Events

• February 20 - The film The African Queen opens (Capitol Theater in New York City).
• September 30 - The Cinerama widescreen system, invented by Fred Waller , debuts with the film This Is Cinerama.
• November 27 - Bwana Devil, the first feature-length color 3-D movie, is released.
• May Britt debuts in Jolanda, the Daughter of the Black Corsair

Top grossing films

North America

1. The Greatest Show on Earth, starring Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, Lawrence Tierney, and Gloria Grahame
2. Quo Vadis
3. Ivanhoe, starring Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, and George Sanders
4. The Snows of Kilimanjaro, starring Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, and Ava Gardner
5. Sailor Beware
6. tie The African Queen and Jumping Jacks
7. tie High Noon and Son of Paleface
8. Singin' in the Rain

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: The Greatest Show on Earth - DeMille, Paramount
• Best Actor: Gary Cooper - High Noon
• Best Actress: Shirley Booth - Come Back, Little Sheba

Births

• June 7 - Liam Neeson, actor
• June 18 - Isabella Rossellini, actress
• September 12 - Neil Peart, drummer/songwriter

Deaths

• April 21 - Leslie Banks, actor
• May 8 - Walter Fox , US movie producer
• October 23 - Susan Peters, actress
• October 26 - Hattie McDaniel, African-American actress best known as Mammy in Gone With the Wind

Other movies released

• Ikiru
• Moulin Rouge
• Invasion USA
• Umberto D.
• The World in His Arms
• This Is Cinerama
• Hans Christian Andersen, starring Danny Kaye and Farley Granger
• The Quiet Man by John Ford
• Breaking the Sound Barrier
• Othello by Orson Wells
• Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games)
• My Six Convicts