The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.
The highest-grossing 1961 films from countries outside of North America.
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 -
Judgment 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
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
And Love Has Vanished (Dvoje) - (Yugoslavia)
Angel Baby, starring Salome Jens and Mercedes McCambridge
Antigone, starring Irene Papas - (Greece)
Armored Command, starring Howard Keel and Tina Louise
The Artillery Sergeant Kalen (Ogniomistrz Kaleń) - (Poland)
The Assassin (L'Assassino), starring Marcello Mastroianni - (Italy)
Atlantis, the Lost Continent, starring John Dall
B
Babes in Toyland, starring Ray Bolger, Tommy Sands, Annette Funicello
Bachelor in Paradise, starring Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Janis Paige, Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss
Back Street, starring Susan Hayward, John Gavin, Vera Miles
Bandits of Orgosolo (Banditi a Orgosolo) - (Italy)
Barabbas, starring Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano and Jack Palance - (Italy)
The Big Bankroll, aka King of the Roaring 20's, starring David Janssen, Mickey Rooney, Diana Dors
The Big Gamble, starring Stephen Boyd
Black Silk (Prae Dum) - (Thailand)
Blast of Silence, directed by and starring Allen Baron
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), with Joan Blackman and Angela Lansbury
Boatmen of Thessaloniki (Солунските Атентатори) - (Yugoslavia)
A Bomb Was Stolen (S-a furat o bombă) - (Romania)
Bootleggers (Samogonshchiki) - (USSR)
Breakfast at Tiffany's, directed by Blake Edwards, starring Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen
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, starring Sid James, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey - (U.K.)
Cash on Demand, starring Peter Cushing and André Morell - (U.K.)
A cavallo della tigre (aka On the Tiger's Back), starring Nino Manfredi - (Italy)
The Children's Hour, starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner and Miriam Hopkins (who also starred in the original film These Three)
Chronicle of Flaming Years (Povest plamennykh let) - (USSR)
Claudelle Inglish, starring Diane McBain and Arthur Kennedy
The Coachman (Mabu) - (South Korea)
The Colossus of Rhodes, directed by Sergio Leone, starring Rory Calhoun - (Italy)
The Comancheros, starring John Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Lee Marvin, Ina Balin
Come September, starring Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida
Cry for Happy, starring Glenn Ford, Miyoshi Umeki, Donald O'Connor
The Curse of the Werewolf, starring Clifford Evans and Oliver Reed - (U.K.)
D
The Day the Earth Caught Fire, starring Edward Judd - (U.K.)
The Deadly Companions, directed by Sam Peckinpah, starring Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith
Dersu Uzala - (USSR)
The Devil at 4 O'Clock, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Frank Sinatra, Spencer Tracy, Grégoire Aslan
A Difficult Life (Una vita difficile), directed by Dino Risi, starring Alberto Sordi - (Italy)
Divorce Italian Style (Divorzio all'italiana), directed by Pietro Germi, starring Marcello Mastroianni - (Italy)
Dondi, starring David Janssen
E
El Cid, directed by Anthony Mann, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren - (U.S./Italy)
The End of Summer (Kohayagawa-ke no aki), directed by Yasujirō Ozu - (Japan)
The End of the Cancageiros (A Morte Comanda o Cangaço) - (Brazil)
The Errand Boy, directed by and starring Jerry Lewis
Everything's Ducky, starring Buddy Hackett
The Exiles - documentary
The Explosive Generation, starring William Shatner and Patty McCormack
F
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen
Fanny, starring Charles Boyer and Leslie Caron
The Fascist (Il Federale), starring Ugo Tognazzi - (Italy)
A Fever in the Blood, starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Angie Dickinson, Don Ameche, Jack Kelly, Carroll O'Connor
Five Golden Hours, starring Robert Wagner, Cyd Charisse, Ernie Kovacs
Five Minutes to Live, starring Johnny Cash
Flight of the Lost Balloon
Flooded Out (Los Inundados) - (Argentina)
Flower Drum Song, starring Nancy Kwan
Francis of Assisi, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Bradford Dillman and Dolores Hart
The Frightened City, starring Sean Connery, John Gregson, Yvonne Romain
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)
Go Naked in the World, starring Gina Lollobrigida and Anthony Franciosa - (Italy)
Goliath Against the Giants
Goodbye Again, starring Ingrid Bergman and Yves Montand - (France/U.S.)
Gorgo, starring Bill Travers - (U.K.)
The Great Impostor, starring Tony Curtis
The Greengage Summer, starring Kenneth More and Susannah York - (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
The Honeymoon Machine, starring Steve McQueen, Brigid Bazlen, Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss
Hoodlum Priest, starring Don Murray
The Human Condition (Ningen no jōken), directed by Masaki Kobayashi - (Japan)
The Houseguest and My Mother (Sarangbang sonnimgwa eomeoni) - (South Korea)
The Hustler, directed by Robert Rossen, starring Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Jackie Gleason
I
Immortal Love (Eien no hito) - (Japan)
The Innocents, starring Deborah Kerr - (U.K.)
J
Judgment at Nuremberg, directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Richard Widmark, William Shatner
K
King of Kings, directed by Nicholas Ray, starring Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Ryan, Siobhán McKenna, Hurd Hatfield, Rita Gam, Rip Torn
The Knife (Het Mes), directed by Fons Rademakers - (Netherlands)
L
The Ladies Man, directed by and 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, Joseph Cotten, Carol Lynley
The Last Time I Saw Archie, starring Robert Mitchum and Jack Webb
The Last War (Sekai Daisensō) - (Japan)
Last Year at Marienbad (L'Année dernière à Marienbad), directed by Alain Resnais, starring Delphine Seyrig - Golden Lion winner - (France)
Léon 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
The Lovemakers (La Viaccia), starring Claudia Cardinale and Jean-Paul Belmondo - (Italy)
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
Man-Trap, starring Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen, Stella Stevens
Marines, Let's Go, starring Tom Tryon and David Hedison
The Mark, starring Stuart Whitman and Maria Schell - (U.K.)
The Marriage-Go-Round, starring James Mason and Julie Newmar
The Mask, starring Paul Stevens - (Canada)
Master of the World
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)
Murder, She Said, starring Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, James Robertson Justice, Stringer Davis - (U.K.)
Mysterious Island, starring Michael Craig, Michael Callan, Joan Greenwood
N
The Naked Edge, starring Gary Cooper (in his final film) and Deborah Kerr
Nazrana (Gift), starring Raj Kapoor and Vyjayanthimala - (India)
Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile (Nefertiti, regina del Nilo), starring Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price - (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)
Nude on the Moon, directed by Doris Wishman
O
One-Eyed Jacks, directed by and starring Marlon Brando, with Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnson
One Hundred and One Dalmatians, featuring the voices of Rod Taylor and Betty Lou Gerson
One, Two, Three, directed by Billy Wilder, starring James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Arlene Francis
The Outsider, a biography starring Tony Curtis as World War II Marine Ira Hayes
P
The Parent Trap, starring Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith
Paris Belongs to Us (Paris nous appartient), directed by Jacques Rivette - (France)
Paris Blues, starring Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Diahann Carroll
Parrish, starring Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Claudette Colbert
Peace to Him Who Enters (Mir vkhodyashchemu) - (USSR)
Pigs and Battleships (Buta to gunkan), directed by Shohei Imamura - (Japan)
The Pit and the Pendulum, with Vincent Price
Plácido, directed by Luis García Berlanga - (Spain)
Please, Not Now! (La Bride sur le cou), starring Brigitte Bardot - (France)
The Pleasure of His Company, starring Fred Astaire and Debbie Reynolds
Pocketful of Miracles, final film of director Frank Capra, starring Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Hope Lange, Peter Falk, Ann-Margret
Portrait of a Mobster, starring Vic Morrow
Il Posto (The Errand Boy), directed by Ermanno Olmi - (Italy)
Professor Mamlock - (East Germany)
Q
Question 7, directed by Stuart Rosenberg - (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 Right Approach, starring Martha Hyer, Frankie Vaughan, Juliet Prowse
Romanoff and Juliet, starring Peter Ustinov and Sandra Dee
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, starring Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty - (U.K.)
S
Sail a Crooked Ship, starring Ernie Kovacs, Robert Wagner, Dolores Hart, Frank Gorshin
Sanctuary, starring Lee Remick and Yves Montand
Scarlet Sails (Алые Паруса) - (U.S.S.R.)
The Second Time Around, starring Debbie Reynolds, Andy Griffith, Juliet Prowse
The Secret Ways, starring Richard Widmark
Seetarama Kalyanam, directed by and starring N. T. Rama Rao - (India)
Sennin Buraku (Hermit Village) - (Japan)
The Sins of Rachel Cade, starring Angie Dickinson
A Soldier's Prayer (Ningen no jôken), directed by Masaki Kobayashi - (Japan)
Something Wild, starring Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker
A Song About the Gray Pigeon (Piesen o sivém holubovi) - (Czechoslovakia)
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
Susan Slade, starring Troy Donahue and Connie Stevens
T
Tammy Tell Me True, starring Sandra Dee
Taste of Fear, starring Susan Strasberg - (U.K.)
Then Nilavu (Honeymoon), 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)
A Thunder of Drums, starring Richard Boone, George Hamilton, Luana Patten
Tintin and the Golden Fleece
Too Late Blues, starring Bobby Darin
Town Without Pity, starring Kirk Douglas, Christine Kaufmann, E. G. Marshall, Frank Sutton, Robert Blake
Two Living, One Dead, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Patrick McGoohan - (UK/Sweden)
Two Loves, starring Shirley MacLaine
Two Rode Together, starring James Stewart and Richard Widmark
U
Underworld U.S.A., directed by Samuel Fuller, starring Cliff Robertson
V
Valley of the Dragons
Victim, directed by Basil Dearden, starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms - (U.K.)
Violent Life (una vita violenta) - (Italy)
Viridiana, directed by Luis Buñuel - Palme d'Or winner - (Mexico/Spain)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, starring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, Robert Sterling, Peter Lorre, Barbara Eden
W
We Were Young (A byahme mladi) - (Bulgaria)
West Side Story, starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris
What A Whopper, directed by Gilbert Gunn, starring Adam Faith, Sidney James, Carole Lesley and Terence Longdon - (U.K.)
When the Trees Were Tall (Kogda derevya byli bolshimi) - (U.S.S.R.)
Whistle Down the Wind, directed by Bryan Forbes, starring Hayley Mills and Alan Bates - (U.K.)
Wife Number 13 (Al zouga talattashar) - (Egypt)
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 Toshiro Mifune - (Japan)
The Young Doctors, starring Ben Gazzara and Dick Clark
The Young Ones, starring Cliff Richard and The Shadows - (U.K.)
The Young Savages, starring Burt Lancaster and Dina Merrill
Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
Terrytoons (1930–1964)
Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
Goofy (1961)
Tom and Jerry (1940–1967)
Noveltoons (1943–1967)
January 2 - Todd Haynes, American film director
January 13 - Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress
January 24 - Nastassja Kinski, German actress
February 11 - Carey Lowell, American actress
February 19 - Tomira Goldberg, American actress
February 21 - Christopher Atkins, American actor
February 24 - Lynette Gillis, Canadian actress
March 8 - Camryn Manheim, American actress
March 21 - Kassie DePaiva, American actress and singer
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 5 - Sarah Zivale, American actress and singer
May 6 - George Clooney American actor, writer, director, producer
May 8 - David Winning, Canadian-American director, producer, and screenwriter
May 14 - Tim Roth, English actor
May 31 - Lea Thompson, American Actress
June 5 - Catherine McGille, American actress
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
August 5 - Janet McTeer, English actress
September 11 - Elizabeth Daily, actress
September 16 - Jen Tolley, American-Canadian actress
September 18 - James Gandolfini, American actor (died 2013)
October 26 - Dylan McDermott, American actor
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
January 13 - Blanche Ring, 89, American singer and actress, The Yankee Girl, It's the Old Army Game
January 14 - Barry Fitzgerald, 72, Irish actor, Going My Way, The Quiet Man
February 2 - Anna May Wong, 56, American actress, Shanghai Express, The Thief of Bagdad
February 17 - Nita Naldi, 63, American actress, Blood and Sand, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
March 6 - George Formby, 56, British actor, entertainer, It's in the Air, Off the Dole
March 12 - Belinda Lee, 25, British actress, Long Night in 1943, The Goddess of Love
March 29 - Fritzi Ridgeway, 62, American actress, Ruggles of Red Gap, This Is Heaven
April 27 - Roy Del Ruth, 67, American director, The Maltese Falcon, Broadway Melody of 1938
May 4 - Anita Stewart, 66, American silent-film actress, The Combat, The Suspect
May 13 - Gary Cooper, 60, American actor, High Noon, Meet John Doe, Pride of the Yankees, Sergeant York
May 18 - Henry O'Neill, 69, American actor, Shadow of the Thin Man, Anchors Aweigh
May 19 - Ben Corbett, 69, American actor, The Fighting Renegade, Six-Gun Trail
May 22
Joan Davis, 53, American actress, Hold That Ghost, If You Knew Susie
Edward F. Cline, 69, American director, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
June 10 - Vivienne Osborne, 64, American actress, Supernatural, Luxury Liner
June 15 - Luther Reed, 72, American director, Rio Rita, Hit the Deck
June 17 - Jeff Chandler, 42, American actor, Broken Arrow, Merrill's Marauders
July 9 - Alan Marshal, 52, Australian actor, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, House on Haunted Hill
July 23 - Valentine Davies, 55, American screenwriter and director, The Glenn Miller Story, The Benny Goodman Story
August 4 - Maurice Tourneur, 85, French director, The Last of the Mohicans, The Poor Little Rich Girl
August 17 - Violet Kemble-Cooper, 74, British actress, The Invisible Ray, David Copperfield
August 20 - Dorothy Burgess, 54, American actress, In Old Arizona, Black Moon
August 27 - Gail Russell, 36, American actress, Angel and the Badman, Seven Men from Now
August 30 - Charles Coburn, 84, American actor, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Lady Eve
September 10 - Leo Carrillo, 81, American actor, Viva Villa!, Phantom of the Opera
September 22 - Marion Davies, 64, American actress, Show People, Cain and Mabel
September 23 - John Eldredge, 57, American actor, The Woman in Red, His Brother's Wife
September 26 - Juanita Hansen, 66, American actress, The Magic Cloak of Oz, The Phantom Foe
October 11 - Chico Marx, 74, American actor, member of the Marx Brothers, A Night at the Opera, Duck Soup
October 13 - Maya Deren, 44, American experimental filmmaker, Meshes of the Afternoon, At Land
October 18 - Tsuru Aoki, 69, Japanese-born American actress, The Dragon Painter
October 22 - Joseph Schenck, 82, Russian-born American pioneer motion picture executive, The General, Sherlock, Jr.
October 29 - Astrid Holm, 68, Danish actress, The Phantom Carriage, Häxan
November 15
Elsie Ferguson, 78, American actress, The Witness for the Defense, Scarlet Pages
Douglas Walton, 51, Canadian actor, Bride of Frankenstein, Murder, My Sweet
November 24 - Ruth Chatterton, 68, American actress, Dodsworth, Female
December 27 - Bernard McConville, 74, American screenwriter, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Phantom of the Opera
Ann-Margret - Pocketful of Miracles
Warren Beatty - Splendor in the Grass
Louis Gossett, Jr. - A Raisin in the Sun
Gene Hackman - Mad Dog Coll
Ron Howard - Five Minutes to Live
Mary Tyler Moore - X-15
Joe Pesci - Hey, Let's Twist!
Burt Reynolds - Angel Baby
