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The following is an overview of 1934 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.

Events

  • January 26 – Producer Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000. Goldwyn will decline to adapt the book and sell the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
  • February 19 – Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade.
  • April 9 – Danish actress Alice O'Fredericks makes her directorial debut, in partnership with Lau Lauritzen Jr., with Ud i den kolde sne. The pair go on to make a further 26 films together.
  • April 19 – Fox Studios releases Stand Up and Cheer!, with five-year-old Shirley Temple in a relatively minor role. Shirley steals the film and Fox, which had been near bankruptcy, finds itself owning a goldmine.
  • May 18 – Paramount releases Little Miss Marker, with Shirley Temple, on loan from Fox, in the title role.
  • May 25 – The Thin Man series is launched, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, based on stories by Dashiell Hammett.
  • June 13 – An amendment to the Production Code establishes the Production Code Administration, and requires all films to obtain a certificate of approval before being released.
  • July 28 – Canadian-born actress Marie Dressler, best known for starring in films such as Min and Bill and Emma, dies from cancer in Santa Barbara, California at the age of 65. For her performance in Min and Bill, Dressler received the Academy Award for Best Actress.
  • October 19 – Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers wham audiences again with their first joint starring roles in The Gay Divorcee, grossing $1.8 million to add to the $1.5 million

Academy Awards

The 7th Academy Awards was held on February 27, 1935, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. They were hosted by Irvin S. Cobb. For the first time, the Academy standardized the practice – still in effect, notwithstanding changes to the 93rd and 94th Academy Awards as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic – that the award eligibility period for a film would be the preceding calendar year.

Most nominations: One Night of Love (Columbia Pictures) – 6

Major Awards

  • Best Picture: It Happened One Night – Columbia Pictures
  • Best Director: Frank Capra – It Happened One Night
  • Best Actor: Clark Gable – It Happened One Night
  • Best Actress: Claudette Colbert – It Happened One Night

Most Awards: It Happened One Night – 5

It Happened One Night became the first film to perform a "clean sweep" of the top five award categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. This feat would later be duplicated by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1976 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1992. It also was the first romantic comedy to be named Best Picture.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

The top ten 1934 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin:auto; margin:auto;"

|+ Highest-grossing films of 1934

|-

! Rank !! Title !! Distributor !! Domestic rentals

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 1

| Kid Millions

| United Artists

| $2,000,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 2

| Cleopatra

| Paramount

| $1,929,161

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 3

| Forsaking All Others

|MGM

| $1,399,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 4

| It Happened One Night

| Columbia

| $1,366,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 5

| Chained

| MGM

| $1,301,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 7

| The Barretts of Wimpole Street

| MGM

| $1,258,000

  • Ester Pajusoo, Estonian actress (d. 2026)
  • Sydney Pollack, American director, producer and actor (d. 2008)
  • July 5 – Nikolay Binev, Bulgarian actor (d. 2003)
  • July 8 – Marty Feldman, English comedian and actor (d. 1982)
  • July 9 – John Clegg, English actor (d. 2024)
  • July 10 – Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer (d. 2012)
  • July 15 – Eva Krížiková, Slovak actress (d. 2020)
  • July 22
  • Eric Del Castillo, Mexican actor
  • Louise Fletcher, American actress (d. 2022)
  • July 23 – Silvana Bosi, Italian actress (d. 2020)
  • July 26 – Ken Pogue, Canadian actor (d. 2015)
  • July 29 – Sergio Fiorentini, Italian actor and voice actor (d. 2014)
  • August 5 – Zakes Mokae, South African-American actor (d. 2009)
  • August 7 – Marija Kohn, Croatian actress (d. 2018)
  • August 14 – Vernon Dobtcheff, French-British actor
  • August 16 – John Standing, English actor
  • August 24 – Kenny Baker, English-born actor (d. 2016)
  • August 30 – Helen Craig, English children's author and illustrator (Angelina Ballerina)
  • September 11 – Ian Abercrombie, English-American actor and comedian (d. 2012)
  • September 18 – Eddie Jones, American actor (d. 2019)
  • September 20
  • Sophia Loren, Italian actress
  • Jeff Morris, American actor (d. 2004)
  • Karen Sharpe, American actress
  • September 24 – Robert Lang, English actor (d. 2004)
  • September 27
  • Wilford Brimley, American actor (d. 2020)
  • Claude Jarman Jr., American child actor (d. 2025)
  • September 28 – Brigitte Bardot, French actress (d. 2025)
  • September 29 – Alan Hopgood, Australian actor (d. 2022)
  • October 13 – Savely Kramarov, Russian-American actor (d. 1995)
  • October 15 – Peter Haskell, American actor (d. 2010)
  • October 18 – Calvin Lockhart, Bahamian-American actor (d. 2007)
  • October 19 – Glória Menezes, Brazilian actress
  • October 20 – Timothy West, English actor (d. 2024)
  • October 28 – Charles A. Gargano, Italian-American actor
  • October 31 – Suzanne Shepherd, American actress (d. 2023)
  • November 10
  • Richard Bradford, American actor (d. 2016)
  • Joanna Moore, American actress (d. 1997)
  • November 11
  • Suzanne Lloyd, Canadian actress
  • Nadine Trintignant, French director, producer and screenwriter
  • November 13 – Garry Marshall, American director, actor, producer, writer and voice artist (d. 2016)
  • November 15 – Joanna Barnes, American actress (d. 2022)
  • November 21
  • Jack Kehoe, American actor (d. 2020)
  • Laurence Luckinbill, American actor, playwright and director
  • November 23
  • Robert Towne, American screenwriter and director (d. 2024)
  • Michael Wayne, American producer and actor (d. 2003)
  • November 25 – Ann Davies, English actress (d. 2022)
  • November 28 – Jaakko Pakkasvirta, Finnish film director and screenwriter (d. 2018)
  • December 2 – Brian Phelan, Irish actor (d. 2024)
  • December 9 – Judi Dench, English actress
  • December 16 – Pete Schrum, American actor (d. 2003)
  • December 26 – Matt Zimmerman, Canadian actor (d. 2022)
  • December 27 – Christopher Benjamin, English actor (d. 2025)
  • December 28 – Maggie Smith, English actress (d. 2024)
  • December 29 – Forugh Farrokhzad, Iranian poet and film director (d. 1967)
  • December 30 – Russ Tamblyn, American actor and dancer

Deaths

  • March 21 – Lilyan Tashman, 34, American actress (cancer)
  • May 31 – Lew Cody, 50, American actor
  • June 8 – Dorothy Dell, 19, American actress (car crash)
  • July 6 – Harry A. Pollard, 55, American actor & director
  • July 28 – Marie Dressler, 65, Canadian-born American Academy Award winning actress
  • September 18 – Marie Shotwell, 54, American actress
  • December 20 – Frank Beal, 72, American actor

Film debuts

References

  • List of 1934 films at IMDb
  • List of 1934 deaths at IMDb
  • List of 1934 births at IMDb