1961 in film

Years in film
1870s
1880s
1890s
1890 • 1891 • 1892 • 1893 • 1894 1895 • 1896 • 1897 • 1898 • 1899
1900s
1900 • 1901 • 1902 • 1903 • 1904 1905 • 1906 • 1907 • 1908 • 1909
1910s
1910 • 1911 • 1912 • 1913 • 1914 1915 • 1916 • 1917 • 1918 • 1919
1920s
1920 • 1921 • 1922 • 1923 • 1924 1925 • 1926 • 1927 • 1928 • 1929
1930s
1930 • 1931 • 1932 • 1933 • 1934 1935 • 1936 • 1937 • 1938 • 1939
1940s
1940 • 1941 • 1942 • 1943 • 1944 1945 • 1946 • 1947 • 1948 • 1949
1950s
1950 • 1951 • 1952 • 1953 • 1954 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959
1960s
1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1963 • 1964 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969
1970s
1970 • 1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979
1980s
1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989
1990s
1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999
2000s
2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009
2010s
2010 • 2011 • 2012 2013 and beyond

The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

(* ) After theatrical re-issue(s)

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

U.S.A. unless stated

A

• The Absent-Minded Professor, starring Fred MacMurray
• Accattone, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini - (Italy)
• Ada, starring Dean Martin and Susan Hayward
• All in a Night's Work, starring Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine
• Angel Baby
• Atlantis, the Lost Continent

B

• Babes in Toyland
• Bachelor in Paradise, starring Bob Hope and Lana Turner
• Back Street, starring Susan Hayward, John Gavin and Vera Miles
• Ballad of a Soldier - International release
• Barabbas, starring Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano and Jack Palance - (Italy)
• Blast of Silence
• The Blonde from Buenos Aires (Una Americana en Buenos Aires), starring Mamie Van Doren and Jean-Pierre Aumont - (Argentina/France)
• Blue Hawaii starring Elvis Presley (his biggest box-office success)
• Boatmen of Thessaloniki (Солунските Атентатори) - (Yugoslavia)
• Breakfast at Tiffany's, directed by Blake Edwards, starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard
• Bridge to the Sun, starring Carroll Baker and James Shigeta - (France/U.S.)
• By Love Possessed, starring Lana Turner, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., George Hamilton

C

• Carry On Regardless - (U.K.)
• Cash on Demand - (U.K.)
• The Children's Hour, starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner and Miriam Hopkins who also starred in the original film These Three
• The Comancheros, starring John Wayne
• Come September, starring Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida

D

• The Day the Earth Caught Fire, starring Edward Judd - (U.K.)
• The Devil at 4 O'Clock, starring Frank Sinatra, Spencer Tracy, Gregoire Aslan
• A Difficult Life (Una vita difficile) - (Italy)
• Divorce Italian Style (Divorzio all'italiana), starring Marcello Mastroianni - (Italy)
• La Dolce Vita (U.S. release)

E

• El Cid, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren - (U.S./Italy)
• The End of Summer (Kohayagawa-ke no aki), directed by Yasujirō Ozu - (Japan)
• The Errand Boy, starring Jerry Lewis
• The Exiles - documentary

F

• Fanny, starring Charles Boyer and Leslie Caron
• The Fascist (Il Federale) - (Italy)
• Flower Drum Song, starring Nancy Kwan
• The Fruit is Ripe (Les Filles sèment le vent) - (France)

G

• The George Raft Story, starring Jayne Mansfield and Ray Danton
• Gidget Goes Hawaiian, starring Deborah Walley
• Girl with a Suitcase (La Ragazza con la valigia), starring Claudia Cardinale - (Italy)
• Goodbye Again, starring Ingrid Bergman and Yves Montand - (France/U.S.)
• Gorgo - (U.K.)
• Gunga Jumna, starring Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala - (India)
• The Guns of Navarone, directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn - (U.K.)

H

• Harry and the Butler (Harry og kammertjeneren) - (Denmark)
• Havoc in Heaven (aka The Monkey King), an animated films - (China)
• Hogs and Warships (Buta to gunkan), directed by Shohei Imamura - (Japan)
• Homicidal, directed by William Castle
• Hoodlum Priest, starring Don Murray
• The Human Condition (Ningen no jōken), directed by Masaki Kobayashi - (Japan)
• The Hustler, directed by Robert Rossen, starring Paul Newman with Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Jackie Gleason

I

• The Innocents, starring Deborah Kerr - (U.K.)
• Invasion of the Neptune Men - (Japan)

J

• Judgment at Nuremberg, starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift

K

• King of Kings, directed by Nicholas Ray, starring Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Ryan, Rip Torn

L

• The Ladies Man, starring Jerry Lewis
• The Last Judgement (Il Giudizio universale), directed by Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
• The Last Sunset, starring Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, Dorothy Malone
• The Last Time I Saw Archie, starring Robert Mitchum and Jack Webb
• Last Year at Marienbad (L'Année dernière à Marienbad), directed by Alain Resnais, starring Delphine Seyrig - Golden Lion winner - (France)
• Leon Morin, Priest (Léon Morin, prêtre), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo - (France)
• Lola, directed by Jacques Demy, starring Anouk Aimée - (France)
• The Long Absence (Une aussi longue absence) - Palme d'Or winner - (France)
• The Long and the Short and the Tall, starring Laurence Harvey and Richard Harris - (U.K.)
• Look in Any Window, starring Paul Anka and Ruth Roman
• Lover Come Back, starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson

M

• Mad Dog Coll (Gene Hackman's debut)
• A Majority of One, starring Rosalind Russell and Alec Guinness
• The Mark - (U.K.)
• The Mask - (Canada)
• The Miracle of Father Malachia (Das Wunder des Malachias), directed by Bernhard Wicki - (West Germany)
• The Misfits, directed by John Huston, starring Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable (in both their last screen roles) and Montgomery Clift
• Mother Joan of the Angels (Matka Joanna od Aniołów) - (Poland)
• Mothra, directed by Ishirō Honda - (Japan)

N

• Nazrana, starring Raj Kapoor and Vyjayanthimala - (India)
• Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile - (Italy)
• No Love for Johnnie, starring Peter Finch - (U.K.)
• La Notte (The Night), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau - Golden Bear winner - (Italy/France)

O

• One-Eyed Jacks, directed by and starring Marlon Brando
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians
• One, Two, Three', directed by Billy Wilder, starring James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Arlene Francis
• The Outsider, a biography starring Tony Curtis as famous World War II marine Ira Hayes

P

• The Parent Trap, starring Hayley Mills and Brian Keith
• Paris Belongs to Us (Paris nous appartient) - (France)
• Paris Blues, starring Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Diahann Carroll
• Parrish, starring Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Claudette Colbert
• The Pit and the Pendulum with Vincent Price
• Plácido, directed by Luis García Berlanga - (Spain)
• Please, Not Now!, starring Brigitte Bardot - (France)
• Pocketful of Miracles, final film of director Frank Capra, starring Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Hope Lange
• Il Posto, directed by Ermanno Olmi - (Italy)

Q

• Question 7 - (U.S./West Germany)

R

• A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee
• The Rebel, starring Tony Hancock - (U.K.)
• Return to Peyton Place, directed by José Ferrer, starring Carol Lynley, Tuesday Weld, Eleanor Parker
• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, starring Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty - (U.K.)

S

• Scarlet Sails (Алые Паруса) 0 (U.S.S.R.)
• The Second Time Around, starring Debbie Reynolds, Andy Griffith, Juliet Prowse
• Sennin Buraku (Hermit Village) - (Japan)
• The Sins of Rachel Cade, starring Angie Dickinson
• A Soldier's Prayer - (Japan)
• Something Wild
• Splendor in the Grass, starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty
• The Steamroller and the Violin (Katok i skripka), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky - (U.S.S.R.)
• Summer and Smoke, starring Geraldine Page and Laurence Harvey

T

• Taste of Fear, starring Susan Strasberg - (U.K.)
• Then Nilavu, starring Gemini Ganesan and Vyjayanthimala - (India)
• A Taste of Honey, directed by Tony Richardson, starring Rita Tushingham - (U.K.)
• Three Daughters (Teen Kanya), directed by Satyajit Ray - (India)
• Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel), directed by Ingmar Bergman - (Sweden)
• Town Without Pity, starring Kirk Douglas
• Two Living, One Dead directed by Anthony Asquith (UK/Sweden)
• Two Rode Together, starring James Stewart and Richard Widmark
• Two Women (U.S. release)

U

• Underworld U.S.A.

V

• Victim, directed by Basil Dearden, starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Sims - (U.K.)
• Viridiana, directed by Luis Buñuel - Palme d'Or winner - (Mexico/Spain)
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, starring Walter Pidgeon

W

• We Were Young (A byahme mladi) - (Bulgaria)
• West Side Story, starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris
• Whistle Down the Wind, directed by Bryan Forbes, starring Hayley Mills and Alan Bates - (U.K.)
• Wild in the Country starring Elvis Presley with Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, Millie Perkins
• A Woman Is a Woman (Une Femme est une femme), directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina - (France)

Y

• Yojimbo, directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshirō Mifune - (Japan)
• The Young Ones, starring Cliff Richard and The Shadows - (U.K.)
• The Young Savages, starring Burt Lancaster

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)
• Goofy (1961)

Births

• January 13 - Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress
• February 11 - Carey Lowell, American actress
• February 21 - Christopher Atkins, American actor
• April 3 - Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
• April 6 - Gene Eugene, Canadian actor, lead singer of Adam Again (died 2000)
• April 14 - Robert Carlyle, Scottish actor
• April 23 - Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson, Icelandic actor
• May 6 - George Clooney American actor, writer, director, producer
• May 14 - Tim Roth, English actor
• June 9 - Michael J. Fox, Canadian actor
• July 15 - Forest Whitaker, American actor
• July 18 - Elizabeth McGovern, American actress
• July 30 - Laurence Fishburne, American actor
• August 2 - Bruce Mahoney, Irish-American actor and film director
• October 31 - Peter Jackson, New Zealand director
• November 4 - Ralph Macchio, American actor
• November 14 - D. B. Sweeney, American actor
• November 19 - Meg Ryan, American actress
• November 29 - Tom Sizemore, American actor

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 13 - Maya Deren, 44, American experimental filmmaker
• 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

Film debuts

• Warren Beatty
• Louis Gossett, Jr.
• Gene Hackman
• Burt Reynolds

References