Born near Cairo, Illinois on the Mississippi River, Ingram's father was a steamer fireman on the riverboat Robert E. Lee...
  
  
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (film)
  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a 1939 film featuring the characters of the Sherlock Holmes series of books as created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was the second film to feature Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson, the final one they would make for 20th Century Fox, and...
  
  , starring Basil Rathbone
  Basil Rathbone
  Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
  
   and Nigel Bruce
  Nigel Bruce
  William Nigel Ernle Bruce , best known as Nigel Bruce, was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Doctor Watson in a series of films and in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...
  
  
• Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever
  Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever
  Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever is a 1939 romantic comedy about Andy Hardy having a crush on his high school drama teacher, Miss Rose Meredith. This is the seventh of sixteen Andy Hardy films starring Mickey Rooney.-Plot:...
  
  , starring Lewis Stone
  Lewis Stone
  Lewis Shepard Stone was an American actor.Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, son of Bertrand Stone and Philena Heald Ball. Stone's hair grew gray by the time he was twenty. He fought in the Spanish-American War, then returned to a career as a writer. He soon began acting...
  
  , Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
  
  , Cecilia Parker
  Cecilia Parker
  Cecilia Parker was a Canadian-born American film actress.-Early life and career:Born in Fort William, Ontario, she was brought to southern California as a child by her mother, Mrs. Naudy Anna Parker. Her father was an English soldier. Parker graduated from the Convent of the Immaculate Heart in...
  
  , Fay Holden
  Fay Holden
  Fay Holden , was a British-born American-based actress. She was known as Gaby Fay early in her career....
  
  
• The Angels Wash Their Faces
  The Angels Wash Their Faces
  The Angels Wash Their Faces is a 1939 Warner Bros. film starring Ronald Reagan and The Dead End Kids.-Plot:Gabe Ryan is released from reform school and it taken to a new house by his sister Joy to start a new life where no one knows of his past...
  
  , starring Ann Sheridan
  Ann Sheridan
  -Life and career:Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, she was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a...
  
   and the Dead End Kids
  Dead End Kids
  The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play Dead End in 1935. In 1937 producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film...
  
  
• Another Thin Man
  Another Thin Man
  Another Thin Man is a 1939 American film that is the third film in the six-volume series, The Thin Man. It again stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, and is based on the writings of Dashiell Hammett. Their son, Nicky Jr., is also introduced in the film. The cast includes...
  
  , starring William Powell
  William Powell
  William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
  
   and Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
  
  
• The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
  The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
  The Arsenal Stadium Mystery is a 1939 British mystery film, and is one of the first feature films where football is a central element in the plot....
  
  - (U.K.
  British films of 1939
  A list of films produced in the United Kingdom in 1939:-1939:...
  
  )
• Ask a Policeman
  Ask A Policeman
  Ask a Policeman is a 1939 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel which stars Will Hay, Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. The title comes from the popular music hall song Ask a Policeman. The Turnbottom Round police force are threatened with dismissal by their Chief Constable and decide to...
  
  , starring Will Hay
  Will Hay
  William Thomson "Will" Hay was an English comedian, actor, film director and amateur astronomer.-Early life:He was born in Stockton-on-Tees, in north east England, to William R...
  
  , Graham Moffatt
  Graham Moffatt
  Graham Moffatt was a British character actor and comedian.Born in Hammersmith, London, he is best known for a number of films where he appeared with Will Hay and Moore Marriott as 'Albert': an insolent, overweight, overgrown-schoolboy type character, loosely reminiscent of Billy Bunter.His first...
  
   and Moore Marriott
  Moore Marriott
  Moore Marriott was a British character actor most notable for a series of films he made with Will Hay in the 1930s.-Career:...
  
   - (U.K.)
• At the Circus
  At the Circus
  At the Circus is a 1939 Marx Brothers comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which they save a circus from bankruptcy...
  
  , starring the Marx Brothers
  Marx Brothers
  The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
  
  
• Babes in Arms
  Babes in Arms (film)
  Babes in Arms is the 1939 film version of the 1937 Broadway musical of the same name. The film version stars Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes and Betty Jaynes.-Production:...
  
  , starring Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
  
   and Judy Garland
  Judy Garland
  Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
  
  
• Bad Lands, starring Robert Barrat
  Robert Barrat
  Robert Harriot Barrat was an American stage, motion picture, and television character actor.-Career:Born in New York, Barrat's theatrical debut was in a stock company in Springfield, Massachusetts...
  
   and Douglas Walton
• Bachelor Mother
  Bachelor Mother
  Bachelor Mother is an American comedy film directed by Garson Kanin, and starring Ginger Rogers , David Niven, and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna based on a Academy Award nominated story by Felix Jackson...
  
  , starring Ginger Rogers
  Ginger Rogers
  Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
  
   and David Niven
  David Niven
  James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
  
  
• Barricade
  Barricade (1939 film)
  Barricade is a 1939 adventure film directed by Gregory Ratoff and starring Alice Faye, Warner Baxter, Charles Winninger, Arthur Treacher, and Keye Luke.-Plot:...
  
  , starring Alice Faye
  Alice Faye
  Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
  
   and Warner Baxter
  Warner Baxter
  Warner Leroy Baxter was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona , for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1928–1929 Academy Awards. Warner Baxter started his movie career in silent movies...
  
  
• Beau Geste
  Beau Geste (1939 film)
  Beau Geste is a 1939 film produced by Paramount Pictures based on the novel of the same name by P. C. Wren. It was directed and produced by William A. Wellman from a screenplay by Robert Carson...
  
  , directed by William Wellman, starring Gary Cooper
  Gary Cooper
  Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
  
   and Ray Milland
  Ray Milland
  Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...
  
  
• Bel Ami
  Bel Ami (1939 film)
  Bel Ami is a German film version of Guy de Maupassant's novel Bel Ami directed by Willi Forst and released in 1939.- Plot :In Paris, in about 1900, George Duroy, just returned from Morocco, spends a night with the singer Rachel, who is rehearsing the song Bel Ami. Later at a party he tells the...
  
  - (Germany)
• Boys' Reformatory, starring Frankie Darro
  Frankie Darro
  Frankie Darro was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist.-Early life:Darro...
  
   and Grant Withers
  Grant Withers
  Grant Withers was an American film actor. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into talkies establishing himself with a list of headlined features as a young and handsome male lead...
  
  
• The Bronze Buckaroo
  The Bronze Buckaroo
  The Bronze Buckaroo is a 1939 American film directed by Richard C. Kahn. It is one of a number of race films, made by African-American directors and performers for African-American audiences. The Bronze Buckaroo stars black cowboy singer Herb Jeffries....
  
  , starring Herb Jeffries
• The Cat and the Canary
  The Cat and the Canary (1939 film)
  The Cat and the Canary starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard is a 1939 comedy horror film remake of the 1927 film The Cat and the Canary, which was based on the 1922 play of the same name by John Willard...
  
  , starring Bob Hope
  Bob Hope
  Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
  
   and Paulette Goddard
  Paulette Goddard
  Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
  
  
• Charlie Chan at Treasure Island
  Charlie Chan at Treasure Island
  Charlie Chan at Treasure Island is a 1939 American film directed by Norman Foster, starring Sidney Toler as the fictional Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan, that takes place on Treasure Island during San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition.-Cast:* Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan*...
  
  , starring Sidney Toler
  Sidney Toler
  Sidney Hooper Toler was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. Of primarily Scottish ancestry, he was the second non-Asian actor to play the role of Charlie Chan.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Confessions of a Nazi Spy
  Confessions of a Nazi Spy
  Confessions of a Nazi Spy is a 1939 American spy thriller film and the first blatantly anti-Nazi film produced by a major Hollywood studio prior to World War II. The film stars Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, George Sanders, and a large cast of German actors, including some who had emigrated...
  
  , starring Edward G. Robinson
  Edward G. Robinson
  Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
  
  , Francis Lederer
  Francis Lederer
  Francis Lederer was a film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States.-Europe:...
  
  , George Sanders
  George Sanders
  George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...
  
  , Paul Lukas
  Paul Lukas
  Paul Lukas was an Austrian-Hungarian-born actor.-Biography:Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut in 1917...
  
  
• Dark Victory
  Dark Victory
  Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...
  
  , starring Bette Davis
  Bette Davis
  Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
  
   (favorite role), George Brent
  George Brent
  George Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...
  
  , Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
  
  , Geraldine Fitzgerald
  Geraldine Fitzgerald
  Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lady Lindsay-Hogg was an Irish-American actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Early life:...
  
  , Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
  
  
• Daughter of the Tong
  Daughter of the Tong
  Daughter of the Tong is a 1939 crime film about a detective that goes against a female leader of an Oriental crime ring.-Plot:Ralph Dickson is an FBI agent assigned to investigate the killing of a colleague. He is chosen to investigate due to an uncanny likeness to the presumed killer...
  
  , starring Evelyn Brent
  Evelyn Brent
  Evelyn Brent was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:Born Mary Elizabeth Riggs in Tampa, Florida and known as Betty, she was a child of 10 when her mother Eleanor died, leaving her father Arthur to raise her alone...
  
   and Grant Withers
  Grant Withers
  Grant Withers was an American film actor. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into talkies establishing himself with a list of headlined features as a young and handsome male lead...
  
  
• Destry Rides Again
  Destry Rides Again
  Destry Rides Again is a western starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody, Jr., and Una Merkel. The original Max Brand novel was translated into an "oater" with the...
  
  , starring Marlene Dietrich
  Marlene Dietrich
  Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
  
   and James Stewart
  James Stewart (actor)
  James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
  
  
• Dodge City
  Dodge City (1939 film)
  Dodge City is a 1939 American Western film starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Bruce Cabot. Directed by Hungarian-turned-Hollywood filmmaker Michael Curtiz and based on a story by Robert Buckner, it was filmed in early Technicolor...
  
  , starring Errol Flynn
  Errol Flynn
  Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
  
   and Olivia de Havilland
  Olivia de Havilland
  Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
  
  
• Drums Along the Mohawk
  Drums Along the Mohawk
  Drums Along the Mohawk is a 1939 historical Technicolor film based upon a 1936 novel of the same name by American author, Walter D. Edmonds. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by John Ford. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert portray settlers on the New York frontier during the...
  
  , directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda
  Henry Fonda
  Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
  
   and Claudette Colbert
  Claudette Colbert
  Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
  
  
• Each Dawn I Die
  Each Dawn I Die
  Each Dawn I Die is a 1939 gangster film featuring James Cagney and George Raft in their only movie together as leads, although Raft had made an unbilled appearance in a 1932 Cagney vehicle called Taxi! in which he won a dance contest against Cagney, after which he and Cagney brawl...
  
  , starring James Cagney
  James Cagney
  James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
  
   and George Raft
  George Raft
  George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
  
  
• Empress Wu Zetian
  Empress Wu Zetian (film)
  Empress Wu Zetian is a 1939 Chinese historical film directed by Peilin Fang based on the life of the Tang Dynasty empress, Wu Zetian.- Cast :*Bai Hong*Gu Lanjun*Han Langen*Huang Naishuang*Yin Xiucen*Zhang Zhizhi*Yu Shengsan...
  
  - (China
  Chinese films of the 1930s
  This is a list of films produced in mainland China ordered by year of release in the 1930s.For an alphabetical listing of Chinese films see :Category:Chinese films.- 1930 :- 1931 :- 1932 :- 1933 :- 1934 :- 1935 :- 1936 :- 1937 :...
  
  )
• Everything Happens at Night, starring Sonja Henie
  Sonja Henie
  Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles, a ten-time World Champion and a six-time European Champion . Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater...
  
   and Ray Milland
  Ray Milland
  Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...
  
  
• First Love
  First Love (1939 film)
  First Love is a 1939 Oscar nominated Universal musical film directed by Henry Koster. The film is a rewriting of the fairy tale Cinderella. It was released on both VHS and DVD .-Plot:...
  
  , starring Deanna Durbin
  Deanna Durbin
  Deanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias....
  
   and Robert Stack
  Robert Stack
  Robert Stack was an American actor. In addition to acting in more than 40 films, he was the star of the 1959-1963 ABC television series The Untouchables and later served as the host of Unsolved Mysteries.-Early life:...
  
  
• Five Came Back
  Five Came Back
  Five Came Back is a 1939 melodrama and a precursor of the disaster film genre. The film was directed by John Farrow, photographed by renowned film noir cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, and written by Jerry Cady, Dalton Trumbo and Nathanael West....
  
  , starring Lucille Ball
  Lucille Ball
  Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
  
   and Chester Morris
  Chester Morris
  Chester Morris was an American actor, who starred in the Boston Blackie detective series of the 1940s.-Career:...
  
  
• The Four Feathers
  The Four Feathers (1939 film)
  The Four Feathers is a 1939 adventure film directed by Zoltan Korda, starring John Clements, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez, C. Aubrey Smith. Set in the 1890s during the reign of Queen Victoria, it tells the story of a man accused of cowardice. It is one of a number of adaptations of the 1902 novel...
  
  , starring John Clements
  John Clements
  Sir John Selby Clements, CBE was an English actor and producer who worked in theatre, television and film.Clements attended St Paul's School and St John's College, Cambridge University then worked with Nigel Playfair and afterwards spent a few years in Ben Greet's Shakespearean Company. He made...
  
   and Ralph Richardson
  Ralph Richardson
  Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
  
   - (U.K.)
• Frontier Marshal
  Frontier Marshal (1939 film)
  Frontier Marshal is a 1939 western film starring Randolph Scott as Wyatt Earp. It is the second film produced by Sol M. Wurtzel based on Stuart N. Lake's highly fictionalized account of Earp, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. An earlier version was Wurtzel's Frontier Marshal, filmed in 1934...
  
  , starring Randolph Scott
  Randolph Scott
  Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
  
  , John Carradine
  John Carradine
  John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
  
  , Lon Chaney
  Lon Chaney, Jr.
  Lon Chaney, Jr. , born Creighton Tull Chaney, was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney...
  
  , Jr.
• A Girl Must Live
  A Girl Must Live
  A Girl Must Live is a 1939 British romantic comedy film directed by Carol Reed and starring Margaret Lockwood, with supporting cast Renee Houston, Lilli Palmer, and Hugh Sinclair...
  
  , directed by Carol Reed
  Carol Reed
  Sir Carol Reed was an English film director best known for Odd Man Out , The Fallen Idol , The Third Man and Oliver!...
  
  , starring Margaret Lockwood - (U.K.)
• Golden Boy
  Golden Boy (film)
  Golden Boy is a 1939 black-and-white Columbia Pictures drama film based on the Clifford Odets play of the same name. It features William Holden in the role that made him a star: a promising violinist who wants to be a boxer. Barbara Stanwyck plays his love interest. The supporting cast included Lee J...
  
  , starring Barbara Stanwyck
  Barbara Stanwyck
  Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
  
  , William Holden
  William Holden
  William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
  
  , Adolphe Menjou
  Adolphe Menjou
  Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born...
  
  
• Gone with the Wind
  Gone with the Wind (film)
  Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
  
  , directed by Victor Fleming
  Victor Fleming
  Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...
  
  , starring Vivien Leigh
  Vivien Leigh
  Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...
  
  , Clark Gable
  Clark Gable
  William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
  
  , Olivia de Havilland
  Olivia de Havilland
  Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
  
  , Leslie Howard
  Leslie Howard
  Leslie Howard may refer to:*Leslie Howard , English stage performer who became star of Hollywood films during 1930s*Leslie Howard , Australian-born British pianist and composer...
  
  , Hattie McDaniel
  Hattie McDaniel
  Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
  
   - Academy Awards
  12th Academy Awards
  The 12th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1939, was held on February 29, 1940, at a banquet in the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was hosted by Bob Hope ....
  
   for best picture, director, actress and supporting actress
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips
  Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
  Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...
  
  , starring Robert Donat
  Robert Donat
  Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...
  
   and Greer Garson
  Greer Garson
  Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...
  
   - (U.K.)
• The Gorilla, starring the Ritz Brothers
  Ritz Brothers
  The Ritz Brothers were an American comedy team who appeared in films, and as live performers from 1925 to the late 1960s.Although there were four brothers, the sons of Austrian-born haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline, only three of them performed together. There was also a sister,...
  
  
• Gulliver's Travels
  Gulliver's Travels (1939 film)
  Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American cel-animated Technicolor feature film, directed by Dave Fleischer and produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. The film was released on Friday, December 22, 1939 by Paramount Pictures, who had the feature produced as an answer to the success of Walt...
  
  starring Jessica Dragonette
  Jessica Dragonette
  Jessica Dragonette was a singer who became popular on American radio and was active in the World War II effort.-Early life and career:...
  
   and Lanny Ross
  Lanny Ross
  Lanny Ross was an American singer, pianist and songwriter.-Biography:Lancelot Patrick Ross was born in Seattle, Washington. He graduated from Yale University in 1928, where he was a member of Zeta Psi and Skull and Bones. He later studied classical vocal technique at the Juilliard School of...
  
  
• Gunga Din
  Gunga Din (film)
  Gunga Din is a 1939 RKO adventure film directed by George Stevens, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, combined with elements of his novel Soldiers Three...
  
  , starring Cary Grant
  Cary Grant
  Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
  
  , Victor McLaglen
  Victor McLaglen
  Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen was an English boxer and World War I veteran who became a successful film actor.Towards the end of his life he was naturalised as a U.S. citizen.-Early life:...
  
  , Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Sam Jaffe
  Sam Jaffe (actor)
  Sam Jaffe was an American actor, teacher, musician and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Asphalt Jungle and appeared in other classic films such as Ben-Hur and The Day the Earth Stood Still...
  
  
• The Hardys Ride High, starring Lewis Stone
  Lewis Stone
  Lewis Shepard Stone was an American actor.Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, son of Bertrand Stone and Philena Heald Ball. Stone's hair grew gray by the time he was twenty. He fought in the Spanish-American War, then returned to a career as a writer. He soon began acting...
  
  , Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
  
  , Cecilia Parker
  Cecilia Parker
  Cecilia Parker was a Canadian-born American film actress.-Early life and career:Born in Fort William, Ontario, she was brought to southern California as a child by her mother, Mrs. Naudy Anna Parker. Her father was an English soldier. Parker graduated from the Convent of the Immaculate Heart in...
  
  , Fay Holden
  Fay Holden
  Fay Holden , was a British-born American-based actress. She was known as Gaby Fay early in her career....
  
  
• Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence
  Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence
  Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence is a 1939 drama film starring Glenn Ford and directed by Ricardo Cortez-Plot:Joe Riley , who owns a shop, saves enough money to buy a piece of land in Arizona. Unable to buy a car , he has to travel to his new home by hitchhiking...
  
  , starring Glenn Ford
  Glenn Ford
  Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...
  
  
• Hollywood Cavalcade, starring Alice Faye
  Alice Faye
  Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
  
  , Don Ameche
  Don Ameche
  Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
  
  , J. Edward Bromberg
  J. Edward Bromberg
  Joseph Edward Bromberg was a Hungarian-born American character actor in motion picture and stage productions dating mostly from the 1930s and 1940s....
  
  , Alan Curtis
  Alan Curtis (American actor)
  Alan Curtis was an American film actor appearing in over 50 films.Born Harry Ueberroth in Chicago, Illinois, he began his career as a model before becoming an actor, appearing in local newspaper ads. His looks did not go unnoticed in Hollywood...
  
  
• The Hound of the Baskervilles
  The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939 film)
  The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939 mystery film based on the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by 20th Century Fox....
  
  , - first in Sherlock Holmes
  Sherlock Holmes
  Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
  
   series starring Basil Rathbone
  Basil Rathbone
  Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
  
   and Nigel Bruce
  Nigel Bruce
  William Nigel Ernle Bruce , best known as Nigel Bruce, was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Doctor Watson in a series of films and in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...
  
  
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film)
  The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American monochrome film starring Charles Laughton as Quasimodo and Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda. It was directed by William Dieterle and produced by Pandro S. Berman...
  
  , directed by William Dieterle
  William Dieterle
  William Dieterle was a German actor and film director, who worked in Hollywood for much of his career. His best known films include The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...
  
  , starring Charles Laughton
  Charles Laughton
  Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
  
   and Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne...
  
  
• Idiot's Delight, starring Clark Gable
  Clark Gable
  William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
  
   and Norma Shearer
  Norma Shearer
  Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
  
  
• In Name Only
  In Name Only
  In Name Only is a 1939 romantic film starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis. It was based on the 1935 novel Memory of Love by Bessie Breuer.-Plot:...
  
  , starring Cary Grant
  Cary Grant
  Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
  
  , Carole Lombard
  Carole Lombard
  Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...
  
  , Kay Francis
  Kay Francis
  Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...
  
  
• Intermezzo
  Intermezzo (1939 film)
  Intermezzo is a romantic film made in the USA by Selznick International Pictures. It was directed by Gregory Ratoff and produced by David O. Selznick. It is a remake of the Swedish film Intermezzo . The screenplay by George O'Neil was based on the screenplay of the original film by Gösta Stevens...
  
  , starring Ingrid Bergman
  Ingrid Bergman
  Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
  
   and Leslie Howard
  Leslie Howard (actor)
  Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind and roles in Berkeley Square , Of Human Bondage , The Scarlet Pimpernel , The Petrified Forest , Pygmalion , Intermezzo , Pimpernel Smith...
  
  
• It's a Wonderful World, directed by W.S. Van Dyke, starring James Stewart
  James Stewart
  James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
  
   and Claudette Colbert
  Claudette Colbert
  Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
  
  
• Jamaica Inn
  Jamaica Inn (film)
  Jamaica Inn is a 1939 film made by Alfred Hitchcock adapted from Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name, the first of three of du Maurier's works that Hitchcock adapted ....
  
  , directed by Alfred Hitchcock
  Alfred Hitchcock
  Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
  
  , starring Charles Laughton
  Charles Laughton
  Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
  
   and Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne...
  
   - (U.K.)
• Jesse James
  Jesse James (1939 film)
  Jesse James is a western movie directed by Henry King and starring Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly, and Randolph Scott. Written by Nunnally Johnson, the film is loosely based on the life of the notorious outlaw for which the film derives its name...
  
  , starring Tyrone Power
  Tyrone Power
  Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
  
  , Henry Fonda
  Henry Fonda
  Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
  
  , Nancy Kelly
  Nancy Kelly
  Nancy Kelly was an American actress, who was a movie leading lady in the 1930s, making 36 movies between 1926 and 1977, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James , which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone...
  
  , Randolph Scott
  Randolph Scott
  Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
  
  
• Juarez
  Juarez (1939 film)
  Juarez is a 1939 American historical drama film directed by William Dieterle. The screenplay by Aeneas MacKenzie, John Huston, and Wolfgang Reinhardt is based on the novel The Phantom Crown by Bertita Harding and the play Juarez and Maximilian by Franz Werfel.-Plot:The film focuses on the conflict...
  
  starring Paul Muni
  Paul Muni
  Paul Muni was an Austrian-Hungarian-born American stage and film actor...
  
  , Bette Davis
  Bette Davis
  Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
  
  , Claude Rains
  Claude Rains
  Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
  
  , John Garfield
  John Garfield
  John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...
  
  , Brian Aherne
  Brian Aherne
  Brian Aherne was a British actor of both stage and screen, who found success in Hollywood.-Early life and stage career:...
  
  
• Le Jour se lève
  Le Jour se lève
  Le Jour se lève is a 1939 French film directed by Marcel Carné and written by Jacques Prévert, based on a story by Jacques Viot. It is considered one of the principal examples of the French film movement known as poetic realism....
  
  (Daybreak), directed by Marcel Carné
  Marcel Carné
  -Biography:Born in Paris, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five, Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication, Hebdo-Films, and working for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933. In the same period he worked in...
  
  , starring Jean Gabin
  Jean Gabin
  -Biography:Born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, he grew up in the village of Mériel in the Seine-et-Oise département, about 22 mi north of Paris. The son of cabaret entertainers, he attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly...
  
   and Arletty
  Arletty
  Arletty was a French actress, singer, and fashion model.-Life and career:Arletty was born Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat in Courbevoie , to a working-class family. Her early career was dominated by the music hall, and she later appeared in plays and cabaret. Arletty was a stage performer for ten years...
  
   - (France
  French films of 1939
  A list of films produced in France in 1939:-1939:-External links:* at the Internet Movie Database**...
  
  )
• Judge Hardy and Son starring Lewis Stone
  Lewis Stone
  Lewis Shepard Stone was an American actor.Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, son of Bertrand Stone and Philena Heald Ball. Stone's hair grew gray by the time he was twenty. He fought in the Spanish-American War, then returned to a career as a writer. He soon began acting...
  
  , Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
  
  , Cecilia Parker
  Cecilia Parker
  Cecilia Parker was a Canadian-born American film actress.-Early life and career:Born in Fort William, Ontario, she was brought to southern California as a child by her mother, Mrs. Naudy Anna Parker. Her father was an English soldier. Parker graduated from the Convent of the Immaculate Heart in...
  
  , Fay Holden
  Fay Holden
  Fay Holden , was a British-born American-based actress. She was known as Gaby Fay early in her career....
  
  
• The Lambeth Walk
  The Lambeth Walk (film)
  The Lambeth Walk is a 1939 British musical comedy film directed by Albert de Courville and starring Lupino Lane, Sally Gray and Seymour Hicks. It was an adaptation of the 1937 musical Me and My Girl. The film takes its title from the play's best known song The Lambeth Walk...
  
  directed by Albert de Courville
  Albert de Courville
  Albert de Courville was a director of theatrical revues who turned to making films in the 1930s. His two most famous films , both featuring Jessie Matthews were There Goes the Bride and The Midshipmaid...
  
   and starring Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...
  
   and Sally Gray
  Sally Gray
  Constance Vera Browne, Baroness Oranmore and Browne , commonly known as Sally Gray, was an English movie actress of the 1930s and 1940s....
  
   (UK)
• The Last Turning
  Le Dernier tournant
  Le Dernier tournant is a 1939 French drama film directed by Pierre Chenal, written by Charles Spaak and Henri Torrès, based on novel "The Postman Always Rings Twice" by James M...
  
  (Le Dernier Tournant), starring Michel Simon
  Michel Simon
  Michel Simon , was a Swiss actor. The actor François Simon is his son.-Early years:...
  
   - (France)
• Let Us Live
  Let Us Live
  Let Us Live is a 1939 crime thriller film starring Maureen O'Sullivan and Henry Fonda. When two men are wrongly convicted of murder the girlfriend of one of them persuades a conscientious police detective to help her prove their innocence.-Cast:...
  
  starring Maureen O'Sullivan
  Maureen O'Sullivan
  Maureen Paula O’Sullivan was an Irish actress.-Early life:O'Sullivan was born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, the daughter of Roman Catholic parents Mary Lovatt and Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in The Connaught Rangers who served in The Great War...
  
   and Henry Fonda
  Henry Fonda
  Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
  
  
• The Little Princess, starring Shirley Temple
  Shirley Temple
  Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
  
   and Richard Greene
  Richard Greene
  Richard Marius Joseph Greene was a noted English film and television actor. A matinee idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, which ran for 143 episodes from 1955 to 1960.It has been...
  
  
• Love Affair, starring Irene Dunne
  Irene Dunne
  Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
  
   and Charles Boyer
  Charles Boyer
  Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
  
   (Academy Award Nominee)
• Lucky Night
  Lucky Night
  Lucky Night is a comedy movie from MGM starring Robert Taylor and Myrna Loy, directed by Norman Taurog.- Plot :Two people meet in a park and at the time are both poor. As they start talking, they become acquainted and each discovers that the other is also poor...
  
  , starring Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
  
   and Robert Taylor
  Robert Taylor (actor)
  Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...
  
  
• The Man in the Iron Mask
  The Man in the Iron Mask (1939 film)
  The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1939 American film very loosely adapted from the last section of the novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père, which is itself based on the French legend of the Man in the Iron Mask....
  
  , starring Louis Hayward
  Louis Hayward
  Louis Charles Hayward was a British actor born in South Africa.-Biography:Born in Johannesburg, Hayward began his screen work in British films, notably as Simon Templar in Leslie Charteris' The Saint in New York.] In 1939 he played a dual role in The Man in the Iron Mask.During World War II,...
  
  , Joan Bennett
  Joan Bennett
  Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film and television actress. Besides acting on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 motion pictures from the era of silent movies well into the sound era...
  
  , Warren William
  Warren William
  Warren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...
  
  
• Mexicali Rose
  Mexicali Rose
  "Mexicali Rose" is a popular song with music by Jack Tenney and lyrics by Helen Stone, published in 1923. The song is a love story of a man who must leave his love for a while. The chorus:...
  
  , starring Gene Autry
  Gene Autry
  Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
  
  
• Midnight
  Midnight (1939 film)
  Midnight is a 1939 romantic comedy directed by Mitchell Leisen and written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder based on a story by Edwin Justus Mayer and Franz Schulz. It starred Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche and John Barrymore.-Plot:Eve Peabody is an out-of-work American showgirl...
  
  , starring Claudette Colbert
  Claudette Colbert
  Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
  
   and Don Ameche
  Don Ameche
  Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
  
  
• The Mikado
  The Mikado (1939 film)
  The Mikado is a 1939 British musical comedy film of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. The film starred American radio singer Kenny Baker and various members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. It was the first British film made in Technicolor.-Cast:...
  
  - Gilbert and Sullivan
  Gilbert and Sullivan
  Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
  
   operetta, first British film shot in Technicolor
  Technicolor
  Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
  
   - (U.K.)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...
  
  , directed by Frank Capra
  Frank Capra
  Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
  
  , starring James Stewart
  James Stewart (actor)
  James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
  
  , Jean Arthur
  Jean Arthur
  Jean Arthur was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur...
  
  , Claude Rains
  Claude Rains
  Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
  
  
• Mr. Wong in Chinatown
  Mr. Wong in Chinatown
  Mr. Wong in Chinatown is a 1939 American mystery film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff.-Cast:* Boris Karloff - Mr. James Lee Wong* Marjorie Reynolds - Roberta 'Bobbie' Logan * Grant Withers - Police Capt. Bill Street...
  
  , starring Boris Karloff
  Boris Karloff
  William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
  
  
• The Mystery of Mr. Wong
  The Mystery of Mr. Wong
  The Mystery of Mr. Wong is a 1939 mystery film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff.-Plot:The second in the series of Mr. Wong features starring Boris Karloff finds wealthy gem-collector Brandon Edwards gaining possession of the largest star sapphire in the world, the 'Eye of the...
  
  , starring Boris Karloff
  Boris Karloff
  William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
  
  
• Never Say Die
  Never Say Die (1939 film)
  Never Say Die is a 1939 romantic comedy film starring Martha Raye and Bob Hope. Based on a play of the same title by William H. Post and William Collier, which ran on Broadway for 151 performances in 1912, the film was directed by Elliot Nugent and written for the screen by Dan Hartman, Frank...
  
  , starring Martha Raye
  Martha Raye
  Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....
  
   and Bob Hope
  Bob Hope
  Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
  
  
• Ninotchka
  Ninotchka
  Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...
  
  , directed by Ernst Lubitsch
  Ernst Lubitsch
  Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
  
  , starring Greta Garbo
  Greta Garbo
  Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
  
  , Melvyn Douglas
  Melvyn Douglas
  Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
  
  , Ina Claire
  Ina Claire
  Ina Claire was an American stage and film actress.-Career:Born Ina Fagan in 1893 in Washington, D.C., Claire began her career appearing in vaudeville...
  
  , Bela Lugosi
  Béla Lugosi
  Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
  
  
• Of Mice and Men
  Of Mice and Men (1939 film)
  Of Mice and Men is a 1939 film based on the novella of the same title by American author John Steinbeck. It stars Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney, Jr., Charles Bickford, Roman Bohnen, Bob Steele and Noah Beery, Jr...
  
  , starring Burgess Meredith
  Burgess Meredith
  Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
  
  , Betty Field
  Betty Field
  Betty Field was an American film and stage actress. Through her father, she was a direct descendant of the Pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins....
  
  , Lon Chaney Jr.
• These Glamour Girls
  These Glamour Girls
  These Glamour Girls is a 1939 comedy-drama film directed by S. Sylvan Simon. It stars Lana Turner and Ann Ruthford.-Plot summary:A drunken college student invites a dance hostess to the big college dance and then forgets he asked her. When she shows up at school, he tries to get rid of her, but she...
  
  , starring Lew Aryes, Lana Turner
  Lana Turner
  Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
  
  , and Tom Brown
  Tom Brown
  Tom Brown may refer to:In sports:*Tom Brown , 19th-century baseball player and manager*Tom Brown , former NFL player and MLB outfielder/first baseman...
  
  
• The Oklahoma Kid
  The Oklahoma Kid
  The Oklahoma Kid is a 1939 western film starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. The movie was directed for Warner Bros. by Lloyd Bacon. Cagney plays an adventurous gunslinger in a broad-brimmed cowboy hat while Bogart portrays his black-clad and viciously villainous nemesis...
  
  , starring James Cagney
  James Cagney
  James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
  
  , Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
  
  , Donald Crisp
  Donald Crisp
  Donald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
  
  
• The Old Maid, starring Bette Davis
  Bette Davis
  Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
  
   and Miriam Hopkins
  Miriam Hopkins
  Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...
  
  
• On Borrowed Time
  On Borrowed Time
  On Borrowed Time is a 1939 film about the role death plays in life, and how humanity cannot live without it. It is adapted from Paul Osborn's 1938 Broadway hit play. The play, based on a novel by Lawrence Edward Watkin, has been revived twice on Broadway since its original run.Set in small-town...
  
  , starring Lionel Barrymore
  Lionel Barrymore
  Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
  
   and Cedric Hardwicke
  Cedric Hardwicke
  Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke was a noted English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly fifty years...
  
  
• ...One Third of a Nation..., starring Sylvia Sidney
  Sylvia Sidney
  Sylvia Sidney was an American actress who rose to prominence in the 1930s appearing in numerous crime dramas.-Early life:...
  
  , Lief Erickson, and Myron McCormick
  Myron McCormick
  Myron McCormick was an American actor of stage, radio and film.McCormick was born as Walter Myron McCormick in Albany, Indiana....
  
  
• On Dress Parade
  On Dress Parade
  On Dress Parade is a 1939 Warner Bros. film that marked the first time The Dead End Kids headlined a film without any other well-known actors.-Plot:...
  
  , starring The Dead End Kids
  Dead End Kids
  The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play Dead End in 1935. In 1937 producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film...
  
  
• On Your Toes
  On Your Toes
  On Your Toes is a musical with a book by Richard Rodgers, George Abbott, and Lorenz Hart, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. It was adapted into a film in 1939....
  
  , screenplay by Lawrence Riley
  Lawrence Riley
  Lawrence Riley was a successful American playwright and screenwriter. He gained fame in 1934 as the author of the Broadway hit Personal Appearance, which was turned by Mae West into the classic film Go West, Young Man , starring herself.-Biography:Riley was a Princeton University alumnus and a...
  
  
• Only Angels Have Wings
  Only Angels Have Wings
  Only Angels Have Wings is a movie directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. It is generally regarded as being among Hawks' finest films, particularly in its portrayal of the professionalism of the pilots, its atmosphere, and the flying sequences.It inspired the 1983 television...
  
  , starring Cary Grant
  Cary Grant
  Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
  
   and Jean Arthur
  Jean Arthur
  Jean Arthur was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur...
  
  
• The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
  The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
  The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...
  
  , starring Bette Davis
  Bette Davis
  Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
  
  , Errol Flynn
  Errol Flynn
  Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
  
  , Olivia de Havilland
  Olivia de Havilland
  Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
  
  
• Q Planes
  Q Planes
  Q Planes, released in the United States by Columbia Pictures as Clouds Over Europe, is a 1939 British spy film directed by Tim Whelan and Arthur B. Woods, starring Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier and Valerie Hobson. It was produced by Irving Asher with Alexander Korda as executive producer...
  
  , starring Ralph Richardson
  Ralph Richardson
  Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
  
   and Laurence Olivier
  Laurence Olivier
  Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
  
   - (U.K.)
• Range War
  Range War
  Range War is a 1939 film starring William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy. It was directed by Lesley Selander....
  
  , a Hopalong Cassidy
  Hopalong Cassidy
  Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character....
  
   western starring William Boyd
  William Boyd (actor)
  William Lawrence Boyd was an American film actor best known for portraying Hopalong Cassidy.-Biography:...
  
  
• The Return of Doctor X
  The Return of Doctor X
  The Return of Doctor X is a 1939 American science fiction-horror film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Wayne Morris, Rosemary Lane, and Humphrey Bogart as the title character. It was based on the short story "The Doctor's Secret" by William J. Makin...
  
  , horror film
  Horror film
  Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
  
   starring Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
  
  
• The Roaring Twenties
  The Roaring Twenties
  The Roaring Twenties is a 1939 crime thriller starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart and Gladys George. The movie was directed by Raoul Walsh, and written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay and Robert Rossen based on the story "The World Moves On" by Mark Hellinger...
  
  , starring James Cagney
  James Cagney
  James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
  
  , Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
  
  
• The Rules of the Game
  The Rules of the Game
  The Rules of the Game is a 1939 French film directed by Jean Renoir about upper-class French society just before the start of World War II...
  
  (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir
  Jean Renoir
  Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
  
   - (France)
• Seven Little Australians
  Seven Little Australians
  Seven Little Australians is a classic Australian children's novel by Ethel Turner. Set mainly in Sydney in the 1880s, it relates the adventures of the seven mischievous Woolcot children, their stern army father Captain Woolcot and flighty stepmother Esther.In 1994 the novel was the only book by an...
  
  directed by Arthur Greville Collins
  Arthur Greville Collins
  Arthur Greville Collins , was an American film director. He directed 8 films between 1935 and 1949.He was born in London, England, United Kingdom.-Selected filmography:* The Widow from Monte Carlo...
  
   - (Australia
  Australian films of the 1930s
  -1930s:-External links:* at the Internet Movie Database...
  
  )
• Son of Frankenstein
  Son of Frankenstein
  Son of Frankenstein is the third film in Universal Studios' Frankenstein series and the last to feature Boris Karloff as the Monster as well as the first to feature Béla Lugosi as Ygor. It is a sequel to Bride of Frankenstein....
  
  , starring Basil Rathbone
  Basil Rathbone
  Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
  
  , Boris Karloff
  Boris Karloff
  William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
  
  , Bela Lugosi
  Béla Lugosi
  Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
  
  
• The Spy in Black
  The Spy in Black
  The Spy in Black is a 1939 British film, and the first collaboration between the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They were brought together by Alexander Korda to make the World War I spy thriller by Joseph Storer Clouston into a film...
  
  , directed by Michael Powell
  Michael Powell (director)
  Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
  
  , starring Conrad Veidt
  Conrad Veidt
  Conrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
  
   and Valerie Hobson
  Valerie Hobson
  Valerie Hobson was a British actress who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s...
  
   - (U.K.)
• Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne
  John Wayne
  Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
  
  , Claire Trevor
  Claire Trevor
  Claire Trevor was an Academy Award-winning American actress. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Film Noir" because of her many appearances in "bad girl” roles in film noir and other black-and-white thrillers...
  
  , Berton Churchill
  Berton Churchill
  Berton Churchill was a Canadian actor.Born in Toronto, Ontario. As a young man interested in the theater, he appeared in stock companies as early as 1903 and later headed to New York City where he began an acting career that soon put him on the Broadway stage...
  
  , John Carradine
  John Carradine
  John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
  
  
• Stanley and Livingstone
  Stanley and Livingstone
  Stanley and Livingstone is a movie about reporter Sir Henry M. Stanley's quest for Dr. David Livingstone, a missionary presumed lost in Africa. Spencer Tracy played Stanley, Sir Cedric Hardwicke portrayed Livingstone, and other cast members included Nancy Kelly, Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn,...
  
  , starring Spencer Tracy
  Spencer Tracy
  Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
  
   and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
• The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums
  The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums
  , 1939) is a Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.The film is regarded as one of Mizoguchi's greatest pre-war achievements. Especially notable is Mizoguchi's now mature mise-en-scène compositions and extreme long takes.-Synopsis:...
  
  , directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
  Kenji Mizoguchi
  Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...
  
   - (Japan
  Japanese films of the 1930s
  An incomplete list of films produced in Japan ordered by year in the 1930s. For an alphabetical list of films see :Category:Japanese films. Also see cinema of Japan.-1930s:-External links:* at the Internet Movie Database...
  
  )
• The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
  The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
  The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is an American biographical musical comedy, released in 1939 and directed by H.C. Potter. The film stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, and Walter Brennan....
  
  , starring Fred Astaire
  Fred Astaire
  Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
  
   and Ginger Rogers
  Ginger Rogers
  Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
  
  
• Susannah of the Mounties
  Susannah of the Mounties
  Susannah of the Mounties is a novel written by Muriel Denison in 1936. In the book Susannah is sent to Regina, Saskatchewan to spend the summer with her uncle who is a Mountie...
  
  , starring Shirley Temple
  Shirley Temple
  Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
  
   and Randolph Scott
  Randolph Scott
  Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
  
  
• Tarzan Finds a Son!
  Tarzan Finds a Son!
  Tarzan Finds a Son! is a 1939 Tarzan film based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was the fourth in the MGM Tarzan series to feature Johnny Weissmuller as the "King of the Apes".-Plot:...
  
  , starring Johnny Weissmuller
  Johnny Weissmuller
  Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...
  
  
• They Made Me a Criminal
  They Made Me a Criminal
  They Made Me a Criminal is a 1939 American Warner Bros. drama crime film directed by Busby Berkeley and starring John Garfield, Claude Rains, and The Dead End Kids. It is a remake of the 1933 film The Life of Jimmy Dolan. The film was later featured in an episode of Cinema Insomnia.-Plot:Johnnie...
  
  
• They Shall Have Music
  They Shall Have Music
  They Shall Have Music is a 1939 musical film starring famed violinist Jascha Heifetz , Joel McCrea, Andrea Leeds, and Gene Reynolds...
  
  , starring Jascha Heifetz
  Jascha Heifetz
  Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...
  
  , Joel McCrea
  Joel McCrea
  Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
  
  , Andrea Leeds
  Andrea Leeds
  Andrea Leeds was an American film actress. A popular supporting player of the late 1930s, Leeds was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Stage Door...
  
  , Walter Brennan
  Walter Brennan
  Walter Brennan was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on three separate occasions, which is currently the record for most wins.-Early life:...
  
  
• The Three Musketeers
  The Three Musketeers (1939 film)
  The Three Musketeers is a 1939 musical comedy film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas, père's novel of the same name. Don Ameche stars as D'Artagnan, with the Ritz Brothers as his cowardly helpers.-Cast:*Don Ameche as D'Artagnan...
  
  , starring Don Ameche
  Don Ameche
  Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
  
   and The Ritz Brothers
• Three Smart Girls Grow Up
  Three Smart Girls Grow Up
  Three Smart Girls Grow Up is a 1939 musical comedy film starring Deanna Durbin, Nan Grey and Helen Parrish as the title sisters, with Durbin and Grey reprising their roles from Three Smart Girls, and Parrish replacing Barbara Read in the role of the middle sister.-Cast:*Deanna Durbin as Penelope...
  
  , starring Deanna Durbin
  Deanna Durbin
  Deanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias....
  
   and Robert Cummings
  Robert Cummings
  Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
  
  
• Three Texas Steers
  Three Texas Steers
  Three Texas Steers is a 1939 "Three Mesquiteers" Western B-movie starring John Wayne and Carole Landis. Wayne played the lead in eight of the fifty-one films in the series...
  
  , starring John Wayne
  John Wayne
  Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
  
  , directed by George Sherman
  George Sherman
  George Sherman was a film director of action movies beginning in the 1930s. The New York-born director's films include The Sleeping City and Tomahawk.-Filmography:*Red River Range...
  
  
• Tower of London
  Tower of London (1939 film)
  Tower of London is a 1939 black-and-white historical film and quasi-horror film released by Universal Pictures and directed by Rowland V. Lee. It stars Basil Rathbone as the future Richard III of England, and Boris Karloff as his fictitious club-footed executioner Mord. Vincent Price appears as...
  
  , starring Basil Rathbone
  Basil Rathbone
  Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
  
  , Boris Karloff
  Boris Karloff
  William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
  
  , Vincent Price
  Vincent Price
  Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
  
  
• Union Pacific
  Union Pacific (film)
  Union Pacific is a 1939 American dramatic western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea. Based on the novel Trouble Shooter by Western fiction author Ernest Haycox, the film is about the building of the railroad across the American West.-Plot:The 1862...
  
  , starring Barbara Stanwyck
  Barbara Stanwyck
  Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
  
   and Joel McCrea
  Joel McCrea
  Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
  
  , directed by Cecil B. DeMille
  Cecil B. DeMille
  Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
  
  
• The Vyborg Side
  The Vyborg Side
  The Vyborg Side is a 1939 Soviet film directed by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, the final part of trilogy about the life of a young factory worker, Maxim. The film was also released in the United States under the title New Horizons....
  
  - (U.S.S.R.
  Soviet films of 1939
  A list of films produced in the Soviet Union in 1939 .-1939:-External links:* at the Internet Movie Database...
  
  )
• The Wizard of Oz
  The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
  The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
  
  , directed by Victor Fleming
  Victor Fleming
  Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...
  
  , starring Judy Garland
  Judy Garland
  Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
  
  , Frank Morgan
  Frank Morgan
  Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
  
  , Ray Bolger
  Ray Bolger
  Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
  
  , Bert Lahr
  Bert Lahr
  Bert Lahr was an American actor and comedian. Lahr is remembered today for his roles as the Cowardly Lion and Kansas farmworker Zeke in The Wizard of Oz, but was also well-known for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and on Broadway.-Early life:Lahr was born in New York City, of German-Jewish heritage...
  
  , Jack Haley
  Jack Haley
  John Joseph "Jack" Haley was an American stage, radio, and film actor best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man and Kansas farmworker Hickory in The Wizard of Oz.-Career:...
  
  , Margaret Hamilton
  Margaret Hamilton
  Margaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...
  
  
• The Women
  The Women (1939 film)
  The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code in order for it to be released.The film...
  
  , starring Norma Shearer
  Norma Shearer
  Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
  
  , Joan Crawford
  Joan Crawford
  Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
  
  , Rosalind Russell
  Rosalind Russell
  Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
  
  
• Wuthering Heights
  Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
  Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...
  
  , directed by William Wyler
  William Wyler
  William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...
  
  , starring Merle Oberon
  Merle Oberon
  Merle Oberon was an Indian-born British actress best known for her screen performances in The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Cowboy and the Lady . She began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII . She travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel...
  
  , Laurence Olivier
  Laurence Olivier
  Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
  
  , David Niven
  David Niven
  James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
  
  , Flora Robson
  Flora Robson
  Dame Flora McKenzie Robson DBE was an English actress, renowned as a character actress, who played roles ranging from queens to villainesses.-Early life:...
  
  
• Wyoming Outlaw
  Wyoming Outlaw
  Wyoming Outlaw is a 1939 Three Mesquiteers film starring John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, and Raymond Hatton. Wayne played the lead in eight of the fifty-one films in the series...
  
  , starring John Wayne
  John Wayne
  Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
  
  , directed by George Sherman
  George Sherman
  George Sherman was a film director of action movies beginning in the 1930s. The New York-born director's films include The Sleeping City and Tomahawk.-Filmography:*Red River Range...
  
  
• You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
  You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
  You Can't Cheat an Honest Man is a comedy film starring and scripted by W. C. Fields.-Production background:Fields plays "Larsen E. Whipsnade", the owner of a shady carnival that is constantly on the run from the law. The whimsical title comes from a line spoken by Fields about ten minutes into...
  
  , starring W.C. Fields
• Young Mr. Lincoln
  Young Mr. Lincoln
  Young Mr. Lincoln is a 1939 partly fictionalized biography about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to the point where Ford destroyed unwanted takes for fear the studio...
  
  , directed by John Ford
  John Ford
  John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
  
  , starring Henry Fonda
  Henry Fonda
  Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
  
   and Alice Brady
  Alice Brady
  Alice Brady was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked up until six months before her death from cancer in 1939...
  
  

Serials

• Buck Rogers
  Buck Rogers (serial)
  Buck Rogers is a Universal serial film based on the Buck Rogers comic strip, starring Buster Crabbe as the eponymous hero, Constance Moore, Jackie Moran and Anthony Warde.-Plot:...
  
  , starrng Buster Crabbe
  Buster Crabbe
  Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe was an American athlete and actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930s and 1940s.-Birth:...
  
  
• Dick Tracy's G-Men
  Dick Tracy's G-Men
  Dick Tracy's G-Men is a 15-Chapter Republic Movie Serial based on the Dick Tracy comic strip by Chester Gould. It was directed by William Witney and John English....
  
  , starring Ralph Byrd
  Ralph Byrd
  Ralph Byrd was an American actor. He was most famous for playing the comic strip character Dick Tracy on screen, in serials, movies and television.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Daredevils of the Red Circle
  Daredevils of the Red Circle
  Daredevils of the Red Circle is a 12-Chapter Republic Movie Serial starring Charles Quigley, David Sharpe, Herman Brix and Charles Middleton. It was directed by William Witney and John English and is often considered one of the better serials produced by Republic...
  
  , starring Herman Brix and Charles B. Middleton
  Charles B. Middleton
  Charles B. Middleton was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, Charles Middleton appeared in nearly two hundred films as well as numerous plays...
  
  
• Flying G-Men
  Flying G-Men
  Flying G-Men is a Columbia Film serial. It was the sixth of the fifty seven serials released by Columbia.-Plot:Three government aviators, the "Flying G-Men" of the title - one of whom is disguised as The Black Falcon, fight to protect America from an enemy spy ring and to avenge the death of the...
  
  
• The Lone Ranger Rides Again
  The Lone Ranger Rides Again
  The Lone Ranger Rides Again is a 1939 American Republic serial. It was a sequel to Republic's earlier 1937 serial The Lone Ranger, which had been highly successful, and the thirteenth of the sixty-six serials produced by Republic....
  
  
• Mandrake the Magician
  Mandrake the Magician (serial)
  Mandrake the Magician was the seventh serial released by Columbia Pictures.-Plot:Mandrake in this serial works with conjuring tricks and sleight of hand instead of all the all-powerful hypnotism in the comics. Lothar is portrayed as an Asian with hair instead of a giant bald African...
  
  , starring Warren Hull
  Warren Hull
  John Warren Hull was an actor and TV personality, active from the 1930s through the 1960s. He was one of the most popular serial actors in the action-adventure field....
  
  
• The Oregon Trail
  The Oregon Trail (1939 serial)
  The Oregon Trail is a Universal movie serial.-Plot:Jeff Scott is sent to investigate problems with wagon trains attempting to make the journey to Oregon...
  
  
• Overland with Kit Carson
  Overland with Kit Carson
  Overland with Kit Carson was the eighth serial released by Columbia Pictures.-Plot:Overland with Kit Carson is constructed upon a seemingly simple premise. Old Western settlers are being driven off their homesteads and ranches by a combination of Indian assaults and harassing attacks by bands of...
  
  
• The Phantom Creeps
  The Phantom Creeps
  The Phantom Creeps is a 1939 serial about a mad scientist who attempts to rule the world by creating various elaborate inventions. In a dramatic fashion, foreign agents and G-Men try to seize the inventions for themselves....
  
  , starring Bela Lugosi
  Béla Lugosi
  Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
  
  
• Scouts to the Rescue
  Scouts to the Rescue
  Scouts to the Rescue is a Universal film serial.-Plot:A troop of boy scouts use a treasure map to find a stash of counterfeit notes and a lost tribe with a secret Radium deposit.-Cast:* Jackie Cooper as Bruce Scott, leader of the Scout Troop...
  
  
• Zorro's Fighting Legion
  Zorro's Fighting Legion
  Zorro's Fighting Legion is a 1939 Republic Pictures film serial consisting of twelve chapters. It features Reed Hadley as Zorro. The plot revolves around his alter-ego Don Diego's fight against the evil Don Del Oro....
  
  , starring Reed Hadley
  Reed Hadley
  Reed Hadley was an American movie, television and radio actor.Reed Hadley was born Reed Herring in Petrolia in Clay County near Wichita Falls, Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one sister, Bess Brenner. He was reared in Buffalo, New York...
  
  

Comedy film series

• Charlie Chaplin
  Charlie Chaplin
  Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
  
  (1914 – 40)
• Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...
  
  (1915–39)
• Buster Keaton
  Buster Keaton
  Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
  
  (1917 – 44)
• Laurel and Hardy
  Laurel and Hardy
  Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
  
  (1921–45)
• Our Gang
  Our Gang
  Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
  
  (1922–44)
• The Marx Brothers (1929 – 46)
• The Three Stooges (1933 – 62)

Animated short film series

• Krazy Kat
  Krazy Kat
  Krazy Kat is an American comic strip created by cartoonist George Herriman, published daily in newspapers between 1913 and 1944. It first appeared in the New York Evening Journal, whose owner, William Randolph Hearst, was a major booster for the strip throughout its run...
  
  (1925–40)
• Mickey Mouse
  Mickey Mouse
  Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
  
  (1928–53)
• Silly Symphonies
  Silly Symphonies
  Silly Symphonies is a series of animated short subjects, 75 in total, produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939, while the studio was still located at Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles...
  
  
  • The Practical Pig
  • The Ugly Duckling
• Looney Tunes
  Looney Tunes
  Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
  
  (1930–69)
• Terrytoons
  Terrytoons
  Terrytoons was an animation studio founded by Paul Terry. The studio, located in suburban New Rochelle, New York, operated from 1929 to 1968. Its most popular characters included Mighty Mouse, Gandy Goose, Sourpuss, Dinky Duck, Deputy Dawg, Luno and Heckle and Jeckle; these cartoons and all of its...
  
  (1930–64)
• Merrie Melodies
  Merrie Melodies
  Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
  
  (1931–69)
• Scrappy
  Scrappy
  Scrappy is a cartoon character created by Dick Huemer for Charles Mintz's Krazy Kat Studio. A little round-headed boy, Scrappy often found himself involved in off-beat neighborhood adventures. Usually paired with his little brother Oopy , Scrappy also had an on-again, off-again girlfriend named...
  
  (1931–41)
• Betty Boop
  Betty Boop
  Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
  
  (1932–39)
• Popeye
  Popeye
  Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
  
  (1933–57)
• Color Rhapsodies
  Color Rhapsodies
  Color Rhapsodies was a series of usually one-shot animated cartoon shorts produced by Charles Mintz for Columbia Pictures. They were launched in 1934, following the phenomenal success of Walt Disney's Technicolor Silly Symphonies...
  
  (1934–49)
• Donald Duck
  Donald Duck
  Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
  
  (1937–56)
• Walter Lantz Cartunes (also known as New Universal Cartoons or Cartune Comedies) (1938–42)
• The Captain and the Kids (1938–39)
• Goofy
  Goofy
  Goofy is a cartoon character created in 1932 at Walt Disney Productions. Goofy is a tall, anthropomorphic dog, and typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fedora. Goofy is a close friend of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck...
  
  (1939–55)
• Andy Panda
  Andy Panda
  Andy Panda is a cartoon character who starred in his own series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Walter Lantz. These "cartunes" were released by Universal Pictures from 1939 to 1947 and United Artists from 1948 to 1949. The titular character is an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a...
  
  (1939–49)
• Nertsery Rhyme Cartoons (1939 only)
• Crackpot Cruise Cartoons (1939 only)
• Lil' Eightball
  Lil' Eightball
  Lil' Eightball is a Walter Lantz character, who made his first appearance in the cartoon "The Stubborn Mule", in 1939. His final appearance was in 1939, in "A Haunting We Will Go"....
  
  (1939 only)
• Count Screwloose and J.R. (1939 only)

Births

• January 10 - Sal Mineo
  Sal Mineo
  Salvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. , was an American film and theatre actor, best known for his performance as John "Plato" Crawford opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause...
  
  , actor (d. 1976)
• February 3 - Michael Cimino
  Michael Cimino
  Michael Cimino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and author. He is best known for writing and directing Academy Award-winning The Deer Hunter and the infamous Heaven's Gate. His films are characterized by their striking visual style and controversial subject...
  
  , director; producer; screenwriter
• February 9 - Janet Suzman
  Janet Suzman
  Dame Janet Suzman, DBE is a South African-born-British actress and director.-Early life:Janet Suzman was born in Johannesburg to a Jewish family, the daughter of Betty and Saul Suzman, a wealthy importer of tobacco....
  
  , South African actress and director
• March 5 - Samantha Eggar
  Samantha Eggar
  Samantha Eggar is an English film, television and voice actress.-Early life:She was born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar in Hampstead, London to an Anglo-Irish father and a mother of Dutch and Portuguese descent...
  
  , English actress
• April 7 - Francis Ford Coppola
  Francis Ford Coppola
  Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
  
  , director; producer; screenwriter
• April 13 - Paul Sorvino
  Paul Sorvino
  Paul Anthony Sorvino is an American actor. He often portrays authority figures on both sides of the law, and is possibly best known for his roles as Paulie Cicero, a portrayal of Paul Vario in the film Goodfellas and Sgt. Phil Cerreta on the police procedural and legal drama television series Law...
  
  , actor
• May 4 - Paul Gleason
  Paul Gleason
  Paul Xavier Gleason was an American film and television actor, known for his roles on TV series such as All My Children and films such as The Breakfast Club, Trading Places and Die Hard.-Early life:...
  
  , actor (d. 2006)
• May 13 - Harvey Keitel
  Harvey Keitel
  Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
  
  , actor
• May 19 - James Fox
  James Fox
  James Fox, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:James Fox was born in London, England to theatrical agent Robin Fox and actress Angela Worthington. He is the brother of actor Edward Fox and film producer Robert Fox. The actress Emilia Fox is his niece and the actor Laurence Fox is his son. His...
  
  , English actor
• May 22 - Paul Winfield
  Paul Winfield
  Paul Edward Winfield was an American television, film, and stage actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Winfield also portrayed Dr....
  
  , actor (d. 2004)
• May 25 - Ian McKellen
  Ian McKellen
  Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
  
  , English actor
• May 30 - Michael J. Pollard
  Michael J. Pollard
  - Early life :Born Michael John Pollack, Jr. in Passaic, New Jersey, he is the son of Sonia and Michael John Pollack. He attended the Montclair Academy and the Actors Studio.- Career :...
  
  , actor
• July 22 - Terence Stamp
  Terence Stamp
  Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer.His other major roles include...
  
  , English actor
• July 30 - Peter Bogdanovich
  Peter Bogdanovich
  Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
  
  , director; producer; screenwriter
• July 31 - France Nuyen
  France Nuyen
  France Nuyen is a French actress.-Biography:Nuyen was born in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. Her mother was French, her father Vietnamese. During World War II, her mother and grandfather were persecuted by the Nazis for being Gypsies...
  
  , French actress
• August 2 - Wes Craven
  Wes Craven
  Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
  
  , director; producer; screenwriter
• August 12 - George Hamilton
  George Hamilton (actor)
  George Stevens Hamilton is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Hamilton was the youngest son of bandleader George "Spike" Hamilton and his first wife, Ann Stevens . He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Blytheville, Arkansas...
  
  , actor
• August 25 - John Badham
  John Badham
  - External links :...
  
  , director
• August 29 - Joel Schumacher
  Joel Schumacher
  Joel T. Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee, who died when Joel was four years old...
  
  , director; producer; screenwriter
• August 30 - Elizabeth Ashley
  Elizabeth Ashley
  Elizabeth Ashley is an American actress who first came to prominence as the ingenue in the Broadway play Take Her, She's Mine, which earned her a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Play.-Early life:...
  
  , actress
• September 1 - Lily Tomlin
  Lily Tomlin
  Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
  
  , actress; comedian; producer
• September 18 - Frankie Avalon
  Frankie Avalon
  Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...
  
  , singer and actor
• October 8 - Paul Hogan
  Paul Hogan
  Paul Hogan, AM is an Australian actor best known for his role as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee from the Crocodile Dundee film series, for which he won a Golden Globe award.-Early life and career:...
  
  , Australian comedian and actor
• October 22 - Tony Roberts
  Tony Roberts (actor)
  David Anthony "Tony" Roberts is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in several Woody Allen movies, usually cast as Allen's best friend.-Early life:...
  
  , actor
• October 24 - F. Murray Abraham
  F. Murray Abraham
  Fahrid Murray Abraham is an American actor. He became known during the 1980s after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus. He has appeared in many roles, both leading and supporting, in films such as All the President's Men and Scarface...
  
  , actor
• October 27 - John Cleese
  John Cleese
  John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
  
  , English actor, comedian and producer
• October 28 - Jane Alexander
  Jane Alexander
  Jane Alexander is an American actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although perhaps best known for playing the female lead in The Great White Hope on both stage and screen, Alexander has played a wide array of roles in both theater and film and has committed...
  
  , actress
• November 22 - Allen Garfield
  Allen Garfield
  Allen Garfield, born and sometimes credited as Allen Goorwitz , is an American film and television actor.-Biography:...
  
  , actor

Deaths

• January 25 - Helen Ware
  Helen Ware
  Helen Ware ; born Helen Remer, was an American stage and film actress. She had a gradual but ultimately successful Broadway stage career and by her thirties was playing the character parts for which she became famous. She began playing character parts in silent films in 1914 and continued into the...
  
  , actress
• June 9 - Owen Moore
  Owen Moore
  Owen Moore was an Irish-born actor in American films, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937.-Life and career:...
  
  , actor
• August 23 - Sidney Howard
  Sidney Howard
  Sidney Coe Howard was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for Gone with the Wind.-Early life:...
  
  , writer
• September 24 - Carl Laemmle
  Carl Laemmle
  Carl Laemmle , born in Laupheim, Württemberg, Germany, was a pioneer in American film making and a founder of one of the original major Hollywood movie studios - Universal...
  
  , producer
• October 23 - Zane Grey
  Zane Grey
  Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the Old West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his bestselling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, they later had second lives and continuing influence...
  
  , writer of novel
  Novel
  A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
  
  s
• October 28 - Alice Brady
  Alice Brady
  Alice Brady was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked up until six months before her death from cancer in 1939...
  
  , actress
• December 12 - Douglas Fairbanks
  Douglas Fairbanks
  Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
  
  , actor

Debuts

• Richard Conte
  Richard Conte
  Richard Conte was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films from the 1940s through 1970s, including I'll Cry Tomorrow and The Godfather.-Life and career:...
  
  , actor
• Greer Garson
  Greer Garson
  Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...
  
  , actress
• Anne Gwynne
  Anne Gwynne
  Anne Gwynne was an American film actress of the 1940s. Known as one of the first scream queens because of her numerous appearances in horror films, the actress-model was also one of the most popular pin-ups of World War II....
  
  , actress
• Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne...
  
  , actress
• Veronica Lake
  Veronica Lake
  Veronica Lake was an American film actress and pin-up model. She received both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her role in Sullivan's Travels and her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s, and was well-known for her peek-a-boo hairstyle...
  
  , actress