1926 in film

The following is an overview of 1926 in film, including significant events, a list of films released, and notable births and deaths.

Fandom movies:1926

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

The top ten 1926 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Rank	Title	Distributor	Domestic rentals
1	What Price Glory?	Fox Film	$2,000,000
2	The Black Pirate	United Artists	$1,700,000
3	Beau Geste	Paramount	$1,500,000
4	The Volga Boatman	Producers Distributing Corporation	$1,275,375
5	Don Juan	Warner Bros.	$1,258,000
6	Tell It to the Marines	MGM	$1,250,000
7	Sparrows	United Artists	$966,878
8	The Better 'Ole	Warner Bros.	$955,000
9	The Son of the Sheik	United Artists	$820,000
10	The Sea Beast	Warner Bros.	$814,000

Events

February – The oldest surviving animated feature film is released in the Weimar Republic, directed by Lotte Reiniger. It is called The Adventures of Prince Achmed.
August 5 – Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system uses multiple rpm gramophone records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back music and sound effects synchronized with film.
August 23 – Rudolph Valentino, whose film The Son of the Sheik is currently playing, dies at the age of 31 in New York. Riots occur at the funeral parlor as thousands of people try to see his body.
October 7 – Warner Brothers release the second Vitaphone film, The Better 'Ole, starring Sydney Chaplin.
December 5 – The 1925 Soviet film Battleship Potemkin premieres in the United States, at the Biltmore Theatre in Manhattan.
Theodore W. Case and E. I. Sponable demonstrate their sound-on-film experiments to William Fox of the Fox Film Corporation. The Fox-Case Corp. is formed in an effort to exploit the system, which is given the name Movietone. Fox begin to create Movietone News newsreels at this time. One of the first newsreels is of Charles Lindbergh's takeoff for Paris.
Al Jolson films A Plantation Act, one of the first unreleased talkies and a test film for The Jazz Singer
Ang Tatlong Hambog, the first Filipino film to feature a kissing scene, is released in the Philippines.

Notable films released in 1926

For the complete list of US film releases for the year, see United States films of 1926

U

Unknown Treasures, directed by Archie Mayo, based on the short story The House Behind the Hedge by Mary Spain Vigus

V

The Volga Boatman, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring William Boyd

W

What Price Glory?, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen and Dolores del Río
While London Sleeps, directed by Howard Bretherton, starring Rin Tin Tin
Whispering Wires, directed by Albert Ray, based on the novel by Henry Leverage
The Winning of Barbara Worth, directed by Henry King, starring Ronald Colman, Vilma Bánky and Gary Cooper
A Woman of the Sea, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Edna Purviance

Y

Young April, directed by Donald Crisp, starring Joseph Schildkraut and Bessie Love

Comedy film series

Animated short film series

Felix the Cat
Koko the Clown
Alice Comedies
* Alice on the Farm
* Alice's Balloon Race
* Alice's Orphan
* Alice's Little Parade
* Alice's Mysterious Mystery
* Alice Charms the Fish
* Alice's Monkey Business
* Alice in the Wooly West
* Alice the Fire Fighter
* Alice Cuts the Ice
* Alice Helps the Romance
* Alice's Spanish Guitar
* Alice's Brown Derby
* Alice the Lumber Jack
Koko's Song Car Tunes
Krazy Kat
Un-Natural History
''Pete the Pup''

Births

January 1 – Zena Marshall, British actress
January 6 – Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian-American actor and 1955 Mr. Universe
January 14 – Tom Tryon, actor and novelist
January 15
*Jack Eagle, American actor
*Maria Schell, actress
January 17 – Moira Shearer, actress and dancer
January 18 – Salah Zulfikar, actor
January 19 – Fritz Weaver, actor
January 20 – Patricia Neal, actress
January 25 – Ted White, American stuntman and actor
January 30 – Ramesh Deo, Indian actor
February 1 – Nancy Gates, actress
February 2 – Lia Laats, actress
February 11 – Leslie Nielsen, actor and comedian
February 16
*David Frankham, retired British actor
*John Schlesinger, director
February 20 – Gillian Lynne, dancer, actress and choreographer
February 23 – Dorothy Steel, American actress
February 26 - Doris Belack, American character actress
March 1 – Robert Clary, French-American actor and singer
March 5 – Joan Shawlee, American actress
March 6 – Andrzej Wajda, director
March 13 - Lenny Montana, American actor
March 16 – Jerry Lewis, American actor
March 18 – Peter Graves, American actor
March 21 – André Delvaux, Belgian director
March 25 – Gene Shalit, American film critic
March 30 – Peter Marshall, American game show host, television and radio personality, singer and actor
April 5 – Roger Corman, American director
April 7
* Prem Nazir, Indian actor
* Gloria Warren, American actress
April 8
*Shecky Greene, American comedian
*Shirley Mills, American actress
April 12 – Jane Withers, American actress
April 14 – Gloria Jean, American actress and singer
April 22 – Charlotte Rae, American actress
April 24 - Marilyn Erskine, American actress
April 25 – Patricia Castell, Argentine actress
April 27 - Leo De Lyon, American actor
April 29 - Leonard Fenton, English actor and director
April 30 – Cloris Leachman, American actress
May 3 - Ann B. Davis, American actress
May 4
*Enzo Garinei, Italian actor
*Christine White, American actress
May 5 – Bing Russell, American actor, minor-league baseball club owner
May 7 – Val Bisoglio, American character actor
May 8
*David Attenborough, English broadcaster
*David Hurst, German actor
*Don Rickles, American comedian and actor
May 10
*Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, American film personality, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter
*Vladimir Tatosov, Russian actor
May 11
*Yvonne Furneaux, French actress
*Frank Thring, Australian actor
May 12 – Marilyn Knowlden, American child actress
May 17 - Maria Duval, Argentine actress
May 19 - Michelle Marquais, French actress
May 24 - Stanley Baxter, Scottish actor and comedian
May 25 – Claude Akins, American actor
May 27 – Margaret Barton, British actress
May 30 – Nina Agapova, Russian actress
June 1
*Andy Griffith, American actor
*Marilyn Monroe, American actress
*Aubrey Morris, British actor
June 5 – Lu Leonard, American actress
June 9
* Mona Freeman, American actress, painter
* Georgia Holt, American actress, model
June 10
*June Haver, American actress, singer, dancer
*Lionel Jeffries, English actor, director and screenwriter
June 13 – Paul Lynde, American comedian and actor
June 15 - Jesús Guzmán, Spanish actor
June 17 - Elio Pandolfi, Italian actor, radio personality and voice actor
June 28 – Mel Brooks, American actor, comedian and filmmaker
July 5 – Diana Lynn, American actress
July 10
*Carleton Carpenter, American actor, magician, author and songwriter
*Fred Gwynne, American actor
July 12 - Sandy Ward, American actor
July 14 – Harry Dean Stanton, American character actor
July 15 - Albert Popwell, American actor
July 20 – Diane Hart, English actress, inventor
July 21 – Norman Jewison, Canadian director
July 22 – Bryan Forbes, English director
July 23 - Rae Allen, American actress, director and singer
August 3 – Rona Anderson, Scottish actress
August 6 - Frank Finlay, British actor
August 7 – Stan Freberg, American voice actor, author, radio personality and comedian
August 11 - Charles Cooper, American actor
August 12 - Douglas Croft, American actor
August 14 - Margot Benacerraf, Venezuelan film director
August 18 - John Finnegan, American actor
August 28 - Wendy Playfair, Australian actress
August 29 – Betty Lynn, American actress
September 7 - Don Messick, American voice actor
September 19 – James Lipton, American actor, screenwriter and presenter
September 23 - Henry Silva, American actor
September 25 - Aldo Ray, actor
September 26 - Julie London, American singer, actress
September 28 - Ralph Ahn, American actor
October 10 - Richard Jaeckel, American character actor
October 15
*Jeffrey Hayden, American director and producer
*Jean Peters, American actress
October 17
*Julie Adams, American actress
*Beverly Garland, American actress
October 18 – Klaus Kinski, German actor
October 25 – Biff McGuire, American actor
November 1 – Betsy Palmer, American actress
November 4 – Laurence Rosenthal, American film composer
November 13 – Don Gordon, American actor
November 17 – Robert Brown, American actor
November 20 – Judith Magre, French actress
November 25
*Harry Landis, British actor and director
*Terry Kilburn, English-American actor
November 26 – Ed Williams, American actor
November 30 – Richard Crenna, American actor
December 1
*Allyn Ann McLerie, American actress
*Robert Symonds, American actor
December 11 – Richard Devon, American actor
December 17 - Ron Graham, British-Australian character actor
December 18 – Walter Lassally, German-born British-Greek cinematographer
December 27 – Jerome Courtland, American actor, director, producer

Deaths

January 30
*Harold M. Shaw, film director
*Barbara La Marr, actress
February 6 – Carrie Clark Ward, actress
April 20 – Billy Quirk, actor
March 2 – Victory Bateman, actress
May 7 - Lillian Lawrence, actress
July 22 – Willard Louis, actor
July 23 - Charles Avery
August 22 – Joe Moore, actor, brother of Mary Moore, Matt Moore, Owen Moore & Tom Moore
August 23 – Rudolph Valentino, actor
August 30 – Eddie Lyons, American actor
September 8 – Kisaburo Kurihara, Japanese actor
September 11 – Matsunosuke Onoe, actor
October 31 – Harry Houdini, magician & actor
November 7 – Tom Forman, silent film actor & director
November 8 – James K Hackett, stage & silent film actor
November 17 – Harold Vosburgh, silent film actor

Film debuts

Richard Alexander – Brown of Harvard
Harry Beresford – The Quarterback
Margaret Bert – The Blackbird
Eric Blore – The Great Gatsby
El Brendel – The Campus Flirt
Frank Darien – Old Ironsides
Roland Drew – Fascinating Youth
Josephine Dunn – Fascinating Youth
Jean Fenwick – Fascinating Youth
Dwight Frye – Exit Smiling
Cedric Hardwicke – Nelson
Doris Hill – Tom and His Pals
Russell Hopton – Ella Cinders
Marcia Mae Jones – Mannequin
Nancy Kelly – The Untamed Lady
Natalie Kingston – Wet Paint
Elissa Landi – London
Ivan Lebedeff – Fine Manners
Jack Luden – Fascinating Youth
Barton MacLane – The Quarterback
John Merton – The Quarterback
Nell O'Day – Twinkletoes
Kathleen O'Malley – My Old Dutch
Franklin Pangborn – Exit Smiling
Elizabeth Patterson – The Boy Friend
Jack Pennick – The Blue Eagle
Walter Pidgeon – Mannequin
Nina Quartero – The Sorrows of Satan
Buddy Rogers – Fascinating Youth
Sylvia Sidney – The Sorrows of Satan
Charles Starrett – The Quarterback
Arthur Stone – The Girl from Montmartre
Thelma Todd – Fascinating Youth
Maidel Turner – The Boy Friend
John Wayne – ''Brown of Harvard''