Cineliteracy: What You Need to Know about 1983 as Movie Year
My Oscar Book:
Top-Grossing Films of 1983
Rank Title Distributor Box-office gross
10 Risky Business Warner Bros. $63,541,777
9 Mr. Mom 20th Century Fox $64,783,827
8 Staying Alive Paramount $64,892,670
7 Sudden Impact Warner Bros. $67,642,693
6 Octopussy United Artists $67,893,619
5 WarGames United Artists $79,567,667
4 Trading Places Paramount $90,404,800
3 Flashdance Paramount $92,921,203
2 Terms of Endearment Paramount $108,423,489
1 Return of the Jedi 20th Century-Fox $309,306,177
Events
February 11 –
The Rolling Stones concert film Let’s Spend the Night Together opens in New York City.
May 25 –
Return of the Jedi, the final installment in the original Star Wars trilogy, becomes the year’s highest-grossing film.
Oscar winner Nicole Kidman makes film debut in Australian movie Bush Christmas.
Brainstorm, the final film of star Natalie Wood, is released 2 years after her death.
October –
Frank Price resigns as president of Columbia Pictures and is replaced by Guy McElwaine.
November 18 –
A Christmas Story released to theaters to moderate success, earning $2 million in its first weekend. By Christmas 1983, the film is no longer playing at most venues but remains in about a hundred theatres until January 1984. Gross earnings were just over $19.2 million. Over the years, the film’s critical reputation grows considerably; now regarded as one of the best films of 1983.
Awards
56th Academy (Oscars) Awards, April 9, 1984
Best Film: Terms of Endearment
Best Director: James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
Best Actor: Robert Duvall, Tender Mercies
Best Actress: Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment
Best Supporting Actor: Jack Nicholson, Terms of Endearment
Best Supporting Actress: Linda Hunt, The Year of Living Dangerously
Best Screenplay, Adapted, James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
Best Screenplay, Original, Horton Foote, Tender Mercies
Best Original Score Giorgio Moroder, Flashdance
Best Original Song “Flashdance… What a Feeling”
Flashdance “Up Where We Belong”
Best Foreign Language Film: Fanny and Alexander, Bergman
Palme d’Or (Cannes Film Fest): The Ballad of Narayama, Shohei Imamura, Japan
Golden Lion (Venice Film Fest): Prénom Carmen (First Name: Carmen), Godard,
Golden Bear (Berlin Film Fest): Ascendancy, Edward Bennett, UK; The Beehive (La Colmena), Mario Camus, Spain
Births
Deaths
Month Date Name Age Country Profession Notable films
January
Jan 24, George Cukor 83, US Director, The Philadelphia Story, My Fair Lady
Feb 25 Tennessee Williams 71 US Screenwriter, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
March 9
Faye Emerson 65 US Actress, The Mask of Dimitrios, Nobody Lives Forever
March 14
Maurice Ronet 55 France Actor, Elevator to the Gallows, Purple Noon
Apr 4
Gloria Swanson 84 US Actress, Sunset Boulevard, Sadie Thompson
5 Bronisław Kaper 81 Poland Composer
Lili Mutiny on the Bounty
Apr 11
Apr 21
Walter Slezak 80 Austria Actor, Lifeboat (Hitchcock), Ten Thousand Bedrooms
May 1
Joseph Ruttenberg 93 Ukraine Cinematographer, Brigadoon, Gigi (Minnelli)
May 5
John Williams 80 UK Actor, Dial M for Murder, To Catch a Thief
8 Fay Spain 50 US Actress
Al CaponeGod’s Little Acre
22 Art Cruickshank 68 US Special Effects Artist
Fantastic VoyageThe Black Hole
23 George Bruns 68 US Composer
The Jungle BookOne Hundred and One Dalmatians
23 Eve Gray 87 UK Actress
Murder at Monte CarloMidnight
25 Sydney Box 78 UK Producer, Screenwriter
The Seventh VeilA Girl in a Million
28 John C. Howard 52 US Film Editor
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance KidBlazing Saddles
May 30
Burnett Guffey 78 US Cinematographer, Bonnie and Clyde, From Here to Eternity
June 12
Norma Shearer 80 Canada Actress, The Women, Marie Antoinette
22 David MacDonald 79 UK Director
Dead Men Tell No TalesThe Moonraker
23 Jonathan Latimer 76 US Screenwriter
The Glass KeyThe Big Clock
30 Herbert Baker 62 US Screenwriter
Dream WifeMurderers’ Row
July 1 Charles G. Clarke 84 US Cinematographer
Miracle on 34th StreetHello, Frisco, Hello
5 Harry James 67 US Musician, Actor
Two Girls and a SailorThe Opposite Sex
9 Robert Dawn 61 US Makeup Artist
Marnie, Black Sunday
15 Eddie Foy Jr. 78 US Actor
Yankee Doodle DandyBells Are Ringing
16
Samson Raphaelson 89 US Screenwriter, The Shop Around the Corner, Heaven Can Wait
17 Byron Kennedy 33 Australia Producer
Mad MaxMad Max 2
20 E. Preston Ames 77 US Art Director
An American in ParisAirport
23 Georges Auric 84 France Composer
Roman HolidayThe Wages of Fear
25 Jerome Moross 69 US Composer
The Big CountryRachel, Rachel
29 Luis Buñuel 83 Spain Screenwriter, Director, Actor
Un Chien AndalouBelle de Jour
29 Raymond Massey 86 Canada Actor
Arsenic and Old LaceEast of Eden
29 David Niven 73 UK Actor
The Pink PantherThe Guns of Navarone
30 Lynn Fontanne 95 UK Actress
The GuardsmanThe Magnificent Yankee
August 1 Peter Arne 64 UK Actor
Straw DogsChitty Chitty Bang Bang
Aug 3
Carolyn Jones 53 US Actress, King Creole, Last Train from Gun Hill
Aug 29
Simon Oakland 68 US Actor, Psycho, West Side Story
September 15 LeRoy Prinz 88 US Choreographer, Director
Show BoatYankee Doodle Dandy
16 Henry Grace 76 US Set Decorator
GigiNorth by Northwest
27 Ben Carruthers 47 US Actor
ShadowsThe Dirty Dozen
30 William Elliott 49 US Actor
CoffyNight of the Lepus
October 5 Rafael Bertrand 66 Cuba Actor
The ProfessionalsIsle of the Snake People
8 Joan Hackett 49 US Actress
Only When I LaughThe Last of Sheila
10 Ralph Richardson 80 UK Actor, Director
Doctor ZhivagoThe Heiress
11 William Hornbeck 82 US Film Editor
A Place in the SunIt’s a Wonderful Life
14 Paul Fix 82 US Actor
To Kill a MockingbirdGiant
15 Pat O’Brien 83 US Actor
Some Like It HotAngels with Dirty Faces
17 Vittorio Nino Novarese 76 Italy Costume Designer
CleopatraCromwell
18 Barbara Karinska 97 Ukraine Costume Designer
Joan of ArcHans Christian Andersen
22 Paul Hardwick 64 UK Actor
Romeo and JulietJulius Caesar
November ? Eleanore Whitney 66 US Actress
Rose BowlBlonde Trouble
8 Robert Agnew 84 US Actor
The Heart of BroadwayThe College Hero
15 John Le Mesurier 71 UK Actor
The Moon-SpinnersThe Italian Job
18 Marcel Dalio 83 France Actor
SabrinaTo Have and Have Not
22 Michael Conrad 58 US Actor
The Longest YardThey Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
28 Johnnie Davis 73 US Actor
Hollywood HotelCowboy from Brooklyn
28 Christopher George 52 US Actor
El Dorado, Midway
December 2 Fifi D’Orsay 79 Canada Actress
Those Three French GirlsGoing Hollywood
Dec 5
Robert Aldrich 65 US Director, Dirty Dozen, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Dec 8
Slim Pickens 64 US Actor, Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles
Dec 17
Hal Pereira 78 US Art Director, Vertigo (Hitchcock) Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Dec 28
William Demarest 91 US Actor, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Film Debuts
Curtis Armstrong – Risky Business
Rowan Atkinson – Never Say Never Again
Kathy Baker – The Right Stuff
Steven Bauer – Scarface
Luc Besson (director) – Le Dernier Combat
Juliette Binoche – Liberty Belle
Eric Bogosian – Born in Flames
Mark Boone Junior – Variety
Matthew Broderick – Max Dugan Returns
Clancy Brown – Bad Boys
Ron Canada – The Man Who Wasn’t There
Jim Carrey – All in Good Taste
Wendy Crewson – Skullduggery
John Cusack – Class
Lolita Davidovich – Class
Warwick Davis – Return of the Jedi
William B. Davis – The Dead Zone
Vincent D’Onofrio – The First Turn-On!
Chris Elliott – Lianna
Frances Fisher – Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
Matt Frewer – The Lords of Discipline
Andy García – Blue Skies Again
Jeff Garlin – Spring Break
Mary Pat Gleason – Easy Money
Crispin Glover – My Tutor
John Goodman – Eddie Macon’s Run
Kelsey Grammer – WarGames
Graham Greene – Running Brave
David Alan Grier – Streamers
Lukas Haas – Testament
Tess Harper – Tender Mercies
Arliss Howard – The Prodigal
James Newton Howard (film composer) – Twilight Zone: The Movie
Jack Kehler – Strange Invaders
Nicole Kidman – Bush Christmas
Jane Krakowski – National Lampoon’s Vacation
Maurice LaMarche – Rock & Rule
Al Leong – Twilight Zone: The Movie
Ray Liotta – The Lonely Lady
John Bedford Lloyd – Trading Places
Rob Lowe – The Outsiders
Virginia Madsen – Class
Camryn Manheim – Sudden Impact
Andrew McCarthy – Class
Kelly McGillis – Reuben, Reuben
Peter McRobbie – Zelig
Julio Oscar Mechoso – Guaguasi
Fred Melamed – Lovesick
Matthew Modine – Baby It’s You
Rick Moranis – Strange Brew
Megan Mullally – Risky Business
Judd Nelson – Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel
Afemo Omilami – Trading Places
Chazz Palminteri – Home Free All
Michael Paré – Eddie and the Cruisers
Sarah Jessica Parker – Somewhere Tomorrow
Alexandra Paul – American Nightmare
Bronson Pinchot – Risky Business
Larry Poindexter – Going Berserk
Kevin Pollak – The Right Stuff
Kelly Preston – 10 to Midnight
Paul Rodriguez – D.C. Cab
Mimi Rogers – Blue Skies Again
Alan Ruck – Bad Boys
Julian Sands – Privates on Parade
Ally Sheedy – Bad Boys
Elisabeth Shue – Somewhere Tomorrow
Kiefer Sutherland – Max Dugan Returns
Lea Thompson – Jaws 3-D
J. T. Walsh – Eddie Macon’s Run
Julie Walters – Educating Rita
Lynn Whitfield – Doctor Detroit
Kathleen Wilhoite – Private School
