1959 in film - Definition and Overview

Events

• The Three Stooges make their 180th and last short film, Sappy Bullfighters.
• September 18 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx marries his second wife, Barbara Blakely.
• November 18 - William Wyler's film Ben-Hur premieres at Loew's Theater in New York City.
• Sammy Davis, Jr. and May Britt start dating.

Top grossing films

North America

1. Auntie Mame
2. The Shaggy Dog
3. Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon
4. Pillow Talk
5. Imitation of Life
6. The Nun's Story
7. tie Anatomy of a Murder and Hitchcock's North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint
8. Sleeping Beauty
9. Rio Bravo

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Ben-Hur - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Best Actor: Charlton Heston - Ben-Hur
• Best Actress: Simone Signoret - Room at the Top

Births

• January 22 - Linda Blair, actress
• April 15 - Emma Thompson, British actor
• July 29 - Sanjay Dutt, Indian actor
• November 14 - Paul McGann, British actor
• December 31 - Val Kilmer, American actor

Deaths

• February 4 - Una O'Connor, actress
• March 3 - Lou Costello, comedian and actor, half of Abbott and Costello comedy team
• February 5 - Gwili Andre, actress
• June 16 - George Reeves, actor
• June 18 - Ethel Barrymore, actress
• October 14 - Errol Flynn, actor
• November 20 – Sylvia Lopez, European actress
• November 25 - Gérard Philipe, French actor

Other movies released

• Ballad of a Soldier (Ballada o soldate)
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• KAPO'
• The Horse Soldiers
• Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston
• The Killer Shrews
• Date with Death
• Apur Sansar
• The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
• The 400 Blows
• General Della Rovere Golden Lion winner
• The Great War Golden Lion winner
• Black Orpheus Palm d'Or winner
• Les Cousins Golden Bear winner
• Porgy and Bess
• Suddenly, Last Summer
• Hiroshima. Mon Amour
• Room at the Top
• Donald in Mathmagic Land (short subject)
• 4D Man
• Hercules Unchained (originally: Ercole e la regina di Lidia)