1961 in film

The year 1961 in film involved some significant events.

Events

*"Last Year at Marienbad" ("L'année dernière à Marienbad") released

Top grossing films (U.S.)

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)
source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1961.shtml

Awards

Academy Awards:

:Best Picture: "West Side Story" - Mirisch-B&P Enterprises, United Artists :Best Director: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins - "West Side Story":Best Actor: Maximilian Schell - "Judgment at Nuremberg" :Best Actress: Sophia Loren - "Two Women":Best Supporting Actor: George Chakiris - "West Side Story":Best Supporting Actress: Rita Moreno - "West Side Story":Best Foreign Language Film: "Through a Glass Darkly" ("Såsom i en spegel"), directed by Ingmar Bergman, Sweden

Golden Globe Awards:

:Drama::Best Picture: "The Guns of Navarone":Best Actor: Maximilian Schell - "Judgement at Nuremberg":Best Actress: Geraldine Page - "Summer and Smoke" :Musical or comedy::Best Picture (tie): "A Majority of One":Best Picture (tie): "West Side Story":Best Actor: Glenn Ford - "Pocketful of Miracles" :Best Actress: Rosalind Russell - "A Majority of One"

:Other:Best Director: Stanley Kramer - "Judgment at Nuremberg"

Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival)::"The Long Absence" ("Une aussi longue absence"), directed by Henri Colpi, France:"Viridiana", directed by Luis Buñuel, Spain

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival)::"Last Year at Marienbad" ("L'année dernière à Marienbad"), directed by Alain Resnais, France

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival)::"La Notte" ("The Night"), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy

Films released in 1961

*"The Absent-Minded Professor"
*"Atlantis, the Lost Continent"
*"Babes in Toyland"
*"Back Street"
*"Barabbas"
*"Blue Hawaii" starring Elvis Presley (his biggest box-office success)
*"Breakfast at Tiffany's"
*"Bridge to the Sun"
*"The Children's Hour", nominated for five Academy Awards
*"The Comancheros"
*"Come September"
*"The Devil at 4 O'Clock", starring Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy, and Gregoire Aslan
*"El Cid", starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren
*"The Errand Boy", starring Jerry Lewis
*"Fanny"
*"Flower Drum Song"
*"The Fruit Is Ripe" ("Les Filles sèment le vent")
*"Gidget Goes Hawaiian"
*"Goodbye Again"
*"The Guns of Navarone"
*"Hoodlum Priest"
*"The Hustler"
*"Judgment at Nuremberg"
*"King of Kings"
*"Khovanshchina"
*"La dolce vita" (U.S. release)
*"La Notte" Golden Bear winner
*"The Ladies Man", starring Jerry Lewis
*"The Last Sunset"
*"The Last Time I Saw Archie"
*"Last Year at Marienbad", Golden Lion winner
*"The Long Absence" ("Une aussi longue absence") - Palme d'Or winner
*"Lover Come Back"
*"A Majority of One"
*"The Mark"
*"The Misfits", starring Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable in their last screen appereance
*"Mothra"
*"One-Eyed Jacks"
*"One Hundred and One Dalmatians"
*"One, Two, Three"', starring James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, and Arlene Francis
*"The Outsider", a biography starring Tony Curtis as famous WWII marine, Ira Hayes
*"The Parent Trap"
*"Paris Blues"
*"The Pit and the Pendulum" with Vincent Price
*"Pocketful of Miracles"
*"Il Posto"
*"Question 7"
*"A Raisin in the Sun"
*"Return to Peyton Place" (film mentioned in article)
*"The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone"
*"Sennin Buraku"
*"Scarlet Sails (Алые Паруса)"
*"Splendor in the Grass"
*"Summer and Smoke"
*"Teen Kanya"
*"Through a Glass Darkly" - ("Såsom i en spegel")
*"Town Without Pity"
*"Two Rode Together", starring James Stewart and Richard Widmark
*"Victim"
*"Viridiana" - Palme d'Or winner
*"West Side Story"
*"Wild in the Country" starring Elvis Presley
*"Two Women" (U.S. release)
*"Yojimbo"

hort Film Series

*"Looney Tunes" (1930-1969)
*"Terrytoons" (1930-1964)
*"Merrie Melodies" (1931-1969)
*"Bugs Bunny" (1940-1962)
*"Yosemite Sam" (1945-1963)
*"Speedy Gonzales" (1953-1968)
*"Goofy" (1961)

Births

*January 5 - Suzy Amis, actress
*January 13 - Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress
*February 11 - Carey Lowell, actress
*April 6 - Gene Eugene, actor, lead singer of Adam Again
*June 9 - Michael J. Fox, actor (in Back to the Future trilogy)
*July 15 - Forest Whitaker, actor
*July 18 - Elizabeth McGovern, actress
*October 31 - Peter Jackson, director
*November 19 - Meg Ryan, US actress

Deaths

*February 2 - Anna May Wong, 56, American actress
*February 17 - Nita Naldi, 63, American actress
*March 6 - George Formby, 56, British actor, entertainer
*March 12 - Belinda Lee, 25, British actress
*May 4 - Anita Stewart, 66, American actress
*May 13 - Gary Cooper, 60, American actor
*May 22 - Joan Davis, 53, American actress
*June 17 - Jeff Chandler, 42, American actor
*August 4 - Maurice Tourneur, 88, French film director
*August 27 - Gail Russell, 36, American actress
*August 30 - Charles Coburn, 84, American actor
*September 10 - Leo Carrillo, 81, American actor
*September 22 - Marion Davies, 64, American actress
*October 11 - Chico Marx, 74, American actor, member of the Marx Brothers
*October 18 - Tsuru Aoki, 69, Japanese-born American actress
*October 22 - Joseph Schenck, 82, Russian-born American pioneer motion picture executive
*November 15 - Elsie Ferguson, 78, American stage and film actress
*November 24 - Ruth Chatterton, 67, American actress