# 1959 in science fiction

The year 1959 was marked, in science fiction, by the following events.

## Births and deaths
### Births

* Steve Alten
* Ayerdhal (d. 2015)
* Maurice Georges Dantec (d. 2016)
* Stephen Dedman
* Steven Erikson
* Andreas Eschbach
* Boban Knežević
* Maureen F. McHugh
* Lawrence M. Schoen
* Martha Soukup
* Neal Stephenson

### Deaths

* Edwin Balmer (b. 1883)
* Otfrid von Hanstein (b. 1869)

## Literary releases
### First editions

* Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
* The Beast Master by Andre Norton
* A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
* The Canopy of Time by Brian Aldiss
* Dodkin's Job by Jack Vance
* Dorsai! by Gordon R. Dickson
* The Duplicated Man by James Blish and Robert Lowndes.
* Echo in the Skull by John Brunner
* The Enemy Stars by Poul Anderson
* Immortality, Inc. by Robert Sheckley
* Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald
* Next of Kin by Eric Frank Russell
* Ossian's Ride by Fred Hoyle
* The Outward Urge by John Wyndham
* The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
* Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick
* Voodoo Planet by Andre Norton
* The War Against the Rull by A. E. van Vogt
* Wolfbane by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
* The World Swappers by John Brunner

### Juveniles

* Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton
* The Star Conquerors by Ben Bova
* Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

## Movies

| Title | Director | Cast | Country | Subgenre/Notes |
| The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock | Sidney Miller | Lou Costello, Dorothy Provine, Gale Gordon | United States | Comedy |
| 4D Man | Irvin Shortess Yeaworth Jr. | Robert Lansing, Lee Meriwether, James Congdon | United States | Action Horror Romance Thriller |
| The Angry Red Planet | Ib Melchior | Gerald Mohr, Les Tremayne, Nora Hayden | United States | Adventure Horror |
| The Atomic Submarine | Spencer Gordon Bennet | Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, Brett Halsey | United States | Thriller |
| Attack of the Giant Leeches | Bernard Kowalski | Jan Shepard, Gene Roth, Yvette Vickers | United States | Horror |
| Battle Beyond the Sun | Mikhail Kozyry | Aleksandr Shvorin, Ivan Pereverzhev | Soviet Union | Adventure |
| Battle in Outer Space (a.k.a Uchû sai sensô) | Ishirō Honda | Ryō Ikebe, Koreya Senda | Japan | Action |
| Caltiki – The Immortal Monster (a.k.a Caltiki, il mostro immortale) | Riccardo Freda, Mario Bava | John Merivale, Didi Perego, Gérard Herter, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart | Italy | Horror |
| The Cosmic Man | Herbert Greene | Bruce Bennett, John Carradine, Angela Greene | United States | Adventure Thriller |
| First Man into Space | Robert Day | Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards | United Kingdom | Drama Horror |
| The Giant Gila Monster | Ray Kellogg | Don Sullivan, Lisa Simone, Fred Graham | United States | Horror Thriller |
| Have Rocket, Will Travel | David Lowell Rich | Jerome Cowan, Anna-Lisa, Curly Joe DeRita | United States | Comedy Family |
| The Head (a.k.a Die Nackte und der Satan) | Victor Trivas | Michel Simon, Horst Frank, Christiane Maybach | West Germany | Horror |
| The Incredible Petrified World | Jerry Warren | John Carradine, Phyllis Coates, Robert Clarke | United States | Action Adventure Thriller |
| Invisible Invaders | Edward L. Cahn | John Agar, Jean Byron, Philip Tonge, Robert Hutton, John Carradine | United States | Horror |
| Journey to the Center of the Earth | Henry Levin | Pat Boone, James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Diane Baker | United States | Adventure Family Fantasy Romance |
| The Killer Shrews | Ray Kellogg | James Best, Ken Curtis, Ingrid Goude | United States | Horror |
| The Manster | George Breakston, Kenneth G. Crane | Peter Dyneley, Jane Hylton, Satoshi Nakamura, Terri Zimmern | Japan United States | Horror (released in U.S. in 1962) |
| The Man Who Could Cheat Death | Terence Fisher | Anton Diffring, Christopher Lee | United Kingdom | Drama Horror |
| The Monster of Piedras Blancas | Irvin Berwick | Les Tremayne, Forrest Lewis, John Harmon | United States | Horror |
| Nebo Zovyot (a.k.a Battle Beyond the Sun) | Mikhail Karyukov, Aleksandr Kozyr | Ivan Pereverzev | Soviet Union | Adventure |
| On the Beach | Stanley Kramer | Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire | United States | Drama Romance |
| Plan 9 from Outer Space | Edward D. Wood Jr. | Bela Lugosi, Mona McKinnon, Gregory Walcott, Vampira | United States | Horror |
| Return of the Fly | Edward Bernds | Vincent Price, Brett Halsey, John Sutton | United States | Drama Fantasy Horror |
| Invasion of the Animal People (a.k.a Terror in the Midnight Sun) | Virgil W. Vogel | Bengt Blomgren, John Carradine | United States Sweden | Horror |
| Teenagers from Outer Space | Tom Graeff | David Love, Dawn Anderson, Harvey B. Dunn | United States | Horror Thriller |
| The Tingler | William Castle | Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, Darryl Hickman | United States | Horror |
| The Giant Behemoth (a.k.a. Behemoth, the Sea Monster or The Behemoth) | Eugène Lourié, Douglas Hickox | Gene Evans, André Morell | United States | Horror |
| The Ugly Duckling | Lance Comfort | Bernard Bresslaw, Jon Pertwee, Reginald Beckwith | United Kingdom | Comedy |
| The Wasp Woman | Roger Corman | Susan Cabot, Anthony Eisley, Barboura Morris, Michael Mark, Bruno Ve Sota | United States | Horror |
| The World, the Flesh and the Devil | Ranald MacDougall | Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer | United States | Drama Romance |

## Awards

* A Case of Conscience by James Blish won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.