The year 1974 in film involved some significant events.
Events[edit]
- February 7 - Blazing Saddles is released in the USA.
- June 20 - Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanski and featured Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston, is released to worldwide critical acclaim.
- August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J. Geils Band, marries actress Faye Dunaway.
- November 1 - Technicolor ceases its legendary dye-transfer printing process.
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with big fanfare from the studio, most significantly with its film release That's Entertainment!, a retrospective documentary that acknowledges and celebrates the importance and legacy of its prestigious film musicals (e.g. The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain, Meet Me in St. Louis, Gigi, An American in Paris, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, etc.) for the studio.
- October, November, and December, 1974 - Three "disaster films" are released in three consecutive months: Airport 1975, Earthquake, and The Towering Inferno respectively. All were box office successes.
- Kevin Costner made his film debut in Sizzle Beach, U.S.A., although the film was not released until 1986.
Films released[]
Births[]
- January 5 - Daisy Bates, actress
- January 30 - Christian Bale, English actor
- February 8 - Erra Fazira, Malaysian actress
- March 24 - Alyson Hannigan, actress
- April 28 - Penélope Cruz, actress
- May 21 - Fairuza Balk, actress
- June 25 - Karisma Kapoor, Indian actress
- July 8 - Tami Erin, American actress
- July 30 - Hilary Swank, actress
- August 7 - Michael Shannon, actor
- August 15 - Natasha Henstridge, Canadian actress
- August 20 - Amy Adams, American actress
- August 23 - Ray Park, English actor
- September 10 - Ryan Phillippe, American actor
- September 19 - Victoria Silvstedt, Swedish actress and model
- October 17 - Matthew Macfadyen, English actor
- October 28 - Joaquin Phoenix, Puerto Rican-born actor
- November 11 - Leonardo DiCaprio, actor
- November 16 - Chloë Sevigny, American actress
- December 7 - Habieb Naseer, Bollywood director
- December 17 - Giovanni Ribisi, American actor
Deaths[edit][]
- January 31 - Samuel Goldwyn, 94, Polish-American film producer, The Best Years of Our Lives, Guys and Dolls, Wuthering Heights
- February 7 - Arline Judge, 61, American actress, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, Law of the Jungle, The Mysterious Mr. Wong, Sensation Hunters
- February 11 - Anna Q. Nilsson, 85, Swedish actress, Sunset Boulevard, Sorrell and Son, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, An American in Paris
- February 23 - Florence Rice, 67, American actress, At the Circus, Double Wedding, Sweethearts, Four Girls in White, Broadway Melody of 1940
- February 28 - Carole Lesley, 38, British actress, Woman in a Dressing Gown, Three on a Spree, Doctor in Love, What a Whopper
- March 5 - Billy De Wolfe, 67, American actor, Frosty the Snowman, The Perils of Pauline, Blue Skies, Call Me Madam, Lullaby of Broadway
- March 7 - Alberto Rabagliati, 67, Italian singer and actor, The Barefoot Contessa, Street Angel, La vita è bella, The Christmas That Almost Wasn't
- March 19 - Edward Platt, 58, American actor, North by Northwest, Rebel Without a Cause, Shock Treatment, Cape Fear, Pollyanna
- April 2 - Douglass Dumbrille, 84, Canadian actor, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The Ten Commandments, A Day at the Races, Road to Utopia
- April 10 - Patricia Collinge, 81, Irish actress, Shadow of a Doubt, The Nun's Story, The Little Foxes, Teresa
- April 24 - Bud Abbott, 76, American actor, best known as straight man to Lou Costello, Africa Screams, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
- April 30 - Agnes Moorehead, 73, American actress, Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Charlotte's Web
- May 25 - Donald Crisp, 91, British actor, How Green Was My Valley, National Velvet, Lassie Come Home, Wuthering Heights, Pollyanna
- June 28 - Frank Sutton, 50, American actor, Four Boys and a Gun, Town Without Pity
- July 13 - Marthe Vinot, 79, French actress
- August 20 - Ilona Massey, 64, Hungarian actress, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Invisible Agent, Love Happy, Balalaika
- September 6 - Olga Baclanova, 78, Russian actress, Freaks, The Docks of New York, The Man Who Laughs, A Dangerous Woman
- September 18 - Edna Best, 74, British actress, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Intermezzo: A Love Story, South Riding
- September 21 - Walter Brennan, 80, American actor, Rio Bravo, To Have and Have Not, The Gnome-Mobile, How the West Was Won
- September 21 - Jacqueline Susann, 56, American actress, author, Valley of the Dolls, Once Is Not Enough
- October 13 - Ed Sullivan, 73, American television host, actor, Bye Bye Birdie, The Singing Nun
- November 13 - Vittorio De Sica, 73, Italian director, Bicycle Thieves
- November 14 - Johnny Mack Brown, 70, American actor, Coquette, Our Dancing Daughters, Flaming Frontiers, Desert Phantom, The Bounty Killer
- December 15 - Anatole Litvak, 72, Ukrainian director, The Snake Pit, Anastasia, Sorry, Wrong Number, The Night of the Generals
- December 21 - Richard Long, 47, American actor, House on Haunted Hill, The Stranger, The Egg and I
- December 26 - Jack Benny, 80, American actor, To Be or Not to Be, Broadway Melody of 1936, George Washington Slept Here