Cineliteracy: What You Need to Know about 1968 as a Movie Year
Research in progress–Please add Oscars
In 1968, Stanley Kubrick made the seminal sci-fi, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and two highly successful musicals were released: Funny Girl and Oliver!, the former earning Barbra Streisand the Best Actress Oscar (an honor she shared with Katharine Hepburn for her role in The Lion in Winter), and the latter winning both the Best Picture and Best Director awards.
Highest-Grossing Films of 1968
Rank Title Distributor Domestic rentals
1 Funny Girl, Columbia $24,900,000
2 2001: A Space Odyssey, MGM $21,500,000
3 The Odd Couple, Paramount $20,000,000
4 Bullitt Warner Bros. $19,000,000
5 Oliver! Columbia, $16,800,000
6 Planet of the Apes, 20th Century Fox $15,000,000
7 Rosemary’s Baby, Paramount $15,000,000
8 Romeo and Juliet, Paramount $14,500,000
9 Yours, Mine and Ours, United Artists, $11,500,000
10 The Lion in Winter, AVCO Embassy, $10,006,000
Events
November 1 – The MPAA’s film rating system is introduced.
Oscar Awards
47th Academy Awards: April 14, 1969
Best Foreign Language: Film War and Peace N/A
Palme d’Or (Cannes Fest): canceled due to events of May 1968
Golden Lion (Venice Fest): Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos (Artists under the Big Top: Perplexed), Alexander Kluge, West Germany
Golden Bear (Berlin Fest): Ole dole doff (Who Saw Him Die?), Jan Troell, Sweden
Births
Deaths
January 7 – Hugo Butler, 53, Canadian screenwriter, Edison, the Man, Lassie Come Home
January 18 – John Ridgely, 58, US actor, The Big Sleep, God Is My Co-Pilot
January 25 – Virginia Maskell, 31, British actress, Only Two Can Play, Virgin Island
February 4 – Eddie Baker, 70, US actor, Oranges and Lemons, Giant
February 7 – Nick Adams, 36, US actor, Pillow Talk, Rebel Without a Cause
February 13 – Mae Marsh, 73, US actress, The Birth of a Nation, 3 Godfathers
February 20 – Anthony Asquith, 65, British director, The V.I.P.s, The Winslow Boy
March 10 – Helen Walker, 47, American actress, Impact, Call Northside 777
March 18 – Harry Kurnitz, 60, American screenwriter, Witness for the Prosecution, How to Steal Million
March 20 – Carl Theodor Dreyer, 79, Danish director, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Gertrud
March 24 – Alice Guy-Blaché, 94, pioneer French-American filmmaker, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Great Adventure
March 30 – Bobby Driscoll, 31, US actor, Peter Pan, Treasure Island
April 6 – Keith Pyott, 66, English actor, Village of the Damned
April 16 – Fay Bainter, 74, US actress, Woman of the Year, Children’s Hour
April 24 – Tommy Noonan, 46, American actor, A Star is Born, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
May 5 – Albert Dekker, 62, American actor, The Wild Bunch, Kiss Me Deadly
May 9
Albert Lewin, 73, US director, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Marion Lorne, 84, American actress, The Graduate, Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock)
May 21 – Doris Lloyd, 71, British actress, Disraeli, Kind Lady
May 25 – Charles K. Feldman, 64, US producer, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Seven Year Itch
June 4 – Dorothy Gish, 70, US actress, The Cardinal, Orphans of the Storm
June 7 – Dan Duryea, 61, American actor, Winchester ’73, Scarlet Street (film noir)
July 1 – Virginia Weidler, 41, US actress, The Philadelphia Story, The Women
July 30 – Alexander Hall, 74, US director, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Little Miss Marker
August 23 – Hunt Stromberg, 74, US producer, The Thin Man, The Great Ziegfeld
August 26 – Kay Francis, 63, American actress, Black Orchids, Little Men
August 30 – William Talman, 53, American actor, The Hitch-Hiker, Crashout
August 31 – Dennis O’Keefe, 60, American actor, T-Men, Raw Deal
September 18 – Franchot Tone, 63, US actor, Mutiny on the Bounty, Advise & Consent
October 18 – Lee Tracy, 70, American actor, Dinner at Eight, The Best Man
October 30 – Ramon Novarro, 69, Mexican-US actor, Ben-Hur, Mata Hari
November 8 – Wendell Corey, 54, American actor, Rear Window, Harriet Craig
November 9 – Gerald Mohr, 54, American actor, Gilda, The Angry Red Planet
November 18 – Walter Wanger, 74, US producer, Cleopatra, I Want to Live!
November 20 – Helen Gardner, 84 US actress, Cleopatra
November 25 – Upton Sinclair, 90, US author, producer, There Will Be Blood, The Gnome-Mobile
December 2 – Colin Kenny, 79, Irish actor, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood
December 4 – Archie Mayo, 77, American director, The Petrified Forest, A Night in Casablanca
December 5 – Fred Clark, 54, American actor, White Heat, Auntie Mame
December 12 – Tallulah Bankhead, 66, US actress, Lifeboat, Die! Die! My Darling
December 15 – Dorothy Abbott, 47, US actress, South Pacific, Red, Hot and Blue
December 20 – John Steinbeck, 66, US author and screenwriter, Viva Zapata!, The Red Pony
Film Debuts
Rutanya Alda – Greetings
John Aprea – Bullitt
Eileen Atkins – Inadmissible Evidence
Tom Atkins – The Detective
Florinda Bolkan – Candy
Philip Bosco – A Lovely Way to Die
Sônia Braga – The Red Light Bandit
Wilford Brimley – Bandolero!
Don Calfa – No More Excuses
Joanna Cassidy – Bullitt
John Cleese – Interlude
Timothy Dalton – The Lion in Winter
Don Fellows – The Detective
Frederic Forrest – The Filthy Five
Allen Garfield – Greetings
Marla Gibbs – Yours, Mine and Ours
Gerrit Graham – Greetings
Jon Gries – Will Penny
John Hallam – The Charge of the Light Brigade
Goldie Hawn – The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band
Don Henderson – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Barbara Hershey – With Six You Get Eggroll
Howard Hesseman – Petulia
Bo Hopkins – Dayton’s Devils
Tony Jay – Majuba: Heuwel van Duiwe
Lainie Kazan – Dayton’s Devils
Stacy Keach – The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Margot Kidder – The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar
Udo Kier – Shameless
Sally Kirkland – Blue
Terry Kiser – Rachel, Rachel
Ittoku Kishibe – Za taigâsu: Sekai wa bokura o matteiru
Peter Maloney – Greetings
Chuck McCann – The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Malcolm McDowell – if…
Chuck Norris – The Wrecking Crew
Jennifer O’Neill – For Love of Ivy
Austin Pendleton – Petulia
Barry Primus – The Brotherhood
David Proval – The Boston Strangler
Paul Reubens – The Brotherhood
Joely Richardson – The Charge of the Light Brigade
Hanna Schygulla – The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp
Talia Shire – The Wild Racers
Leigh Taylor-Young – I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
