1926 in film

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 (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed).

August 6 - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system uses multiple 33⅓ rpm gramophone records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back music and sound effects synchronized with film.

October 7 - Warner Brothers release the second Vitaphone film, The Better 'Ole, starring Sydney Chaplin.

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

Notable films released in 1926

U.S.A. unless stated

3 Bad Men, directed by John Ford

The Adventures of Prince Achmed, directed by Lotte Reiniger - (Germany)

Aloma of the South Seas, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Gilda Gray & William Powell

Bardelys the Magnificent, directed by King Vidor, starring John Gilbert and Eleanor Boardman

The Bat, directed by Roland West

Battling Butler, directed by and starring Buster Keaton

Beau Geste, directed by Herbert Brenon, starring Ronald Colman and Alice Joyce

The Bells, directed by James Young, starring Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff

Beverly of Graustark, directed by Sidney Franklin, starring Marion Davies and Antonio Moreno

The Black Pirate, directed by Albert Parker, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Billie Dove

La Bohème, directed by King Vidor, starring Lillian Gish, John Gilbert and Renée Adorée

Brown of Harvard directed by Jack Conway, starring William Haines, Jack Pickford and Mary Brian

Brudeferden i Hardanger (The bridal procession in Hardanger) - (Norway)

Cab No. 13 (Einspanner Nr 13), directed by Michael Curtiz - (Germany)

Cruise of the Jasper B, starring Rod La Rocque, Mildred Harris and Snitz Edwards

Dangerous Traffic, directed by Bennett Cohen, starring Ralph Bushman, Mildred Harris and Jack Perrin

The Devil's Circus, starring Norma Shearer

The Devil's Wheel (Chyortovo koleso) - (U.S.S.R.)

Don Juan, directed by Alan Crosland, starring John Barrymore

Falešná kočička aneb Když si žena umíní (Fake Woman or When He is a She) - (Czechoslovakia)

Faust, directed by F. W. Murnau, starring Gösta Ekman and Emil Jannings - (Germany)

Flesh and the Devil, directed by Clarence Brown, starring John Gilbert and Greta Garbo

Fool's Luck, directed by Fatty Arbukle, starring Lupino Lane and George Davis

For Heaven's Sake, directed by Sam Taylor, starring Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston

The General, starring Buster Keaton

The Golden Butterfly (Der goldene Schmetterling), directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Lili Damita and Nils Asther - (Germany)

The Great Gatsby, directed by Herbert Brenon, starring Warner Baxter and Lois Wilson

The Great K & A Train Robbery, starring Tom Mix

Hands Up!

The Holy Mountain (Der heilige Berg), starring Leni Riefenstahl - (Germany)

In the Way of Zorro

Irene, starring Colleen Moore. In color sequence by Technicolor.

The Johnstown Flood, starring George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor

Kid Boots, starring Eddie Cantor and Clara Bow

The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei) - (Italy)

Loetoeng Kasaroeng, directed by L. Heuveldorp, starring Martoana - (Dutch East Indies)

Love's Berries (Yagodka lyubvi) - (U.S.S.R.)

Madame Mystery, directed by Richard Wallace and Stan Laurel, starring Theda Bara

The Magician, directed by Rex Ingram, starring Alice Terry

Manon Lescaut, UFA production; directed by Arthur Robison, starring Lya De Putti - (Germany)

Mare Nostrum, directed by Rex Ingram, starring Antonio Moreno and Alice Terry

Michel Strogoff

Miss Mend, directed by Fyodor Otsep, starring Boris Barnet - (U.S.S.R.)

Mother, directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin - (U.S.S.R.)

My Stars, directed by Fatty Arbuckle

Nana directed by Jean Renoir - (France)

Nell Gwyn directed by Herbert Wilcox; starring Dorothy Gish, Randle Ayrton - (GB)

Nelson, starring Cedric Hardwicke - (GB)

Old Ironsides directed by James Cruze; starring Esther Ralston

The Overcoat (Shinel) - (U.S.S.R.)

A Page of Madness (Kurutta Ippēji) - (Japan)

Rien que les heures (Nothing but Time), directed by Alberto Cavalcanti - (France)

The Scarlet Letter, starring Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson

The Sea Beast, starring John Barrymore, Dolores Costello and George O'Hara

The Show Off, directed by Mal St. Clair; starring Ford Sterling, Lois Wilson and Louise Brooks

The Son of the Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky

So's Your Old Man, starring W. C. Fields

The Sorrows of Satan, starring Adolphe Menjou

Sparrows, directed by William Beaudine, starring Mary Pickford

The Strong Man, starring Harry Langdon

The Student of Prague, starring Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Agnes Esterhazy and Fritz Alberti - (Germany)

Tartuffe, directed by F. W. Murnau, starring Emil Jannings - (Germany)

Tell It to the Marines, directed by George W. Hill; starring William Haines and Lon Chaney

The Temptress, starring Greta Garbo and Antonio Moreno

The Three Million Trial - (U.S.S.R.)

Torrent, starring Ricardo Cortez and Greta Garbo

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, starring Harry Langdon and Joan Crawford

A Trip to Chinatown, starring Margaret Livingston and Earle Foxe

The Triumph of the Rat, directed by Graham Cutts, starring Ivor Novello and Isabel Jeans - (GB)

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

What Price Glory?, starring Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen and Dolores del Río

The Winning of Barbara Worth, starring Ronald Colman, Vilma Bánky and Gary Cooper

A Woman of the Sea, directed by Josef von Sternberg; starring Edna Purviance

Comedy film series

Charlie Chaplin (1914–1940)

Buster Keaton (1917–1944)

Our Gang (1922–1944)

Laurel and Hardy (1921–1943)

Harry Langdon (1924–1936)

Animated short film series

Felix the Cat (1919–1936)

Koko the Clown (1919–1934)

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 (1924–1927)

Krazy Kat (1925–1940)

Un-Natural History (1925–1927)

Pete the Pup (1926–1927)

Births

January 14 - Tom Tryon, actor, novelist (died 1991)

January 15 - Maria Schell, actress (died 2005)

January 17 - Moira Shearer, actress, dancer (died 2006)

January 19 - Fritz Weaver, actor (died 2016)

January 20 - Patricia Neal, actress (died 2010)

February 2 - Lia Laats, actress (died 2004)

February 11 - Leslie Nielsen, actor, comedian (died 2010)

February 16 - John Schlesinger, director (died 2003)

February 20 - Gillian Lynne, dancer, actress, choreographer

March 6 - Andrzej Wajda, director (died 2016)

March 16 - Jerry Lewis, actor

April 7 - Prem Nazir, Indian actor (died 1989)

April 12 - Jane Withers, actress

April 14 - Gloria Jean, actress, singer

April 22 - Charlotte Rae, actress

April 30 - Cloris Leachman, actress

May 8 - Don Rickles, comedian and actor

May 11 - Frank Thring, Australian actor (died 1994)

June 1

Andy Griffith, actor (died 2012)

Marilyn Monroe, actress (died 1962)

June 28 - Mel Brooks, entertainer

July 10 - Carleton Carpenter, actor, magician, author,d songwriter

July 14 - Harry Dean Stanton, actor

July 21 - Norman Jewison, director

July 22 - Bryan Forbes, director (died 2013)

August 7 - Stan Freberg, voice actor, author, radio personality, comedian (died 2015)

August 29 - Betty Lynn, actress

September 19 - James Lipton, American actor, screenwriter, and presenter

October 17

Beverly Garland, actress (died 2008)

Julie Adams, actress

October 18 - Klaus Kinski, actor (died 1991)

November 30 - Richard Crenna, actor (died 2003)

Deaths

January 30 - Barbara La Marr, actress (born 1896)

February 6 - Carrie Clark Ward, actress (born 1862)

April 20 - Billy Quirk, actor (born 1873)

March 2 - Victory Bateman, actress (born 1865)

July 22 - Willard Louis, actor (born 1882)

August 22 - Joe Moore, actor, brother of Mary Moore, Matt Moore, Owen Moore & Tom Moore

August 23 - Rudolph Valentino, actor (born 1895)

August 30 - Eddie Lyons, American actor (born 1886)

September 8 - Kisaburo Kurihara, Japanese actor (born 1885)

September 11 - Matsunosuke Onoe, actor (born 1875)

October 31 - Harry Houdini, magician & actor (born 1874)

November 7 - Tom Forman, silent film actor & director (born 1893)

November 8 - James K Hackett, stage & silent film actor (born 1869)

November 17 - Harold Vosburgh, silent film actor (born 1870)

Film debuts

Mickey Rooney - Not to Be Trusted (as Mickey McBain)

John Wayne - Brown of Harvard

Sterling Holloway - The Battling Kangaroo