Cineliteracy: What You Need to Know about 1976 as a Movie Year: Movies, Oscars, Events, Stars, Festivals
Research in progress, May 31, 2025
My Oscar Book:
Highest-grossing films of 1976
Rank Title Distributor Domestic rentals
1. Rocky United Artists $55,900,000
2. A Star Is Born Warner Bros. $37,100,000
3. King Kong Paramount $36,900,000
4. Silver Streak 20th Century Fox $30,018,000
5. All the President’s Men Warner Bros. $30,000,000
6. The Omen, 20th Century Fox $28,500,000
7, The Bad News Bears Paramount $24,800,000
8. The Enforcer, Warner Bros. $24,000,000
9. In Search of Noah’s Ark Sunn Classic, $23,800,000
10. Midway, Universal $21,610,435
Events
January – Paramount sets up separate motion picture division, David V. Picker as president.
March 22 – Filming begins on George Lucas’ Star Wars sci-fi. Lucas declines his directing fee of $500,000 in exchange for complete ownership of merchandising and sequel rights.
April 1 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show is rereleased as midnight movie at the Waverly Theater (Now IFC Center) in Greenwich Village in NYC, starting through a length run.
April 9 – Hitchcock’s last film, Family Plot, is released.
August 11 – John Wayne appears in his final film, The Shootist.
August 26 – Alan Ladd Jr. promoted from head of worldwide production to president of 20th Century Fox’s film division.
November 15 – Michael Eisner is president and CEO of Paramount Pictures.
November 21 – Rocky, the first in what would become a film series opens, becoming the year’s highest-grossing film, and winning the Best Picture Oscar.
December 5 – Bound for Glory is first picture in which inventor-operator Garrett Brown used Steadicam, although it was used in Marathon Man and Rocky, which were shot later but released earlier.
December 17 – King Kong, the year’s highest opening weekend, box office success.
My Oscar Book:
Oscar Awards
March 24, 1977 49th Academy Awards
Oscar 1976: Best Actor–Oscar, Critics Awards, Festivals
Oscar: Peter Finch, Network
N.Y. Film Critics: Robert De Niro, Taxi Driver
National Society: De Niro
L.A. Film Critics: De Niro
National Board: David Carradine, Bound for Glory
Cannes: Jose-Luis Gomez, Familia de Pascal
Berlin:
Venice:
British: De Niro
Best Foreign Language Film: Face to Face N/A Black and White in Color
Festivals
Palme d’Or (Cannes Fest): Taxi Driver, Scorsese, US
Golden Bear (Berlin Fest): Buffalo Bill and the Indians (aka Sitting Bull’s History Lesson, Altman, US
Births
Deaths
Month Date Name Age Country Profession Notable films
January
12 Agatha Christie 85 UK Writer, Witness for the Prosecution, Murder on the Orient Express
13 Margaret Leighton 53 UK Actress, The Go-Between, The Best Man
18 Sonia Dresdel 66 UK Actress
This Was a Woman, The Fallen Idol
23 Paul Dupuis 62 France Actor
Against the WindMadness of the Heart
23 Paul Robeson 77 US Actor, Singer, Show Boat, The Proud Valley
29 Michael Gwynn 59 UK Actor, Cleopatra Jason and the Argonauts
February
Feb 4 Roger Livesey 69 UK Actor
The Entertainer The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
11 Lee J. Cobb 64 US Actor, On the Waterfront, The Exorcist
11 John Twist 77 US Screenwriter
King Richard and the Crusadersm Annie Oakley
Feb 12 Sal Mineo 37 US Actor, Rebel Without a Cause, Exodus
13 Lily Pons 77 France Singer, Actress
I Dream Too Much, Hitting a New High
13 John Lounsbery 64 US Animator
Dumbo Lady and the Tramp
15 Maria Corda 77 Hungary Actress
White Rose, The Private Life of Helen of Troy
16 Campbell Singer 66 UK Actor
The Square Peg, The Hands of Orlac
24 Peter Madden 71 UK Actor, From Russia with Love, Doctor Zhivago
26 Frieda Inescort 75 UK Actress
A Place in the Sun, The Letter
March
March 3 Doris Hill 70 US Actress
Sons of the Saddle Men Are Like That
5 Charles Lederer 69 US Screenwriter
His Girl Friday Ocean’s 11
March 14
Busby Berkeley 80 US Director, Choreographer, 42nd Street, Hollywood Hotel
March 17
Visconti 69 Italy Director, The Leopard, Death in Venice
20 Michael Goodliffe 61 UK Actor
Cromwell Jigsaw
28 Richard Arlen 76 US Actor, Wings, Wildcat
April
April 2
Ray Teal 74 US Actor, Judgment at Nuremberg, Ace in the Hole
4 George Pastell 53 Cyprus Actor
From Russia with LoveThe Magus
March 5
Howard Hughes 70 US Director, Producer, Hell’s Angels, The Outlaw
5 Robert Lord 75 US Screenwriter, Producer
One Way Passage20,000 Years in Sing Sing
11 Liam Dunn 59 US Actor
Blazing SaddlesYoung Frankenstein
12 Paul Ford 74 US Actor
Advise & ConsentThe Music Man
21 Léonide Moguy 75 Russia Director, Writer
Paris After DarkAction in Arabia
25 Carol Reed 69 UK Director, Writer
OIiver!The Third Man
26 Neil McCallum 46 Canada Actor
The Longest DayDr. Terror’s House of Horrors
26 Sid James 62 UK Actor
The Lavender Hill MobTrapeze
29 Thelma Connell 63 UK Film Editor
Alfie, The Deadly Affair
May
May 3 David Bruce 62 US Actor, Susie Steps Out, Lady on a Train
7 Alan Baxter 67 US Actor
Saboteur, The Set-Up
27 Hilde Hildebrand 78 Germany Actress, Victor and Victoria, Little Dorrit
May 27 Ruth McDevitt 80 US Actress, The Parent Trap, The Birds
June
June 5 Violet Wilkey 73 US Actress
The Birth of a NationThe Burned Hand
6 Victor Varconi 85 Hungary Actor
The King of KingsThe Sea Hawk
9 Sybil Thorndike 93 UK Actress, The Magic Box, Melba
10 Adolph Zukor 103 US Producer, Studio Executive
Wings, Shanghai Express
25 Johnny Mercer 66 US Songwriter
The Harvey GirlsDarling Lili
28 Stanley Baker 48 UK Actor
The Guns of Navarone, Helen of Troy
July
Jul 2 Frances Howard 73 US Actress
The Shock PunchThe Swan
7 Norman Foster 72 US Actor, Director
PilgrimageState Fair
12 James Wong Howe 76 China Cinematographer
The Rose TattooHud
17 Rina Morelli 67 Italy Actress
The LeopardSenso
28 Lucie Mannheim 77 Germany Actress
The 39 StepsThe High Command
August
August 2
Fritz Lang 85 Germany Director, Metropolis, The Big Heat
6 William Mervyn 64 UK Actor
The Ruling ClassThe Long Arm
10 Ray Corrigan 74 US Actor
The Three MesquiteersRange Busters
17 William Redfield 49 US Actor
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestDeath Wish
17 Murvyn Vye 60 US Actor
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s CourtAl Capone
18 Luigi Serventi 91 Italy Actor
A Woman’s StoryThe Story of a Poor Young Man
28 Alastair Sim 75 UK Actor, The Green Man, Scrooge
September
Sep 10 Dalton Trumbo 70 US Screenwriter, Spartacus, Roman Holiday
30 Paul Dehn 63 UK, Goldfinger, Murder on the Orient Express
October 5 Barbara Nichols 47 US Actress
Sweet Smell of SuccessThe Naked and the Dead
Sep 14 Edith Evans 88, UK Actress, Tom Jones, The Nun’s Story
November 3 Ramsay Hill 86 US Actor, Technical Advisor
The CrusadesOne Hundred and One Dalmatians
Sep 15 Jean Gabin, 72 France Actor, La Grande Illusion, Port of Shadows
22 Rupert Davies 60 UK Actor
WaterlooThe Criminal
28 Rosalind Russell 69 US Actress
His Girl FridayAuntie Mame
29 Godfrey Cambridge 43 US Actor
Cotton Comes to HarlemThe President’s Analyst
December 3 Mary Nash 92 US Actress
The Philadelphia StoryThe Human Comedy
8 Cathy Downs 50 US Actress
My Darling ClementineThe Dark Corner
12 Jack Cassidy 49 US Actor
Bunny O’HareThe Eiger Sanction
20 Walter Fitzgerald 80 UK Actor
The Fallen IdolMan in the Sky
Film Debuts
Victoria Abril – Robin and Marian
Shohreh Aghdashloo – The Chess Game of the Wind
Dan Aykroyd – Love at First Sight
Albert Brooks – Taxi Driver
Dean Cain – Elmer
Nicholas Campbell – The Omen
Chow Yun-fat – Tou tai ren
Cam Clarke – Baker’s Hawk
James Cromwell – Murder by Death
Ron Dean – The Last Affair
Michael Dorn – Rocky
Bill Duke – Car Wash
Joe Flaherty – Tunnel Vision
Paul Freeman – Whose Child Am I?
Richard Griffiths – It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet
Mariel Hemingway – Lipstick
Ernie Hudson – Leadbelly
Amy Irving – Carrie
Michael Kamen – The Next Man
Alice Krige – Vergeet My Nie
Jessica Lange – King Kong
Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Spy Who Never Was
Delroy Lindo – Find the Lady
Mark Margolis – The Opening of Misty Beethoven
Marc McClure – Freaky Friday
Edie McClurg – Carrie
Sam McMurray – The Front
Glenn Morshower – Drive-In
Bill Murray – Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Lena Olin – Face to Face
Holmes Osborne – The Student Body
Stuart Pankin – Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Tim Pigott-Smith – Aces High
Mary Kay Place – Bound for Glory
Jonathan Pryce – Voyage of the Damned
John Ratzenberger – The Ritz
James Rebhorn – The Yum Yum Girls
Isabella Rossellini – A Matter of Time
Cecilia Roth – No toquen a la nena
Deep Roy – The Pink Panther Strikes Again
Mercedes Ruehl – Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Theresa Russell – The Last Tycoon
Helen Shaver – Shoot
Brooke Shields – Alice, Sweet Alice
Ron Silver – Tunnel Vision
P.J. Soles – Carrie
Carol Sutton – Sounder, Part 2
Holland Taylor – The Next Man
Tim Thomerson – Car Wash
Charlene Tilton – Freaky Friday
Frank Vincent – The Death Collector
John Waters (actor) – End Play
Tom Wilkinson – The Shadow Line
Debra Winger – Slumber Party ’57
Tom Wright – Tomcats
Keone Young – Baby Blue Marine
