This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.(September 2025) |
The following is a list of biographical films released before 1950.
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Joan of Arc [1] [2] | Joan of Arc | Jeanne Claviere |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| The Story of the Kelly Gang [1] [2] | Ned Kelly | Frank Mills |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Pyotr Velikiy | Peter the Great | Pyotr Voinov |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet Nell of Old Drury [5] | Nell Gwyn | Nellie Stewart |
| Charles II of England | Augustus Neville | |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Custer's Last Fight . [6] | George Armstrong Custer | Francis Ford |
| Cleopatra [7] | Cleopatra | Helen Gardner |
| From the Manger to the Cross [8] | Jesus | Robert Henderson-Bland |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Adrienne Lecouvreur | Adrienne Lecouvreur | Sarah Bernhardt |
| Giuseppe Verdi nella vita e nella gloria | Giuseppe Verdi | Egisto Cecchi |
| The Life and Works of Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner | Giuseppe Becce |
| Sixty Years a Queen [9] | Queen Victoria | Blanche Forsythe (younger) Louie Henri (older) |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Florence Nightingale [15] | Florence Nightingale | Elisabeth Risdon |
| Mistress Nell [16] | Nell Gwyn | Mary Pickford |
| The Raven [17] | Edgar Allan Poe | Henry B. Walthall |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| David Garrick . [18] [19] | David Garrick | Dustin Farnum |
| Davy Crockett [20] | Davy Crockett | |
| Disraeli [21] | Benjamin Disraeli | Dennis Eadie |
| Joan the Woman [22] | Joan of Arc | Geraldine Farrar |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Casanova [29] | Giacomo Casanova | Alfréd Deésy |
| My Four Years in Germany [30] | James W. Gerard | Halbert Brown |
| The Life Story of David Lloyd George [31] | David Lloyd George | Norman Page |
| Why America Will Win | John J. Pershing | Harris Gordon |
| The Woman the Germans Shot [32] | Edith Cavell | Julia Arthur |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Deliverance [33] | Helen Keller | Ann Mason |
| The Fighting Roosevelts [34] | Theodore Roosevelt | Herbert Bradshaw |
| Private Peat [35] | Harold R. Peat | Harold R. Peat |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Headin' Home [36] | Babe Ruth | Babe Ruth |
| If I Were King [37] | François Villon | William Farnum |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Disraeli [38] | Benjamin Disraeli | George Arliss |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Dick Turpin's Ride to York [39] | Dick Turpin | Matheson Lang |
| Nero [40] | Nero | Jacques Grétillat |
| Peter the Great | Peter the Great | Emil Jannings |
| A Prince of Lovers | Lord Byron | Howard Gaye |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Beau Brummel [47] | Beau Brummel | John Barrymore |
| The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln [48] | Abraham Lincoln | George A. Billings |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| The King of Kings [52] | Jesus | H. B. Warner |
| The Loves of Casanova [53] | Giacomo Casanova | Ivan Mozzhukhin |
| The Life of Beethoven | Ludwig van Beethoven | Fritz Kortner |
| Napoléon [54] | Napoleon Bonaparte | Albert Dieudonné |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| The Divine Lady [59] | Emma Hamilton | Corinne Griffith |
| Lord Horatio Nelson | Victor Varconi | |
| Disraeli [60] | Benjamin Disraeli | George Arliss |
| Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|
| Alexander Hamilton [66] | Alexander Hamilton | George Arliss |
| Dreyfus | Alfred Dreyfus | Cedric Hardwicke |
| Mata Hari [67] | Mata Hari | Greta Garbo |
| Yorck | Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg | Werner Krauss |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)