# 1899 in film

The following is an overview of the events of 1899 in film, including a list of films released and notable births.

## Events

* September
** King John, a silent compilation of three short scenes from a forthcoming stage production by Herbert Beerbohm Tree with film direction by William Kennedy Dickson and Walter Pfeffer Dando, is filmed in London, the first known film based on a Shakespeare play.
** Mitchell and Kenyon of Blackburn in the north of England release three fiction films under the 'Norden' brand which attract national attention – The Tramp's Surprise, The Tramps and the Artist and Kidnapping by Indians, the latter being the first Western.
* November – The oldest surviving Japanese film, Momijigari, is shot by Tsunekichi Shibata in Tokyo as a record of kabuki actors Onoe Kikugorō V and Ichikawa Danjūrō IX performing a scene from the play Momijigari.
* T. C. Hepworth invents Biokam, a 17.5 mm format which also is the first format to have a center perforation.
* John Alfred Prestwich invents a 13 mm amateur format.

## Films released in 1899

* Beauty and the Beast, produced for Pathe (French)
* The Biter Bit, produced by Bamforth & Co Ltd
* Cagliostro's Mirror, directed by George Melies
* Cinderella (Cendrillon), directed by Georges Méliès
* Cleopatra, directed by George Melies, later re-released as Cleopatra's Tomb
* Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene, produced by Edison Studios
* The Demon Barber, produced by American Mutoscope
* The Devil in a Convent, directed by Georges Méliès, later re-released as The Sign of the Cross
* The Dreyfus Affair, a series of docudramas directed by Georges Méliès
* The Haunted House, directed by Siegmund Lubin
* How Would You Like to Be the Ice Man?
* The Jeffries-Sharkey Fight, a documentary that is in all likelihood lost; running over two hours, this is one of the oldest feature films
* Kidnapping by Indians
* King John
* The Kiss in the Tunnel, directed by George Albert Smith; has been cited as cinema's first example of narrative editing
* Major Wilson's Last Stand
* A Midnight Episode, directed by George Melies, aka A Good Bed
* The Miser's Doom (British), directed by Walter R. Booth
* A Mysterious Portrait, directed by Georges Méliès
* The Pillar of Fire (aka The Column of Fire), directed by George Melies, adapting a scene from the novel "She" by H. Rider Haggard
* Raising Spirits, directed by George Melies

## Births

| Month | Date | Name | Country | Profession | Died |
| January | 6 | Phyllis Haver | US | Actress | 1960 |
| January | 30 | Martita Hunt | UK | Actress | 1969 |
| February | 6 | Ramon Novarro | Mexico | Actor | 1968 |
| February | 15 | Gale Sondergaard | US | Actress | 1985 |
| February | 21 | Sigrid Holmquist | Sweden | Actress | 1970 |
| February | 22 | George O'Hara | US | Actor, Screenwriter | 1966 |
| March | 6 | Jay C. Flippen | US | Actor | 1971 |
| March | 14 | Ada Kramm | Norway | Actress | 1981 |
| March | 23 | Dora Gerson | Germany | Actress | 1943 |
| March | 27 | Gloria Swanson | US | Actress | 1983 |
| April | 19 | George O'Brien | US | Actor | 1985 |
| April | 26 | Guinn "Big Boy" Williams | US | Actor | 1962 |
| May | 10 | Fred Astaire | US | Actor, Dancer | 1987 |
| June | 4 | Lane Chandler | US | Actor | 1972 |
| June | 15 | Einar Hanson | Sweden | Actor | 1927 |
| June | 30 | Madge Bellamy | US | Actress | 1990 |
| July | 1 | Charles Laughton | UK | Actor | 1962 |
| July | 7 | George Cukor | US | Director | 1983 |
| July | 14 | Martha Mansfield | US | Actress | 1923 |
| July | 17 | James Cagney | US | Actor | 1986 |
| August | 9 | Paul Kelly | US | Actor | 1956 |
| August | 13 | Alfred Hitchcock | UK | Director | 1980 |
| August | 16 | Glenn Strange | US | Actor | 1973 |
| August | 19 | Colleen Moore | US | Actress | 1988 |
| August | 28 | Charles Boyer | France | Actor | 1978 |
| September | 1 | Richard Arlen | US | Actor | 1976 |
| September | 9 | Neil Hamilton | US | Actor | 1984 |
| November | 6 | Francis Lederer | Austria-Hungary | Actor | 2000 |
| November | 11 | Pat O'Brien | US | Actor | 1983 |
| November | 17 | Douglas Shearer | Canada | Sound Engineer | 1971 |
| November | 21 | Jobyna Ralston | US | Actress | 1967 |
| December | 8 | John Qualen | Canada | Actor | 1987 |
| December | 16 | Noël Coward | UK | Actor, Playwright, Composer | 1973 |
| December | 25 | Humphrey Bogart | US | Actor | 1957 |