Cineliteracy: What You Need to Know about 1986 as Movie Year
My Oscar Book:
Top-Grossing films of 1986
Rank Title Distributor Box-office gross
1 Top Gun Paramount $176,781,728
2 Crocodile Dundee $174,803,506
3 Platoon Orion $138,530,565
4 The Karate Kid, Part II Columbia $115,103,979
5 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Paramount $109,713,132
6 Back to School Orion $91,258,000
7 Aliens, 20th Century Fox $86,160,248
8 The Golden Child Paramount $79,817,937
9 Ruthless People, Buena Vista $71,624,879
10 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Paramount $70,136,169
Events
January 7 – Lawrence Gordon resigns as president and coo of Fox, citing poor health
February 3 –
Pixar Animation Studios is founded by Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith.
April – Guy McElwaine resigns as head of Columbia Pictures.
April 26 – Actor Schwarzenegger marries TV journalist Maria Shriver.
June – First Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä, Finnish Lapland.
July 2 – The Great Mouse Detective is released to critical and financial success, just behind An American Tail, saving Disney from bankruptcy after failure of The Black Cauldron. It is regarded as one of darkest underrated classics, and has gained a cult following.
August 6 –
Timothy Dalton is the fourth actor to portray James Bond.
September – David Puttnam becomes head of Columbia.
September 13 –
TV program “Siskel & Ebert” premieres in syndication. The duo critics been working since 1975, but this was their longest running show until 2010.
November 21 – The first animated produced by Spielberg, American Tail, is released, and breaks record held by Disney’s The Rescuers for largest financial amount made for an animation on opening weekend.
November 29
Cary Grant, Hollywood greatest star, dies of cerebral hemorrhage in Davenport, Iowa, age 82.
Stuntman Dar Robinson is killed on the set of the Million Dollar Mystery.
59th Academy (Oscars) Awards, March 30, 1987
Best Film: Platoon
Best Director: Oliver Stone, Platoon
Best Actor: Paul Newman,, The Color of Money
Best Actress: Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Caine, Hannah and Her Sisters
Best Supporting Actress: Dianne Wiest, Hannah and Her Sisters
Best Screenplay, Adapted, Out of Africa, Kurt Luedtke
Best Screenplay, Original Hannah and Her Sisters, Woody Allen
Best Original Score:
Best Original Song “Take My Breath Away”, Top Gun N/A “Take My Breath Away”
Best Foreign Language Film: The Assault
Palme d’Or (Cannes Film Fest): The Mission, Roland Joffé, UK
Golden Lion (Venice Film Fest): The Green Ray, Éric Rohmer, France
Golden Bear (Berlin Film Fest): Stammheim, Reinhard Hauff, West Germany
Deaths
January
Donna Reed 64 US Actress. It’s a Wonderful Life, From Here To Eternity
24 Gordon MacRae 64 US Actor, Singer, Oklahoma! Carousel
27 Lilli Palmer 78, Germany Actress, Body and Soul, The Boys from Brazil
Jan 29 Leif Erickson 74 US Actor, Tea and Sympathy, Kiss Them for Me
February
Feb 6 Ray Moyer 87 US Set Decorator, Sunset Boulevard, Cleopatra
Feb 10
Brian Aherne 83 UK Actor, Juarez, A Night to Remember
Feb 16 Howard Da Silva 82 US Actor, 1776, The Lost Weekend
Feb 17 Paul Stewart 77 US Actor, Citizen Kane, In Cold Blood
Feb 22
Bill Hickman 65 US Stuntman-Actor, The French Connection, Bullitt
March 6
Adolph Caesar 52, US Actor, A Soldier’s Story (Oscar nominee), Color Purple
March 10
Ray Milland 77 UK Actor, Dial M for Murder, The Lost Weekend (Hitchcock)
14 Edith Atwater 74 US Actress, Sweet Smell of Success, Strait-Jacket
March 30
James Cagney, 86, Actor, White Heat, Yankee Doodle Dandy
March 23
Harold Arlen 81 US Composer, The Wizard of Oz, A Star Is Born
March 23
Otto Preminger 80 Austria Director, Producer, Anatomy of a Murder, Laura
March 26
Broderick Crawford 74 US Actor, All the King’s Men, Born Yesterday
March 26
Bessie Love 87 US Actress, The Broadway Melody, The Lost World
March 30
Robert Stevenson 81 UK Director Mary Poppins, Old Yeller
April
Apr 3 Robert Alda 72 US Actor, Rhapsody in Blue, Imitation of Life
April 9 Herschel Bernardi 62 US Actor, The Front, Irma la Douce
Apr 12 Elisabeth Bergner 88 Ukraine Actress, Escape Me Never, Paris Calling
13 George Gaines 52, Set Decorator, All the President’s Men, Heaven Can Wait
April 22 Martin Gabel 73, Actor, The Front Page, Marnie (Hitchcock)
April 23
Sterling Hayden 70 US Actor, The Godfather, Dr. Strangelove
April 24
Yakima Canutt 90 US Actor, Stuntman, Director, Stagecoach, Ben-Hur
26 Gunnar Björnstrand 74 Sweden Actor, The Seventh SealFanny and Alexander
June 3
Anna Neagle 81 UK Actress, Forever and a DayNo, No, Nanette
June 13
Benny Goodman 77 US Musician, A Song Is Born, Benny Goodman Story
June 14
Alan Jay Lerner 67 US Writer-Lyricist, American in Paris, My Fair Lady
July 3
Rudy Vallee 84 US Actor, Singer, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,mUnfaithfully Yours
July 19 Daniel L. Fapp 82 US Cinematographer, Great Escape, West Side Story
July 25 Vincente Minnelli, 83 US Director, American in Paris,m Gigi
July 28 John Alcott 55 UK Cinematographer, Barry Lyndon, Clockwork Orange
August 6 Emilio Fernández 82 Mexico Actor, Director
Aug 19, Hermione Baddeley 79 UK Actress, Mary Poppins, Room at the Top
Aug 23 Adrienne Fazan 80 US Film Editor, Singin’ in the Rain, Gigi
Sept 1 Murray Hamilton 63 US Actor, Jaws,mThe Graduate
Oct 5 Hal B. Wallis 88 US Producer, Casablanca, Becket
Oct 11 David Hand 86 US Animator, Director, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi
11 Boris Leven 78 Russia Production Designer, West Side Story, Sound of Music
Nov 2 Harry Brown 69 US Screenwriter, A Place in the Sun, mOcean’s 11
Nov 27
Robert Priestley 85 US Set Decorator, Picnic, Sayonara
Nov 29 Cary Grant 82 UK Actor, North by Northwest, To Catch a Thief
Dec 2, Desi Arnaz 69 Cuba Actor, Singer, The Long, Long Trailer, Holiday in Havana
Dec 26 Elsa Lanchester 84 UK Actress, Bride of Frankenstein, Witness for the Prosecution
Dec 28 Andrei Tarkovsky 54, Russia Director, Solaris, Andrei Rublev
Film debuts
Brenda Bakke – Last Resort
Angela Bassett – F/X
Sean Bean – Caravaggio
Annabeth Gish – Desert Bloom
Tony Goldwyn – Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Catherine Keener – About Last Night
Richard Kind – Nothing in Common
Robert Knepper – That’s Life!
Olek Krupa – 91/2 Weeks
James LeGros – The Ladies Club
Jennifer Lopez – My Little Girl
Jon Lovitz – Hamburger: The Motion Picture
Kelly Lynch – Portfolio
Natasha Lyonne – Heartburn
Janet McTeer – Half Moon Street
Ben Mendelsohn – The Still Point
Penelope Ann Miller – Hotshot
Elizabeth Perkins – About Last Night
Max Perlich – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Joaquin Phoenix – SpaceCamp
Wendell Pierce – The Money Pit
Jeremy Piven – Lucas
Jason Priestley – The Boy Who Could Fly
Bill Pullman – Ruthless People
Francesco Quinn – Platoon
Shiva Rajkumar – Anand
Keanu Reeves – Youngblood
Ving Rhames – Native Son
Mark Rolston – Aliens
Michael Rooker – Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Vyto Ruginis – 8 Million Ways to Die
Tim Russ – Crossroads
Winona Ryder – Lucas
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón – Romanza final
Kristin Scott Thomas – Under the Cherry Moon
Nestor Serrano – The Money Pit
Tony Shalhoub – Heartburn
Jamey Sheridan – Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Nina Siemaszko – One More Saturday Night
Ione Skye – River’s Edge
Wesley Snipes – Wildcats
Kevin Spacey – Heartburn
Imelda Staunton – Comrades
Brenda Strong – Weekend Warriors
Kristy Swanson – Pretty in Pink
D.B. Sweeney – Power
Tilda Swinton – Caravaggio
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa – Armed Response
Marshall Teague – Vendetta
Robin Thomas – About Last Night
Billy Bob Thornton – Hunter’s Blood
Paul Walker – Monster in the Closet
Naomi Watts – For Love Alone
Robin Wright – Hollywood Vice Squad
