The year 1959 in film involved some significant events.

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 (U.S.)

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)
source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1959.shtml

Awards

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Ben-Hur - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Best Director: William Wyler - Ben-Hur

Best Actor: Charlton Heston - Ben-Hur

Best Actress: Simone Signoret - Room at the Top

Best Supporting Actor: Hugh Griffith - Ben-Hur

Best Supporting Actress: Shelley Winters - The Diary of Anne Frank

Best Foreign Language Film: Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), directed by Marcel Camus, Brazil / France / Italy

Golden Globe Awards:

Drama:

Best Picture: Ben-Hur

Best Actor: Anthony Franciosa - Career

Best Actress: Elizabeth Taylor - Suddenly, Last Summer

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture (tie): Some Like It Hot

Best Picture (tie): Porgy and Bess

Best Actor: Jack Lemmon - Some Like It Hot

Best Actress: Marilyn Monroe - Some Like It Hot

Other

Best Director: William Wyler - Ben-Hur

Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):

Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), directed by Marcel Camus, France

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival):

Il Generale della Rovere (General della Rovere), directed by Roberto Rosselini, Italy / France

La grande guerra (The Great War), directed by Mario Monicelli, Italy / France

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):

Les cousins (The Cousins), directed by Claude Chabrol, France

Films released in 1959

• The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock
• The 39 Steps
• 4D Man
• The 400 Blows
• Anatomy of a Murder
• The Angry Red Planet
• Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)
• The Atomic Submarine
• Ballad of a Soldier (Ballada o soldate)
• Ben-Hur
• Beyond This Place (also known as Web of Evidence)
• The Big Fisherman
• Black Orpheus Palme d'Or winner
• Career
• Carry On Teacher
• La Casa del Terror
• Les Cousins
• A Date with Death
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• Donald in Mathmagic Land (short subject)
• Don't Give Up The Ship
• The FBI Story
• Fires on the Plain
• The Five Pennies
• The Giant Behemoth
• Il Generale della Rovere
• Gidget
• Girls Town
• La grande guerra (The Great War)
• The Hanging Tree
• Happy Anniversary
• Hercules and the Queen of Lydia (also known as Ercole e la regina di Lidia and Hercules Unchained)
• Hiroshima Mon Amour
• A Hole in the Head
• The Horse Soldiers
• The Hound of the Baskervilles
• House on Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price
• Imitation of Life
• The Jazz Singer (performance)
• Journey to the Center of the Earth
• John Paul Jones
• Kapň
• Killer Shrews
• The Last Angry Man
• Last Train from Gun Hill
• Magic Boy (Sh?nen Sarutobi Sasuke)
• The Miracle
• Mise Éire
• The Mummy
• North by Northwest
• The Nun's Story
• Operation Petticoat
• On the Beach
• Pillow Talk
• Plan 9 from Outer Space
• Porgy and Bess
• Pork Chop Hill
• Rio Bravo
• Room at the Top
• Sampo (The Day the Earth Froze)
• Sapphire
• The Shaggy Dog
• Sleeping Beauty (Walt Disney animation)
• Solomon and Sheba
• Some Like It Hot
• It Started with a Kiss
• Suddenly, Last Summer
• Terror is a Man
• Wild Strawberries (U.S. release)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil
• The Young Philadelphians

Short 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)
• The Three Stooges (1934-1959)

Births

• January 22 - Linda Blair, actress
• March 18 - Irene Cara, actress, singer
• April 15 - Emma Thompson, British actor
• July 29 - Sanjay Dutt, Indian actor
• October 21 - Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
• November 14 - Paul McGann, British actor
• December 31 - Val Kilmer, American actor

Deaths

• February 1 - Madame Sul-Te-Wan, actress
• 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
• October 23 - Gerda Lundequist, actress
• November 20 ? Sylvia Lopez, European actress
• November 25 - Gérard Philipe, French actor

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