1908 in film

The year 1908 in film involved some significant events.

Events

July 3 - Malhabour Theater, the first film house in Iloilo City was opened to the public.
July 14 – D. W. Griffith becomes a director at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in New York City. Between 1908 and 1913, Griffith will direct nearly 500 films starting with the release of The Adventures of Dollie.
October 28 – The Russian Film Industry begins with the release of Russia's first fictional narrative film Stenka Razin.
November 18 – Release in France of The Assassination of the Duke of Guise, the first film with a screenplay by an eminent man of letters, the playwright Henri Lavedan; it is also directed by two men of the theatre, Charles Le Bargy and André Calmettes, features actors of the Comédie-Française, and is accompanied by a score from Saint-Saëns.
December - Thomas Edison forms the Motion Picture Patents Company, with goals of controlling production and distribution, raising theater admission prices, cooperating with censorship bodies, and preventing film stock from getting into the hands of nonmember producers.
Pathé invents the newsreel that was shown in cinemas prior to a feature film.

Notable films

A

The Adventures of Dollie, directed by D. W. Griffith – After Many Years, directed by D. W. Griffith, based on the 1864 narrative poem Enoch Arden by Alfred, Lord Tennyson – Antony and Cleopatra, directed by J. Stuart Blackton and Charles Kent, based on the 17th-century play by William Shakespeare – L'Arlésienne , directed by Albert Capellani, based on the 1869 short story by Alphonse Daudet – The Assassination of the Duke of Guise , directed by Charles le Bargy and André Calmettes –

B

Beauty and the Beast , directed by Albert Capellani, based on the 1740 fairy tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve – The Beauty of the Sleeping Wood , directed by Albert Capellani and Lucien Nonguet, based on the 1697 fairy tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault – Betrayed by a Handprint, directed by D. W. Griffith –

C

The [Call of the Wild (1908 film)|The Call of the Wild], directed by D. W. Griffith – A Christmas Carol, produced by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, based on the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens – Cupid's Pranks, directed by Edwin S. Porter –

D

The Devil, directed by D. W. Griffith – The Dog and His Various Merits , produced by Pathé Frères – Don Juan Tenorio, directed by Ricardo de Baños and Alberto Marro – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, produced by William N. Selig, based on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – The Dream of an Opium Fiend , directed by Georges Méliès – Dream of Toyland, directed by Arthur Melbourne-Cooper –

E

Excursion to the Moon , directed by Segundo de Chomón –

F

The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, directed by Francis Boggs and Otis Turner, based on the Oz books by L. Frank Baum – Fantasmagorie, directed by Émile Cohl, the first animated cartoon – Fun with the Bridal Party , directed by Georges Méliès –

I

Incident from Don Quixote , directed by Georges Méliès –

L

Legend of a Ghost , directed by Segundo de Chomón – Long Distance Wireless Photography , directed by Georges Méliès –

M

Macbeth, directed by J. Stuart Blackton, based on the 17th-century play by William Shakespeare – Magic Bricks, directed by Segundo de Chomón – The Magic Mirror , directed by Segundo de Chomón – The Man and His Bottle, directed by Lewin Fitzhamon –

N

The New Lord of the Village , directed by Georges Méliès –

O

Over the Hill to the Poorhouse, directed by Stanner E.V. Taylor –

P

Pharmaceutical Hallucinations , directed by Georges Méliès – The Physician of the Castle , produced by Pathé Frères – The Puppet's Nightmare , directed by Émile Cohl –

R

The Reprieve: An Episode in the Life of Abraham Lincoln, directed by Van Dyke Brooke – Rescued from an Eagle's Nest, directed by J. Searle Dawley, starring D. W. Griffith – Romeo and Juliet, directed by J. Stuart Blackton, based on the 16th-century play by William Shakespeare – The Runaway Horse , directed by Louis J. Gasnier –

S

Stenka Razin, directed by Vladimir Romashkov –

T

The [Taming of the Shrew (1908 film)|The Taming of the Shrew], directed by D. W. Griffith, based on the 16th-century play by William Shakespeare – The Tempest, directed by Percy Stow, based on the 17th-century play by William Shakespeare – The Thieving Hand, possibly directed by J. Stuart Blackton – Troubles of a Grass Widower , directed by and starring Max Linder –

V

A Very Fine Lady , directed by Louis Feuillade and Romeo Bosetti –

W

Whaling Afloat and Ashore, directed by Robert W. Paul –

Births

January 8 – William Hartnell, English actor
January 10
*Paul Henreid, Austrian-American actor, director, producer, and writer
*Bernard Lee, English actor
January 11 – Lionel Stander, American actor, activist, and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild
January 12 – Jean Delannoy, French actor, film editor, screenwriter and film director
January 16 – Ethel Merman, American singer and actress
January 25 – Howard Wendell, American actor
January 26 – Dennis Moore, American actor
February 5 – Peg Entwistle, British actress
February 6 – Russell Gleason, American actor
February 7 – Buster Crabbe, American two-time Olympic swimmer and actor
February 11 – Philip Dunne, American screenwriter, film director, and producer
February 15 – William Janney, American actor
February 22 – John Mills, English actor
February 26 – Tex Avery, American animator and voice actor
March 5 – Rex Harrison, English actor
March 7 – Anna Magnani, Italian actress
March 20 – Michael Redgrave, English actor and filmmaker
March 25 – Phillip Reed, American actor
March 29
*Arthur O'Connell, American actor
*Dennis O'Keefe, American actor
April 2 – Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer
April 5 – Bette Davis, American actress
April 15 – Lita Grey, American actress
April 19 – Irena Eichlerówna, Polish actress
April 24 – Marceline Day, American actress
April 30 – Eve Arden, American actress
May 2 – William Bakewell, American actor
May 7 – Valentine Dyall, English character actor
May 20 – James Stewart, American actor and military aviator
May 25 – Barbara Luddy, American actress
May 26 – Robert Morley, English actor
May 27 – Lita Chevret, American actress
May 30 – Mel Blanc, American voice actor and radio personality
May 31 – Don Ameche, American actor, comedian and vaudevillian
June 3 – Eddie Acuff, American actor
June 10 – Russell Waters, Scottish actor
June 17 – Frank Sully, American actor
July 1 – Raúl de Anda, Mexican actor, screenwriter, film producer and director
July 12 – Milton Berle, American actor and comedian
July 15 – Howard Vernon, Swiss actor and photographer
July 17 – Enzo Fiermonte, Italian actor and boxer
July 18 – Lupe Vélez, Mexican actress, singer, and dancer
July 23 – Karl Swenson, American actor
August 6 – Will Lee, American actor
August 13 – Gene Raymond, American actor
August 19 – Barry Kelley, American actor
August 30
*David Clarke, American actor
*Fred MacMurray, American actor
September 13 – Mae Questel, American actress
September 15 – Penny Singleton, American actress and labor leader
October 5 – Joshua Logan, American film director, playwright and screenwriter
October 6 – Carole Lombard, American actress
October 22 – John Sutton, British actor
October 25
*Tauno Palo, Finnish actor and singer
*Polly Ann Young, American actress
November 2 – Reginald Beckwith, English actor
November 4 – Anthony Warde, American actor
December 2 – Robert F. Simon, American character actor
December 3
*Robert Kent, American actor
*Anna Sten, Ukrainian-American actress
December 11
*Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese film director and screenwriter
*Sally Eilers, American actress
December 13 – Van Heflin, American theatre, radio and actor
December 14 – Laurence Naismith, English actor
December 18 – Celia Johnson, English actress
December 20 – Dennis Morgan, American actor and singer
December 25 – Quentin Crisp, English raconteur
December 28 – Lew Ayres, American actor

Deaths

May 23 – Peter F. Dailey, actor, singer

Film debuts

Hobart Bosworth – "The Count of Monte Cristo"
Julia Swayne Gordon – "Othello"
D.W. Griffith – actor/writer: "When Knighthood was in Flower" ; producer: "Deceived Slumming Party" ; director: "The Adventures of Dollie"
Marion Leonard – "At the Crossroads of Life"
Owen Moore – "The Guerilla"
Miriam Nesbitt – "Saved by Love"
Mack Sennett – "Old Isaacs, the Pawnbroker"
Earle Williams – "Barbara Fritchie: The Story of a Patriotic Woman"
Kathlyn Williams – "On Thanksgiving Day"