1911 in film

"1911 film" and "1911 movie" redirect here. For the 2011 Chinese historical drama film, see 1911 (film).

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The year 1911 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• February: The Motion Picture Story Magazine, the first American film fan magazine, is published. It is followed later in the year by Photoplay.
• April 8: Winsor McCay releases his first film Little Nemo, one of the earliest animated films.
• October 23 (October 10 OS): Svetozar Botorić's The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Leader Karađorđe (Život i dela besmrtnog vožda Karađorđa, Живот и дела бесмртног вожда Карађорђа) premieres in Belgrade and becomes the first feature film made in Serbia and the Balkans.
• October 26: Defence of Sevastopol («Оборона Севастополя») premieres at the Crimean palace of Tsar Nicholas II and becomes the first feature-length film made in the Russian Empire and one of the first in the world. It is also the first known film to use a multiple-camera setup (2 cameras)
• October 27: David Horsley's Nestor Motion Picture Company opens the first motion picture studio in Hollywood.
• November: The Kalem Company of New York pays the estate of author Lew Wallace $25,000 in legal settlement for having adapted Ben Hur (1907 film) from his novel without securing prior rights.

Notable films released in 1911

United States unless stated

A

• Aerial Anarchists, directed by Walter R. Booth – (GB)
• Alkali Ike's Auto, directed by Broncho Billy Anderson

B

• Baron Munchausen's Dream (Les Hallucinations du baron de Münchausen), directed by Georges Méliès – (France)
• Baseball and Bloomers (lost), produced by the Thanhouser Company
• The Battle, directed by D. W. Griffith
• The Bells (lost), directed by W. J. Lincoln, based on the 1871 play by Leopold David Lewis – (Australia)
• Brown of Harvard, directed by Colin Campbell
• The Buddhist Priestess, produced by the Thanhouser Company

C

• Cally's Comet, produced by the Thanhouser Company
• The Coffin Ship, produced by the Thanhouser Company

D

• David Copperfield, directed by George O. Nichols, based on the 1850 novel by Charles Dickens
• Defence of Sevastopol, directed by Aleksandr Khanzhonkov and Vasily Goncharov – (Russia)
• The Diabolical Church Window (Le Vitrail diabolique) (incomplete), directed by Georges Méliès – (France)
• The Dream, directed by Thomas H. Ince and George Loane Tucker, starring Mary Pickford

E

• Enoch Arden, directed by D. W. Griffith

F

• The Fall of Troy (La caduta di Troia)), directed by Giovanni Pastrone, based on the epic Greek poem the Iliad by Homer – (Italy)
• First Indy 500 (First year footage from the auto race. Filmed on May 30, 1911.)
• For Her Sake (lost), produced by the Thanhouser Company

H

• Her Crowning Glory, directed by Laurence Trimble
• His Trust, directed by D. W. Griffith
• His Trust Fulfilled, directed by D. W. Griffith

I

• L'Inferno (Dante's Inferno), directed by Francesco Bertolini and Giuseppe de Liguoro, based on the 14th-century narrative poem by Dante Alighieri – (Italy)

L

• The Last Drop of Water, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Blanche Sweet
• Little Nemo, directed by Winsor McCay
• The Lonedale Operator, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Blanche Sweet

M

• The Man-Monkey (British/ C&M)
• The Masque of the Red Death (Italian/ Ambrosio) based on the famous 1842 story by Edgar Allan Poe; said to have influenced Charles Beaumont when he wrote the screenplay for the 1964 Roger Corman-produced remake.
• The Miser's Heart, directed by D. W. Griffith
• A Modern Yarn (French/ Pathe)
• The Moonstone (British) produced by Charles Urban, based on the 1868 novel by Wilkie Collins
• Der Müller und sein Kind (translation from Austrian: The Miller and His Child)
• The Mummy (French/ Pathe)
• The Mummy (Thanhouser)
• The Mummy (British/ Charles Urban Films)
• The Mysterious Stranger (French/ Eclipse)

N

• Notre Dame de Paris (French/ Pathe) aka The Hunchback of Notre Dame, directed by Albert Capellani, starring Henri Krauss as Quasimodo and Stacia Mapierkowska as Esmeralda, based on the Victor Hugo novel

O

• The Odyssey (L'Odissea)
• An Old Time Nightmare (Powers Films) features giant birds

P

• The Pasha's Daughter
• The Pied Piper of Hamlin (French/ Pathe)
• The Pied Piper of Hamlin (Thanhouser Prods.)
• Princess Clementina
• Purgatory (Italian/ Helios Films) directed by Giuseppe Berardi (who also stars) and Arturo Busnego; a sequel to Helios' Inferno (1910).

Q

• Queen of Spades (Italian/ Cines) based on the 1834 story Pikovaya dama by Russian writer Alexander Pushkin; a lost film.

R

• The Railroad Builder
• Rosalie and Spiritisme (French/ Pathe-Lux)

S

• Satan Defeated, aka Satan Vaincu (French/ Pathe); a lost film.
• Satan on Mischief Bent (British) produced by Charles Urban
• The Saving of Faust (French/ Pathe)
• The Scarlet Letter
• She (Thanhouser) written by Theodore Marston, directed by George Nichols, starring Marguerite Snow, James Cruze; based on the 1886 H. Rider Haggard novel
• The Smuggler
• A Spiritualistic Seance (French/ Pathe)
• Sweet Memories
• Swords and Hearts, directed by D. W. Griffith

T

• A Tale of Two Cities
• That's Happiness
• Trilby and Svengali (British/ Kinematograph) produced by Charles Urban, directed by Theo Frankel (who also starred in it); filmed in color; based on the 1894 George du Maurier novel Trilby

V

• Le Vitrail Diabolique, directed by Georges Melies

W

• What Shall We Do with Our Old?
• Willy the Ghost (French/ Eclair Films) aka Willy Fantome, directed by Joseph Faivre, starring Willy Saunders (who starred in around 70 films all featuring the character "Willy".
• Winsor McCay And His Animated Pictures
• The Witch of Abruzzi (Belgian/ Le Lion Films) this Belgium film was partially shot in France.
• The Witch of Seville (Italian/ Itala Films) aka La Strega de Siviglia
• Won by Wireless

Births

• January 5 – Jean-Pierre Aumont, actor (died 2001)
• January 7 – Butterfly McQueen, actress (died 1995)
• January 22 – Mary Hayley Bell, actress, writer and dramatist, wife of Sir John Mills (d 2005)
• January 30 – Hugh Marlowe, actor (died 1982)
• January 31 – Eddie Byrne, actor (died 1981)
• February 6 – Ronald Reagan, actor, United States President (died 2004)
• February 9 – Gypsy Rose Lee, actress and burlesque dancer (died 1970)
• February 14 – Florence Rice, actress (died 1974)
• February 19 – Merle Oberon, actress (died 1979)
• February 20 – Margot Grahame, actress (died 1982)
• March 3 – Jean Harlow, actress (died 1937)
• March 10 – Edward Norris, actor, (died 2002)
• March 18 – Smiley Burnette, actor, musician (died 1967)
• April 23 – Ronald Neame, cinematographer, producer and director (died 2010)
• May 7 – Ishirō Honda, director (died 1993)
• May 11
  • Louise Campbell, actress (died 1997)
  • Phil Silvers, actor (died 1985)
• May 17 – Maureen O'Sullivan, actress (died 1998)
• May 18 – Sigrid Gurie, actress (died 1969)
• May 23 - Bert Morrison, American actor, singer and jazz player (died 1995)
• May 27 – Vincent Price, actor (died 1993)
• May 30 – Douglas Fowley, actor (died 1998)
• June 1 – Gertrude Michael, actress (died 1964)
• June 3 – Ellen Corby, actress (died 1999)
• June 20 – Gail Patrick (died 1980)
• June 29 – Bernard Hermann, composer (died 1975)
• July 6 – Laverne Andrews, singer, actress, member of Andrews Sisters (died 1967)
• July 14 – Terry-Thomas, actor (died 1990)
• July 16 – Ginger Rogers, actress, dancer (died 1995)
• July 18 – Hume Cronyn, actor (died 2003)
• July 28 – Ann Doran, actress (died 2000)
• August 2 – Ann Dvorak, American actress (died 1979)
• August 3 – Alex McCrindle, British actor (died 1990)
• August 5 – Robert Taylor, actor (died 1969)
• August 6 – Lucille Ball, actress (died 1989)
• August 7 – Nicholas Ray, director (died 1979)
• August 12 – Cantinflas, actor (died 1993)
• August 19 – Constance Worth, actress (died 1963)
• September 2 – Erwin Hillier, cinematographer (died 2005)
• September 10 – Renée Simonot, actress and voice artist (died 2021)
• October 13 – Ashok Kumar, actor, India (died 2001)
• October 20 – Will Rogers, Jr., actor (died 1993)
• October 27 – Leif Erickson, actor (died 1986)
• October 30 – Ruth Hussey, actress (died 2005)
• October 31 – Sheila Bromley, actress, (died 2003)
• November 5
  • Roy Rogers, singer, actor (died 1998)
  • Baby Marie Osborne, child actress (died 2010)
• November 10 – Harry Andrews, actor (died 1989)
• December 8 – Lee J. Cobb, actor (died 1976)
• December 9 – Broderick Crawford, actor (died 1986)
• December 23 – James Gregory, actor (died 2002)
• December 29 – Claire Dodd, actress (died 1973)
• December 30 – Jeanette Nolan, actress (died 1998)

Deaths

• January 18 – Arthur Marvin, cinematographer, (born 1859)
• May 29 – W. S. Gilbert, producer of musicals, half of the team of Gilbert and Sullivan, (born 1836)
• July 18 – Genevieve Lantelme, actress, (born 1883)
• August 11 – Verner Clarges, actor, (born 1846)
• October 27 – Francis Boggs, director, (born 1870)
• November 2 – Kyrle Bellew, actor, (born 1855)
• December 22 – Wright Lorimer, stage actor, screenwriter, (born 1874)
• Unknown – Woodville Latham, producer and exhibitor whose desire to shoot an entire boxing match on a single reel of film led to the invention of the Latham loop (born 1837)

Debuts

• Lionel Barrymore – The Battle (*debatable; film debut much earlier)
• Francis X. Bushman – His Friend's Wife (short)
• Paul Kelly – Jimmie's Job (short)
• Edgar Kennedy – Brown of Harvard
• Ann Little – The Indian Maiden's Lesson (short)
• Harold Lockwood – The White Red Man (short)
• Anna Q. Nilsson – Molly Pitcher (short)
• Anita Stewart – A Tale of Two Cities as Anna Stewart
• Lenore Ulric – The First Man (1911 short)
• Lois Weber – director, actress, A Heroine of '76 (short); writer, On the Brink (short)

External links

• List of 1911 films at IMDb
• List of 1911 deaths at IMDb
• List of 1911 births at IMDb