1902 in film

Years in film
1870s
1880s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890s 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020s 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029

The year 1902 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• March 10 - Circuit Court's decision disallows Thomas Edison from having a monopoly on motion picture technology.
• April 2 - Thomas Lincoln Tally opens the Electric Theater, the first permanent movie theater, in Los Angeles.^[1] Tally co-founds the First National Exhibitors Circuit in 1917.^[2][3]
• August 9 - Georges Méliès' film The Coronation of Edward VII (a staged simulation with inserted actuality footage) is first shown in London on the evening of the Coronation itself.
• September 1 - Actor/producer Méliès premières the first science fiction film, the silent A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans La Lune), at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris, France; it proves an immediate success.^[4] One scene features the animated human face of the moon being struck in the eye by a rocket.
• William Wardell invents an 11 mm amateur film format, Vitak.

Notable films released in 1902

Georges Méliès

Man in the moon scene.

• The Coronation of Edward VII.
• A Trip to the Moon
• Le Voyage de Gulliver à Lilliput et chez les géants

Births

Thelma Ritter.

Larry Fine.

• January 2 - Sybil Seely, silent film actress (d. 1984)
• January 31 - Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968)
• February 14 - Thelma Ritter, American actress (d. 1965)
• March 8 - Louise Beavers, African-American film and television actress (d. 1962)
• March 23 - Philip Ober, American actor (d. 1982)
• March 27 - Kenneth Macpherson, Scottish-born avant-garde film-maker (d. 1971)
• March 28 - Flora Robson, English actress (d. 1984)
• April 25 - Mary Miles Minter, American actress (d. 1984)
• May 2 - Brian Aherne, English actor (d. 1986)
• May 3 - Walter Slezak, Austrian-born character actor and singer (d. 1983)
• May 4 - Mona Mårtenson, Swedish film actress (d. 1956)
• May 10 - David O. Selznick, American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive (d. 1965)
• May 21 - Anatole Litvak, Russian-born American filmmaker (d. 1974)
• May 28 - Luis César Amadori, Italian - Argentine film director and screenwriter (d. 1977)
• May 30 - Stepin Fetchit, American comedian and film actor (d. 1985)
• June 5 - Walter Plunkett, costume designer (d. 1982 )
• June 22 - Marguerite De La Motte, American film actress (d. 1950)
• July 1 - William Wyler, German-born American film director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1981)
• July 18
  • Dimitar Panov, Bulgarian film and theater actor and director (d. 1985)
  • Chill Wills, American actor and a singer (d. 1978)
• August 10
  • Norma Shearer, Canadian-American actress (d. 1983)
  • Curt Siodmak, Polish-born American novelist and screenwriter (d. 2000)
• August 11 - Lloyd Nolan, American film and television actor (d. 1985)
• August 22 - Leni Riefenstahl, German film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer, actress, dancer and propagandist for the Nazis (d. 2003)
• September 5 - Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer and studio executive (d. 1979)
• September 22 - John Houseman, Romanian-born British-American actor and producer (d. 1988)
• October 5 - Larry Fine, American actor, comedian, member of The Three Stooges (d. 1975)
• October 18 - Miriam Hopkins, American film and TV actress (d. 1972)
• October 28 - Elsa Lanchester, British-born American actress (d. 1986)
• December 9 - Margaret Hamilton, American film character actress (d. 1985)
• December 19 - Ralph Richardson, English actor (d. 1983)
• December 19 - Barton MacLane, American actor, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1969)

Deaths

• February 15 - Wilhelmina JR Albregt-Engelman, Dutch actress, dies at 68

References

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