1919 in film

Events

• February 5 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.
• March – Oscar Micheaux premieres The Homesteader, the first feature-length race film, starring pioneering African American actress Evelyn Preer, becoming the first African American to produce and direct a motion picture.
• May 13 – D. W. Griffith's first film to be released by United Artists, Broken Blossoms, has its premiere in New York City.
• August 29 – The Miracle Man displayed Lon Chaney's talent for make-up and made him famous as a character actor.
• September 1 – United Artists release their first film, His Majesty, the American starring Douglas Fairbanks.
• September 18 – Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin opens rebuilt as a permanent cinema with the première of Ernst Lubitsch's Madame Dubarry.
• October 24 - The Capitol Theatre in New York City becomes one of the largest cinemas in the world with 4,000 seats.
• November 16 – Constance Talmadge becomes a star with the release of A Virtuous Vamp.
• Harold Lloyd begins holding test screenings of his films and modifying them based on audience feedback, a technique which continues in use.
• Tri-Ergon sound-on-film technology is developed by three German inventors, Josef Engl, Hans Vogt, and Joseph Massole; however, the era of sound films is over 6 years away.

  Top-grossing films (U.S.)

Notable films released in 1919 around the world

• Anne of Green Gables, directed by William Desmond Taylor; starring Mary Miles Minter and Paul Kelly
• The Avalanche directed by George Fitzmaurice starring Elsie Ferguson
• The Beetle, directed by Alexander Butler –
• The Belle of New York, directed by Julius Steger; starring Marion Davies
• The Better 'Ole –
• Blind Husbands, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim
• Bolshevism on Trial, directed by Harley Knoles
• The Boy in Blue, directed by F.W. Murnau –
• Broken Blossoms, directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess
• Bumping into Broadway, starring Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels
• Captain Kidd's Kids, a Harold Lloyd short
• The Cinema Murder, directed by George D. Baker; starring Marion Davies
• Daddy-Long-Legs, starring Mary Pickford
• Damaged Goods, directed by Alexander Butler –
• The Dark Star, directed by Allan Dwan; starring Marion Davies and Norman Kerry
• The Delicious Little Devil, starring Mae Murray and Rudolph Valentino
• Different from the Others, directed by Richard Oswald, starring Conrad Veidt –
• The Doll, directed by Ernst Lubitsch –
• Don't Change Your Husband, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gloria Swanson
• The Echo of Youth, directed by Ivan Abramson
• The False Faces, directed by Irvin Willat, starring Henry B. Walthall and Lon Chaney
• The First Men in the Moon –
• Getting Mary Married, directed by Allan Dwan; starring Marion Davies and Matt Moore
• The Grim Game, starring Harry Houdini
• Hawthorne of the U.S.A. directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
• Heart o' the Hills directed by Sidney Franklin, starring Mary Pickford
• Here Comes the Bride directed by John S. Robertson, starring John Barrymore, Faire Binney
• His Majesty, the American, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• The Homesteader, directed by Oscar Micheaux, starring Evelyn Preer
• Intoxication, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Asta Nielsen
• The Jack of Hearts, starring Hoot Gibson
• J'accuse, directed by Abel Gance –
• The Knickerbocker Buckaroo, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• The Life Line, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Wallace Beery
• The Lost Battalion
• Love's Prisoner, starring Olive Thomas
• Madame DuBarry, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings –
• Male and Female, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan
• The Master Mystery,, starring Harry Houdini
• The Miracle Man, starring Thomas Meighan, Lon Chaney and Betty Compson
• The Mistress of the World, directed by Joe May
• My Lady's Garter, directed by Maurice Tourneur
• My Wife, the Movie Star, directed by Ernst Lubitsch
• The Oyster Princess –
• Ravished Armenia – directed by Oscar Apfel, starring Aurora Mardiganian
• The Roaring Road, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
• Sahara, starring Louise Glaum, written by C. Gardner Sullivan
• The Sentimental Bloke –
• Sir Arne's Treasure, directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Richard Lund –
• A Society Exile directed by George Fitzmaurice starring Elsie Ferguson
• Sons of Ingmar, directed by Victor Sjöström –
• South, filmed by Frank Hurley –
• The Test of Honor, directed by John S. Robertson, starring John Barrymore, and Constance Binney
• True Heart Susie, starring Lillian Gish and Bobby Harron
• The Valley of the Giants, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
• Victory, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Lon Chaney, Seena Owen, Wallace Beery, Jack Holt
• When the Clouds Roll By, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• The White Heather, directed by Maurice Tourneur
• The Wicked Darling, directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney and Priscilla Dean
• The Witness for the Defense starring Elsie Ferguson and Warner Oland
• Yankee Doodle in Berlin, directed by F. Richard Jones, starring Bothwell Browne, Ford Sterling, Marie Prevost, produced by Mack Sennett
• You're Fired, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid & Wanda Hawley

  Comedy film series

Buster Keaton (1917–1941)

• September 7: Back Stage a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
• October 26: The Hayseed as a Manager, general store.

  Charlie Chaplin (1914–1923)

• May 15: Sunnyside; Three reels Score composed for 1974 re-release
• December 15: A Day's Pleasure; Two reels. First film with Jackie Coogan, future star of "The Kid"

• The Professor as Professor Bosco, Slated as a two-reeler, but never issued

  Harold Lloyd (1913–1921)

• Wanted – $5,000
• Going! Going! Gone!
• Ask Father
• On the Fire, aka. The Chef
• I'm on My Way
• Look Out Below
• The Dutiful Dub
• Next Aisle Over
• A Sammy in Siberia
• Just Dropped In
• Young Mr. Jazz
• Crack Your Heels
• Ring Up the Curtain, aka Back-Stage!
• Si, Senor
• Before Breakfast
• The Marathon
• Pistols for Breakfast
• Swat the Crook
• Off the Trolley
• Spring Fever
• Billy Blazes, Esq. – as Billy Blazes; the film was a parody of Westerns of the time
• Just Neighbors
• At the Old Stage Door
• Never Touched Me
• A Jazzed Honeymoon
• Count Your Change
• Chop Suey & Co.
• Heap Big Chief
• Don't Shove
• Be My Wife
• The Rajah
• He Leads, Others Follow
• Soft Money
• Count the Votes
• Pay Your Dues
• His Only Father
• Bumping Into Broadway
• Captain Kidd's Kids
• From Hand to Mouth

  Animated short film series

Koko the Clown (1919–1934)

• The Tantalizing Fly
• The Clown's Pups
• Out of the Inkwell
• Slides
• Experiment No. 2
• Experiment No. 3
• Out of the Inkwell

  Felix the Cat (1919–1936)

Births

• January 1 – Carole Landis, actress
• January 13 – Robert Stack, actor
• January 21 – Jinx Falkenburg, model, actress
• January 23 – Ernie Kovacs, comedian, actor
• January 24 – Coleman Francis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
• February 4 – Janet Waldo, actress
• February 5
• *Red Buttons, actor
• *Tim Holt, actor
• February 11 – Eva Gabor, actress
• February 18 – Jack Palance, actor
• March 2 – Jennifer Jones, actress
• March 25 – Jeanne Cagney, actress
• March 29 – Eileen Heckart, actress
• April 13 – Howard Keel, actor
• April 18 – Vondell Darr, child actress
• April 18 – Virginia O'Brien, American actress
• May 8 – Lex Barker, actor
• May 23 – Betty Garrett, actress
• June 12 – Uta Hagen, actress
• June 14 – Sam Wanamaker, director, actor
• June 19 – Pauline Kael, film critic
• June 24 – Al Molinaro, actor
• June 29 – Slim Pickens, actor
• July 7 – Jon Pertwee, actor
• July 26 – Virginia Gilmore, actress
• August 2 – Nehemiah Persoff, actor
• August 7 – Bertha Moss, Argentine-Mexican actress
• August 8 – Dino De Laurentiis, producer
• September 2 – Marge Champion, dancer, actress, choreographer
• September 18 – Diana Lewis, actress
• September 24 – Rick Vallin, Russian-born actor
• September 26 – Barbara Britton, actress
• October 5 – Donald Pleasence, actor
• November 4
• *Shirley Mitchell, actress
• *Martin Balsam, actor
• November 13
• *Mary Beth Hughes, actress
• *Amelia Bence, actress
• November 15 – Nova Pilbeam, actress
• November 19 – Alan Young, actor
• December 7 – Lis Løwert, Danish actress
• December 21 – Ove Sprogøe, Danish actor

  Deaths

• January 14 – Shelley Hull, 34, American stage & film actor, husband of Josephine Hull, brother of Henry Hull
• January 31 – Nat C. Goodwin, 59, veteran stage star & silent film actor
• February 3 – Mary Moore, 29, Irish actress, sister of Joe, Matt, Owen and Tom Moore A Million a Minute
• February 17 – Vera Kholodnaya, 25, Russian silent film actress, A Corpse Living, The Woman Who Invented Love, Her Sister's Rival, Song of Triumphant Love
• April 9 – Sidney Drew, 55, American stage & film actor A Florida Enchantment
• May 3 – Daniel Gilfether, 70, American actor of stage & screen
• May 21 – Lamar Johnstone, 34, American silent film actor
• November 24 – William Stowell, 34, American silent film star

  Film debuts

• Vilma Bánky – Im letzten Augenblick
• Shemp Howard – Spring Fever
• Boris Karloff – The Lightning Raider
• Fritz Lang – Halbblut
• Norma Shearer – The Star Boarder
• Otis Skinner – Tom's Little Star
• Claire Windsor – Eyes of Youth
• Anna May Wong – The Red Lantern