1961 in film

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

Top-grossing films by country

Events

• May 13 – Legendary actor Gary Cooper dies at the age of 60 in Los Angeles from colon and prostate cancer. Best known for his appearances in classic films such as Wings, Meet John Doe, Sergeant York, For Whom the Bell Tolls and High Noon, Cooper was one of the biggest stars of Hollywood's Golden Age and won two Academy Awards for Best Actor.
• October 18 – The film version of the musical West Side Story is released. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins and starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, it becomes the year's highest-grossing film and goes on to win ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

  Awards

Notable films released in 1961

A

• The Absent-Minded Professor, starring Fred MacMurray
• Accattone, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini –
• Ada, starring Dean Martin and Susan Hayward
• All in a Night's Work, starring Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine
• And Love Has Vanished –
• Angel Baby, starring Salome Jens and Mercedes McCambridge
• Antigone, starring Irene Papas –
• Armored Command, starring Howard Keel and Tina Louise
• The Artillery Sergeant Kalen –
• The Assassin, starring Marcello Mastroianni –
• 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 –
• Barabbas, starring Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano and Jack Palance –
• The Big Bankroll, aka King of the Roaring 20s, starring David Janssen, Mickey Rooney, Diana Dors
• The Big Gamble, starring Stephen Boyd
• Black Silk –
• Blast of Silence, directed by and starring Allen Baron
• The Blonde from Buenos Aires, starring Mamie Van Doren and Jean-Pierre Aumont –
• Blue Hawaii, starring Elvis Presley, with Joan Blackman and Angela Lansbury
• Boatmen of Thessaloniki –
• A Bomb Was Stolen –
• Bootleggers –
• 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 –
• By Love Possessed, starring Lana Turner, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., George Hamilton

  C

• Carry On Regardless, starring Sid James, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey –
• Cash on Demand, starring Peter Cushing and André Morell –
• On The Tiger's Back, starring Nino Manfredi –
• The Children's Hour, starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner and Miriam Hopkins
• Chronicle of Flaming Years –
• Claudelle Inglish, starring Diane McBain and Arthur Kennedy
• The Coachman –
• The Colossus of Rhodes, directed by Sergio Leone, starring Rory Calhoun –
• The Comancheros, starring John Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Lee Marvin, Ina Balin
• Come September, starring Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin
• Cry for Happy, starring Glenn Ford, Miyoshi Umeki, Donald O'Connor
• The Curse of the Werewolf, starring Clifford Evans and Oliver Reed –

  D

• The Day the Earth Caught Fire, starring Edward Judd –
• The Deadly Companions, directed by Sam Peckinpah, starring Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith
• Dersu Uzala –
• The Devil at 4 O'Clock, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Frank Sinatra, Spencer Tracy, Grégoire Aslan
• A Difficult Life, directed by Dino Risi, starring Alberto Sordi –
• Divorce Italian Style, directed by Pietro Germi, starring Marcello Mastroianni –
• Dondi, starring David Janssen

  E

• El Cid, directed by Anthony Mann, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren –
• The End of Summer, directed by Yasujirō Ozu –
• The End of the Cancageiros –
• 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, starring Ugo Tognazzi –
• 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 –
• 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, starring Claudia Cardinale –
• Go Naked in the World, starring Gina Lollobrigida and Anthony Franciosa –
• Goliath Against the Giants
• Goodbye Again, starring Ingrid Bergman and Yves Montand –
• Gorgo, starring Bill Travers –
• The Great Impostor, starring Tony Curtis
• The Greengage Summer, starring Kenneth More and Susannah York –
• Gunga Jumna, starring Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala –
• The Guns of Navarone, directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn –

  H

• Harry and the Butler –
• Havoc in Heaven, an animated films –
• Hogs and Warships, directed by Shohei Imamura –
• 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, directed by Masaki Kobayashi –
• The Houseguest and My Mother –
• The Hustler, directed by Robert Rossen, starring Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Jackie Gleason

  I

• Immortal Love –
• The Innocents, starring Deborah Kerr –

  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, directed by Fons Rademakers –

  L

• The Ladies Man, directed by and starring Jerry Lewis
• The Last Judgement, directed by Vittorio De Sica –
• 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 –
• Last Year at Marienbad, directed by Alain Resnais, starring Delphine Seyrig – Golden Lion winner –
• Léon Morin, Priest, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo –
• Lola, directed by Jacques Demy, starring Anouk Aimée –
• The Long Absence – Palme d'Or winner –
• The Long and the Short and the Tall, starring Laurence Harvey and Richard Harris –
• Look in Any Window, starring Paul Anka and Ruth Roman
• The Lovemakers, starring Claudia Cardinale and Jean-Paul Belmondo –
• Lover Come Back, starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson

  M

• Mad Dog Coll
• 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 –
• The Marriage-Go-Round, starring James Mason and Julie Newmar
• The Mask, starring Paul Stevens –
• Master of the World
• The Miracle of Father Malachia, directed by Bernhard Wicki –
• The Misfits, directed by John Huston, starring Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift
• Mother Joan of the Angels –
• Mothra, directed by Ishirō Honda –
• Murder, She Said, starring Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, James Robertson Justice, Stringer Davis –
• Mysterious Island, starring Michael Craig, Michael Callan, Joan Greenwood

  N

• The Naked Edge, starring Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr
• Nazrana, starring Raj Kapoor and Vyjayanthimala –
• Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile, starring Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price –
• No Love for Johnnie, starring Peter Finch –
• La Notte, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau – Golden Bear winner –
• 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, directed by Jacques Rivette –
• Paris Blues, starring Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Diahann Carroll
• Parrish, starring Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Claudette Colbert
• Peace to Him Who Enters –
• Pigs and Battleships, directed by Shohei Imamura –
• The Pit and the Pendulum, with Vincent Price
• Plácido, directed by Luis García Berlanga –
• Please, Not Now!, starring Brigitte Bardot –
• 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, directed by Ermanno Olmi –
• Professor Mamlock –

  Q

• Question 7, directed by Stuart Rosenberg –

  R

• A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee
• The Rebel, starring Tony Hancock –
• 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 –

  S

• Sail a Crooked Ship, starring Ernie Kovacs, Robert Wagner, Dolores Hart, Frank Gorshin
• Sanctuary, starring Lee Remick and Yves Montand
• Scarlet Sails –
• 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 –
• Sennin Buraku –
• The Sins of Rachel Cade, starring Angie Dickinson
• A Soldier's Prayer, directed by Masaki Kobayashi –
• Something Wild, starring Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker
• A Song About the Gray Pigeon –
• Splendor in the Grass, starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty
• The Steamroller and the Violin, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky –
• 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 –
• Then Nilavu, starring Gemini Ganesan and Vyjayanthimala –
• A Taste of Honey, directed by Tony Richardson, starring Rita Tushingham –
• Three Daughters, directed by Satyajit Ray –
• Through a Glass Darkly, directed by Ingmar Bergman –
• 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 –
• 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 –
• Violent Life –
• Viridiana, directed by Luis Buñuel – Palme d'Or winner –
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'', starring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, Robert Sterling, Peter Lorre, Barbara Eden

  W

• We Were Young –
• 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 –
• When the Trees Were Tall –
• Whistle Down the Wind, directed by Bryan Forbes, starring Hayley Mills and Alan Bates –
• Wife Number 13 –
• Wild in the Country, starring Elvis Presley with Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, Millie Perkins
• A Woman Is a Woman, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina –

  Y

• Yojimbo, directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune –
• The Young Doctors, starring Ben Gazzara and Dick Clark
• The Young Ones, starring Cliff Richard and The Shadows –
• The Young Savages, starring Burt Lancaster and Dina Merrill

  Short film series

• Looney Tunes
• Terrytoons
• Merrie Melodies
• Goofy
• Tom and Jerry
• Noveltoons
• The Alvin Show

  Births

• January 2 – Todd Haynes, American director
• January 13 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress
• January 24 – Nastassja Kinski, German actress
• February 11 – Carey Lowell, American actress
• February 21 – Christopher Atkins, American actor
• March 8 – Camryn Manheim, American actress
• March 21 – Kassie DePaiva, American actress and singer
• March 29 - Amy Sedaris, American actress, comedian and writer
• April 3 – Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
• April 6 – Gene Eugene, Canadian actor, lead singer of Adam Again
• April 14 – Robert Carlyle, Scottish actor
• April 18 - Jane Leeves, English actress
• April 23 – Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson, Icelandic actor
• May 6 – George Clooney American actor, writer, director and 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
• June 25 – Ricky Gervais, English comedian, actor, writer, producer and director
• July 14 – Jackie Earle Haley, American actor
• July 15 – Forest Whitaker, American actor
• July 18 – Elizabeth McGovern, American actress
• July 23 – Woody Harrelson, American actor
• July 30 – Laurence Fishburne, American actor
• August 5 – Janet McTeer, English actress
• August 28 – Jennifer Coolidge, American actress
• September 11 – Elizabeth Daily, American actress
• September 15 - Colin McFarlane, English actor
• September 16 - Jen Tolley, American-Canadian actress, voice actress and singer
• September 18 – James Gandolfini, American actor
• September 22 – Bonnie Hunt, American actress and comedian
• October 25 – Hong Sang-soo, South Korean director
• 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 22 – Mariel Hemingway, American actress
• November 28 – Alfonso Cuarón, Mexican director
• November 29 – Tom Sizemore, American actor

  Deaths

• 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, 66, American actress, Blood and Sand, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• February 26 – Harry Bannister, 71, American actor, The Girl of the Golden West
• 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, The 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 2 – George S. Kaufman, 71, American playwright, A Night at the Opera
• June 10 – Vivienne Osborne, 64, American actress, Supernatural, Luxury Liner
• June 14 – Eddie Polo, 86, Austrian-American actor, The Vanishing Dagger
• June 15 – Luther Reed, 72, American director, Rio Rita, Hit the Deck
• June 17 – Jeff Chandler, 42, American actor, Broken Arrow, Merrill's Marauders
• June 27 – Paul Guilfoyle, 58, American actor, Winterset, The Grapes of Wrath
• June 30 – Lee de Forest, 87, American inventor of Phonofilm
• July 4 – Franklyn Farnum, 83, American actor, The Life of Emile Zola, The Lost Weekend, The Greatest Show on Earth
• 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
• July 28 – Harry Gribbon, 76, American silent comedy actor, Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition, Down on the Farm, A Small Town Idol, The Cameraman
• 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
• *Billy House, 72, American actor, Rogues of Sherwood Forest, Bedlam
• September 25 – Frank Fay, 69, American actor, Under a Texas Moon, The Matrimonial Bed
• September 26 – Juanita Hansen, 66, American actress, The Magic Cloak of Oz, The Phantom Foe
• October 1 – Donald Cook, 60, American actor, The Public Enemy, Baby Face
• 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
• *Zoltan Korda, 66, Hungarian director, The Four Feathers, Cry, the Beloved Country
• 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 20 – Moss Hart. 57, American playwright, Gentleman's Agreement, A Star Is Born
• December 27 – Bernard McConville, 74, American screenwriter, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Phantom of the Opera

  Film debuts

• Ann-Margret – Pocketful of Miracles
• Warren Beatty – Splendor in the Grass
• Sandy Dennis – Splendor in the Grass
• Louis Gossett Jr. – A Raisin in the Sun
• Gene Hackman – Mad Dog Coll
• Lance Henriksen – The Outsider
• Ron Howard – Five Minutes to Live
• George Kennedy – The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
• Dudley Moore – The Third Alibi
• Mary Tyler Moore – X-15
• Joe Pesci – Hey, Let's Twist!
• Burt Reynolds – Angel Baby
• George Segal – The Young Doctors