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The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.

Contents 1 Canon 2 Events 3 Top grossing films (U.S.) 4 Awards 5 Films released in 1956 6 Serials 7 Short film series 8 Births 9 Deaths 10 Film Debuts 11 See also

Canon

• ...And God Created Woman by Roger Vadim
• Baby Doll by Elia Kazan
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Don Siegel
• Forbidden Planet by Fred M. Wilcox

Events

• August 4 - The last film serial, Blazing the Overland Trail from Columbia Pictures, is released.
• October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinema and becomes the highest religious epic movie when adjusted for inflation.
• November 15 - Elvis Presley's first film, Love Me Tender, opens.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Rank	Title	Leading Star	Studio	Gross
1.	The Ten Commandments	Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and Anne Baxter	Paramount	$43,000,000
2.	Around the World in Eighty Days	David Niven, Cantinflas and Shirley MacLaine	United Artists	$23,120,000
3.	Giant	Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean	Warner Bros.	$14,000,000
4.	War and Peace	Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda	Paramount	$12,500,000
5.	The King and I	Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner	20th Century Fox	$9,000,000
6.	The Searchers	John Wayne	Warner Bros.	$8,500,000
7.	Bus Stop	Marilyn Monroe	20th Century Fox	$7,269,000
8.	High Society	Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra	MGM	$6,250,000
9.	The Girl Can't Help It	Jayne Mansfield and Tom Ewell	20th Century Fox	$5,878,000
10.	Written on the Wind	Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone	Universal	$5,712,000

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)

Awards

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Around the World in Eighty Days - Todd, United Artists

Best Director: George Stevens - Giant

Best Actor: Yul Brynner - The King and I

Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman - Anastasia

Best Supporting Actor: Anthony Quinn - Lust for Life

Best Supporting Actress: Dorothy Malone - Written on the Wind

Best Foreign Language Film: La strada, directed by Federico Fellini, Italy

Golden Globe Awards:

Drama:

Best Picture: Around the World in Eighty Days

Best Actor: Kirk Douglas - Lust for Life

Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman - Anastasia

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: The King and I

Best Actor: Cantinflas - Around the World in Eighty Days

Best Actress: Deborah Kerr - The King and I

Other

Best Director: Elia Kazan - Baby Doll

Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture: Earl Holliman - The Rainmaker

Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture: Eileen Heckart - The Bad Seed

Best Foreign Film: Before Sundown, West Germany

Best Foreign Film: The Girl in Black, Greece

Best Foreign Film: Richard III, United Kingdom

Best Foreign Film: Roses on the Arm, Japan

Best Foreign Film: War and Peace, Italy

Best Foreign Film: The White Reindeer, Finland

Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):

The Silent World (Le monde du silence), directed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle, France

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival): Not awarded

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):

Invitation to the Dance, directed by Gene Kelly, United States

Films released in 1956

• 7 Wonders of the World
• 1984
• Accused of Murder
• Alexander the Great, starring Richard Burton
• Anastasia, starring Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner
• And God Created Woman, starring Brigitte Bardot
• Aparajito (The Unvanquished), directed by Satyajit Ray
• Around the World in 80 Days, starring David Niven, Cantinflas and Shirley MacLaine
• Attack, starring Jack Palance and Lee Marvin
• Autumn Leaves, starring Joan Crawford and Cliff Robertson
• Baby Doll, starring Carroll Baker, Karl Malden and Eli Wallach
• The Bad Seed, starring Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack
• The Battle of the River Plate, written and directed by Powell and Pressburger
• Between Heaven and Hell, directed by Richard Fleischer
• Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
• Bhowani Junction, starring Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger
• Bigger Than Life, starring James Mason
• The Birds and the Bees
• Bob le flambeur (Bob the Gambler), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
• The Bold and the Brave
• The Brave One
• The Burmese Harp (Biruma no tategoto), directed by Kon Ichikawa
• Bus Stop, starring Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray
• Calle Mayor (Main Street), directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, starring Betsy Blair
• Carousel
• The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn
• C.I.D.
• Comanche
• Congo Crossing
• The Conqueror
• The Court Jester
• D-Day the Sixth of June
• Dance With Me Henry, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• Death in the Garden (La mort en ce jardin), starring Simone Signoret and Charles Vanel
• Diane, starring Lana Turner. This was Lana Turner's final film under her MGM contract. She had been with the studio for nearly 20 years since she was discovered.
• Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
• The Eddy Duchin Story, starring Tyrone Power and Kim Novak
• Elena and Her Men
• The Fastest Gun Alive
• Forbidden Planet, starring Walter Pidgeon
• Friendly Persuasion, starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire and Anthony Perkins
• Gaby
• Gervaise
• Giant, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean in his final film.
• The Girl Can't Help It, starring Tom Ewell and Jayne Mansfield in her first starring role.
• Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
• The Great Man
• The Green Man
• Gun the Man Down, starring James Arness and Angie Dickinson in her film debut.
• The Harder They Fall, starring Humphrey Bogart in his final film
• High Society, starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly in her final film prior to her marriage to Rainier III, Prince of Monaco
• Hollywood or Bust, starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis with Anita Ekberg
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Ich suche Dich, starring O.W. Fischer and Anouk Aimée
• The Indian Fighter
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Don Siegel, starring Kevin McCarthy
• Invitation to the Dance
• Johnny Concho
• Jubal
• Julie, starring Doris Day
• The Killers, a short film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
• The Killing, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Sterling Hayden
• The King and I, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner
• A Kiss Before Dying, starring Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward
• The Lady Killers (U.S. release)
• The Last Wagon
• The Long Arm
• Love Me Tender, starring Elvis Presley in his film debut
• Lust for Life, starring Kirk Douglas
• A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut), directed by Robert Bresson
• The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, starring Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones
• The Man Who Knew Too Much, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (a remake of his own 1934 British film). Starring James Stewart and Doris Day
• The Man Who Never Was
• Moby Dick, starring Gregory Peck
• Nagareru (Flowing)
• Never Say Goodbye (film)
• Old Khottabych
• On the Threshold of Space
• Pardners, starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
• Patterns, starring Van Heflin
• Private's Progress
• The Proud and Profane
• The Proud Ones
• The Rainmaker, starring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn
• Ransom!
• Reach for the Sky, a biopic of Douglas Bader starring Kenneth More
• The Red Balloon
• Richard III (U.S. release)
• Rock Around the Clock
• Rodan
• Samurai III: Duel At Ganryu Island, directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, starring Toshirō Mifune
• The Searchers, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter
• Seven Men from Now, starring Randolph Scott
• Seven Samurai (U.S. release)
• The Silent World
• Singing in the Dark
• The Solid Gold Cadillac, starring Judy Holliday
• Somebody Up There Likes Me, starring Paul Newman
• Star in the Dust, starring John Agar and Mamie Van Doren
• La Strada (U.S. release)
• Street of Shame (Akasen chitai), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
• Tea and Sympathy, starring Deborah Kerr
• The Teahouse of the August Moon, starring Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford
• The Ten Commandments, directed by Cecil B. de Mille, starring Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Yvonne De Carlo and Edward G. Robinson
• There's Always Tomorrow
• A Town Like Alice
• Trapeze
• War and Peace, starring Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer and Anita Ekberg
• While the City Sleeps
• Written on the Wind, starring Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone
• The Wrong Man, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles
• X the Unknown
• Yield to the Night, starring Diana Dors

Serials

• Blazing the Overland Trail, starring Lee Roberts and Dennis Moore
• Perils of the Wilderness

Short film series

• Looney Tunes (1930-1969)
• Terrytoons (1930-1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931-1969)
• Popeye (1933-1957)
• The Three Stooges (1934-1959)
• Bugs Bunny (1940-1962)
• Tom and Jerry (1940-1958)
• Droopy (1943-1958)
• Yosemite Sam (1945-1963)
• Speedy Gonzales (1953-1968)

Ending this year

• Donald Duck (1934-1956)
• Chip and Dale (1943-1956)
• Ranger Don (1953-1956)

Births

• January 3 - Mel Gibson, actor and director
• January 9 - Kimberly Beck, actress
• January 7 - David Caruso, actor
• January 21 - Geena Davis, actress
• January 27 - Mimi Rogers, actress
• February 11 - Kathleen Beller, actress
• March 1 - Tim Daly, actor
• March 25 - Matthew Garber, British actor (d. 1977)
• April 12 - Andy García, actor
• July 9 - Tom Hanks, actor and director
• July 31 - Michael Biehn, actor
• August 12 - Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor
• August 21 - Kim Cattrall, actress
• September 26 - Linda Hamilton, actress
• October 21 - Carrie Fisher, actress
• November 20 - Bo Derek, actress and model

Deaths

• January 12 - Norman Kerry, American actor (b. 1894)
• January 23 - Alexander Korda, Hungarian film director, the founder of London Films
• March 25 - Robert Newton, English actor (b. 1905)
• April 15 - Kathleen Howard, Canadian-American opera singer & film character actress (b. 1884)
• June 6 - Margaret Wycherly, English stage & screen actress born of American parents (b. 1881)
• June 30 - Thorleif Lund, Norwegian actor
• July 16 - Olof Winnerstrand, Swedish actor
• August 16 - Béla Lugosi, Hungarian-born American actor best known for Dracula (b. 1882)
• October 9 - Marie Doro, American actress famous on Broadway and in silent films (b. 1882)
• December 12 - Ewald André Dupont, German director
• December 26 - Holmes Herbert, British actor in silents and sound films (b. 1882)

Film Debuts

• Michael Caine

See also

• 1956 in film
• 1956 in literature
• 1956 in music
• 1956 in philosophy