1937 in film

The top ten 1937 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

• April 16 – Way Out West premieres in the US.
• May 7 – Shall We Dance premieres in the US.
• May 11 – Captains Courageous premieres in the US.
• Monogram Pictures, who had merged with Republic Pictures two years earlier, decide to separate and distribute their own films again.
• June 7 – Jean Harlow, one of the biggest Hollywood stars of the decade, dies aged 26 at Good Samaratan Hospital in Los Angeles. The official cause of death is listed as cerebral edema, a complication of kidney failure.
• July 9 – The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyed by the 1937 Fox vault fire.
• July 23 – Six weeks after Jean Harlow's death, her final film, Saratoga, is released. It is an instant box office success and becomes the most financially successful film of Harlow's career.
• December 21 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. The film is a massive box office success and briefly holds the record as the highest-grossing sound film of all time.

• Best Picture: The Life of Emile Zola – Warner Bros.
• Best Director: Leo McCarey – The Awful Truth
• Best Actor: Spencer Tracy – Captains Courageous
• Best Actress: Luise Rainer – The Good Earth
• Best Supporting Actor: Joseph Schildkraut – The Life of Emile Zola
• Best Supporting Actress: Alice Brady – In Old Chicago

United States unless stated.

• Blake of Scotland Yard, starring Ralph Byrd and Herbert Rawlinson
• Dick Tracy, starring Ralph Byrd
• Jungle Jim
• Jungle Menace, starring Frank Buck
• The Mysterious Pilot, starring Frank Hawks
• The Painted Stallion, starring Ray Corrigan
• Radio Patrol
• Secret Agent X-9, starring Scott Kolk
• S.O.S. Coast Guard, starring Ralph Byrd and Bela Lugosi
• Tim Tyler's Luck, starring Frankie Thomas
• Wild West Days
• Zorro Rides Again, starring John Carroll

• Harold Lloyd (1913–1938)
• Charlie Chaplin (1914–1940)
• Lupino Lane (1915–1939)
• Buster Keaton (1917–1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921–1945)
• Our Gang (1922–1944)
• Wheeler and Woolsey (1929–1937)
• The Marx Brothers (1929–1946)
• The Three Stooges (1933–1962)

• Krazy Kat (1925–1940)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927–1938)
• Mickey Mouse (1928–1953)
• Silly Symphonies
  • Woodland Café
  • Little Hiawatha
  • The Old Mill
• Screen Songs (1929–1938)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Scrappy (1931–1941)
• Betty Boop (1932–1939)
• Popeye (1933–1957)
• Happy Harmonies (1934–1938)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934–1949)
• Meany, Miny, and Moe (1936-1937)
• Donald Duck (1937–1956)

• January 4 – Dyan Cannon, American actress
• January 14 – Stefano Satta Flores, Italian actor and voice actor (d. 1985)
• January 15 – Margaret O'Brien, American actress
• January 30 – Vanessa Redgrave, English actress
• January 31 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)
• February 25 – Tom Courtenay, English actor
• March 30 – Warren Beatty, American actor and director
• April 6 – Billy Dee Williams, American actor
• April 15 – Uldis Pūcītis, Latvian actor (d. 2000)
• April 20 - George Takei, American actor, author and activist
• April 22 – Jack Nicholson, American actor
• April 27 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
• May 8 – Shin Seong-il, South Korean actor (d. 2018)
• May 12 – George Carlin, American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic and author (d. 2008)
• May 16 – Yvonne Craig, American actress (d. 2015)
• June 1 – Morgan Freeman, American actor and director
• June 2 – Sally Kellerman, American actress and singer
• June 10 – Luciana Paluzzi, Italian actress
• June 14 – Jørgen Leth, Danish director
• June 26 – Sombat Metanee, Thai actor and film director
• July 6 – Ned Beatty, American actor
• July 16 – Ada Rogovtseva, Ukrainian actress
• July 20 – Ken Ogata, Japanese actor (d. 2008)
• August 6 – Barbara Windsor, English actress (d. 2020)
• August 8 – Dustin Hoffman, American actor
• August 14 – Alberta Nelson, American actress (d. 2006)
• August 26 – Kenji Utsumi, Japanese actor (d. 2013)
• September 4 – Mikk Mikiver, Estonian actor and director (d. 2006)
• September 5 – William Devane, American actor
• September 7
  • Cüneyt Arkın, Turkish film actor, producer and director
  • John Phillip Law, American actor (d. 2008)
• September 10 - Brian Murray, South African actor and theatre director (d. 2018)
• September 13
  • Don Bluth, American director and producer
  • Meeli Sööt, Estonian actress
• September 21
  • Ron Cobb, American-Australian graphic and film designer (d. 2020)
  • Aarne Üksküla, Estonian actor (d. 2017)
• October 21 – Édith Scob, French actress (d. 2019)
• November 5 – Harris Yulin, American actor
• November 21 – Ingrid Pitt, Polish-born British actress (d. 2010)
• December 7 – Kenneth Colley, English actor
• December 9 – Darwin Joston, American actor (d. 1998)
• December 21 – Jane Fonda, American actress
• December 29 – Barbara Steele, English actress
• December 30 – Zaldy Zshornack, Filipino actor (d. 2002)
• December 31 – Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor

• January 2 – Ross Alexander, 29, American actor, Captain Blood, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Flirtation Walk
• January 23 – Marie Prevost, 40, Canadian-born American actress, The Marriage Circle, The Racket, The Godless Girl, Cain and Mabel
• February 3 – Marija Leiko, 49, Latvian film actress, The Green Alley, The Rats
• May 1 – Snitz Edwards, 69, Austro-Hungarian-born American actor, The Thief of Bagdad, The Phantom of the Opera, Seven Chances, College
• May 10 – William Tedmarsh, 61, English-American silent film actor
• June 7 – Jean Harlow, 26, American actress, The Public Enemy, Libeled Lady, Suzy, Red Dust
• June 25 – Colin Clive, 37, British actor, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein
• September 21 – Osgood Perkins, 45, American actor, Scarface, Gold Diggers of 1937
• November 13 – Mrs. Leslie Carter, 75, American stage and screen actress, Becky Sharp, Rocky Mountain Mystery
• December 21 – Ted Healy, 41, American actor and creator of The Three Stooges, San Francisco, Mad Love, Beer and Pretzels, Soup to Nuts

• Mel Blanc – Picador Porky
• Broderick Crawford – Woman Chases Man
• Laraine Day – Stella Dallas
• Richard Farnsworth – A Day at the Races
• Glenn Ford – Night in Manhattan
• Susan Hayward – Hollywood Hotel
• Wendy Hiller – Lancashire Luck
• Carole Landis – The King and the Chorus Girl
• Donald O'Connor – It Can't Last Forever
• Ronald Reagan – Love Is on the Air
• Sabu – Elephant Boy
• Lana Turner – They Won't Forget