1926 in film

The top ten 1926 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

• February – The oldest surviving animated feature film is released in the Weimar Republic, directed by Lotte Reiniger. It is called The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed).
• August 2 – MGM's Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ opens in Los Angeles.[8]
• August 5 – Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system uses multiple 33⅓ rpm gramophone records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back music and sound effects synchronized with film.
• August 23 – Rudolph Valentino, whose film The Son of the Sheik was currently playing, dies at the age of 31 in New York. Riots occur at the funeral parlor as thousands of people try to see his body.
• October 7 – Warner Brothers release the second Vitaphone film, The Better 'Ole, starring Sydney Chaplin.
• December 5 – The 1925 Soviet film Battleship Potemkin premieres in the United States, at the Biltmore Theatre in Manhattan.[9]
• Theodore W. Case and E. I. Sponable demonstrate their sound-on-film experiments to William Fox of the Fox Film Corporation. The Fox-Case Corp. is formed in an effort to exploit the system, which is given the name Movietone. Fox begin to create Movietone News newsreels at this time. One of the first newsreels is of Charles Lindbergh's takeoff for Paris.
• Al Jolson films A Plantation Act, one of the first unreleased talkies and a test film for The Jazz Singer
• Ang Tatlong Hambog (The Three Humbugs), the first Filipino film to feature a kissing (make out) scene, is released in the Philippines.

For the complete list of US film releases for the year, see United States films of 1926

• Charlie Chaplin (1914–1940)
• Buster Keaton (1917–1944)
• Our Gang (1922–1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921–1943)
• Harry Langdon (1924–1936)

• Felix the Cat (1919–1936)
• Koko the Clown (1919–1934)
• Alice Comedies
  • Alice on the Farm
  • Alice's Balloon Race
  • Alice's Orphan
  • Alice's Little Parade
  • Alice's Mysterious Mystery
  • Alice Charms the Fish
  • Alice's Monkey Business
  • Alice in the Wooly West
  • Alice the Fire Fighter
  • Alice Cuts the Ice
  • Alice Helps the Romance
  • Alice's Spanish Guitar
  • Alice's Brown Derby
  • Alice the Lumber Jack
• Koko's Song Car Tunes (1924–1927)
• Krazy Kat (1925–1940)
• Un-Natural History (1925–1927)
• Pete the Pup (1926–1927)

• January 6 – Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian-American actor and 1955 Mr. Universe (died 2006)
• January 14 – Tom Tryon, actor and novelist (died 1991)
• January 15 – Maria Schell, actress (died 2005)
• January 17 – Moira Shearer, actress and dancer (died 2006)
• January 19 – Fritz Weaver, actor (died 2016)
• January 20 – Patricia Neal, actress (died 2010)
• February 2 – Lia Laats, actress (died 2004)
• February 11 – Leslie Nielsen, actor and comedian (died 2010)
• February 16 – John Schlesinger, director (died 2003)
• February 20 – Gillian Lynne, dancer, actress and choreographer (died 2018)
• March 6 – Andrzej Wajda, director (died 2016)
• March 16 – Jerry Lewis, American actor (died 2017)
• April 5 – Roger Corman, American director
• April 7 – Prem Nazir, Indian actor (died 1989)
• April 8 – Shirley Mills, American actress (died 2010)
• April 12 – Jane Withers, American actress
• April 14 – Gloria Jean, American actress and singer (died 2018)
• April 22 – Charlotte Rae, American actress (died 2018)
• April 30 – Cloris Leachman, American actress
• May 8 – Don Rickles, American comedian and actor (died 2017)
• May 10 – Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, American film personality, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter (died 2004)
• May 11 – Frank Thring, Australian actor (died 1994)
• June 1
  • Andy Griffith, American actor (died 2012)
  • Marilyn Monroe, American actress (died 1962)[10]
• June 13 – Paul Lynde, American comedian and actor (died 1982)
• June 28 – Mel Brooks, American entertainer
• July 5 – Diana Lynn, American actress (died 1971)
• July 10 – Carleton Carpenter, American actor, magician, author and songwriter
• July 14 – Harry Dean Stanton, American character actor (died 2017)
• July 21 – Norman Jewison, Canadian director
• July 22 – Bryan Forbes, English director (died 2013)
• August 7 – Stan Freberg, American voice actor, author, radio personality and comedian (died 2015)
• August 29 – Betty Lynn, American actress
• September 19 – James Lipton, American actor, screenwriter and presenter
• October 15 – Jean Peters, American actress (died 2000)
• October 17
  • Julie Adams, American actress (died 2019)
  • Beverly Garland, American actress (died 2008)
• October 18 – Klaus Kinski, German actor (died 1991)
• November 1 – Betsy Palmer, American actress (died 2015)
• November 30 – Richard Crenna, American actor (died 2003)
• December 1 – Allyn Ann McLerie, American actress
• December 18 – Walter Lassally, German-born British-Greek cinematographer (died 2017)

• January 30 – Barbara La Marr, actress (born 1896)
• February 6 – Carrie Clark Ward, actress (born 1862)
• April 20 – Billy Quirk, actor (born 1873)
• March 2 – Victory Bateman, actress (born 1865)
• May 7 - Lillian Lawrence, actress (born 1868)
• July 22 – Willard Louis, actor (born 1882)
• July 23 - Charles Avery[11]
• August 22 – Joe Moore, actor, brother of Mary Moore, Matt Moore, Owen Moore & Tom Moore
• August 23 – Rudolph Valentino, actor (born 1895)
• August 30 – Eddie Lyons, American actor (born 1886)
• September 8 – Kisaburo Kurihara, Japanese actor (born 1885)
• September 11 – Matsunosuke Onoe, actor (born 1875)
• October 31 – Harry Houdini, magician & actor (born 1874)
• November 7 – Tom Forman, silent film actor & director (born 1893)
• November 8 – James K Hackett, stage & silent film actor (born 1869)
• November 17 – Harold Vosburgh, silent film actor (born 1870)

• Sterling Holloway – The Battling Kangaroo
• Nancy Kelly – The Untamed Lady
• Joel McCrea – Torrent
• Franklin Pangborn – Exit Smiling
• Buddy Rogers – Fascinating Youth
• Mickey Rooney – Not to Be Trusted (as Mickey McBain)
• John Wayne – Brown of Harvard