1939 in film
Events
Movie historians and film buffs often look back on the year 1939 as "the greatest year in film history." Hollywood was at the height of its Golden Age, and this particular year saw the release of an unusually large number of exceptional movies, many of which have been honored as memorable classics when multitudes of other films of the era have been largely forgotten.
Top Grossing Films 1939
- Gone with the Wind
- The Wizard of Oz
- Ninotchka
- The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
Movies Released
Movies released in 1939 include:
- Ask A Police Man
- Another Thin Man
- At The Circus
- Babes In Arms
- Barricade
- Bachelor Mother
- Beau Geste
- Dark Victory
- Daughter of The Tong
- Destry Rides Again
- Dodge City
- Drums Along the Mohawk, directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert
- Everything Happens At Night
- Fools For Scandal
- Frontier Marshall
- Gone with the Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh
- Goodbye, Mr. Chips, starring Robert Donat
- Gunga Din, starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Sam Jaffe
- Gulliver's Travels
- Hollywood Cavalcade
- Jesse James
- King Of The Underworld
- Mexicali Rose
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington starring James Stewart
- Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire and Bela Lugosi
- Of Mice and Men
- The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir
- Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Berton Churchill
- The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver and Walter Brennan
- The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr
- The Women, starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell
- Wuthering Heights, starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven and Flora Robson
Births
- January 10 - Sal Mineo, actor (+ 1976)
- February 3 - Michael Cimino, director
- February 9 - Janet Suzman, actress
- February 23 - Peter Fonda, actor
- March 5 - Samanth Eggar, actress
- March 26 - James Caan, actor
- April 7 - Francis Ford Coppola, director, producer, writer
- April 12 - Alan Ayckbourn, writer
- April 13 - Paul Sorvino, actor
- May 13 - Harvey Keitel, actor
- May 19 - Nancy Kwan, actress
- May 25 - Ian McKellen, actor
- May 30 - Michael J. Pollard, actor
- July 22 - Terence Stamp, actor
- July 30 - Peter Bogdanovich, director
- July 31 - France Nuyen, actress
- August 2 - Wes Craven, director, producer, writer
- August 12 - George Hamilton, actor
- August 25 - John Badham, director
- August 29 - Joel Schumacher, director
- August 30 - Elizabeth Ashley, actress
- September 1 - Lily Tomlin, actress
- September 18 - Frankie Avalon, actor, singer
- October 8 - Paul Hogan, actor
- October 22 - Tony Roberts, actor
- October 24 - F. Murray Abraham, actor
- October 27 - John Cleese, actor
- October 28 - Jane Alexander, actress
- November 22 - Allen Garfield, actor
Deaths
