This is an overview of 1921 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Susannah Yolande Fletcher, known professionally as Susannah York, was an English actress. Her appearances in various films of the 1960s, including Tom Jones (1963) and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), formed the basis of her international reputation. An obituary in The Telegraph characterised her as "the blue-eyed English rose with the china-white skin and cupid lips who epitomised the sensuality of the swinging sixties", who later "proved that she was a real actor of extraordinary emotional range".
Jacinto Benavente y Martínez was one of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century. He was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama".
Corinne Anita Loos was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triangle Film Corporation. She is best known for her 1925 comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and her 1951 Broadway adaptation of Colette's novella Gigi.
Norma Marie Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.
Show People is a 1928 American synchronized sound comedy film directed by King Vidor. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film was a starring vehicle for actress Marion Davies and actor William Haines and included notable cameo appearances by many of the film personalities of the day, including stars Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and John Gilbert, and writer Elinor Glyn. Vidor also appears in a cameo as himself, as does Davies.
Eulalie Jensen was an American actress on the New York stage and in silent films.
Camille is a 1936 American romantic drama film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer directed by George Cukor, and produced by Irving Thalberg and Bernard H. Hyman, from a screenplay by James Hilton, Zoë Akins, and Frances Marion. The picture is based on the 1848 novel and 1852 play La dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The film stars Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Jessie Ralph, Henry Daniell, and Laura Hope Crews. It grossed $2,842,000.
Mary Murillo was an English actress, screenwriter, and businesswoman active during Hollywood's silent era.
Courtenay Foote was an English stage and silent film actor.
Earl O. Schenck was an American film actor. He appeared in 41 films between 1916 and 1946.
Everley Gregg was an English actress. Early in her career, she became associated especially with plays of Noël Coward. She began making films in the 1930s and added television roles in her last decade; she acted until her last year.
Robert Agnew was an American movie actor who worked mostly in the silent film era, making 65 films in both the silent and sound eras.
Du Barry, Woman of Passion is a 1930 American pre-Code dramatic film starring Norma Talmadge, produced by her husband Joseph Schenck, released through United Artists, and based on a 1901 stage play Du Barry written and produced by David Belasco and starring Mrs. Leslie Carter.
John Garrett Underhill was an American author and stage producer who translated the works of Jacinto Benavente, a Spanish dramatist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and a number of other Spanish authors.
Frida Richard was an Austrian actress. She was a prolific actress in both the silent and sound eras.
Captain Courtesy is a lost 1915 American silent drama film directed by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber based upon a novel by Edward Childs Carpenter. The film stars Dustin Farnum, Courtenay Foote, Winifred Kingston, Herbert Standing, and Jack Hoxie. The film was released on April 19, 1915, by Paramount Pictures.
The Unloved Woman is a 1940 Spanish drama film directed by José López Rubio. It is based on the 1913 play of the same title by Jacinto Benavente.
Clare West born Clara Belle Smith was one of the first costume designers in Hollywood. She did notable work in the films of D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. Recognising the importance of film costume in haute couture, some regard her as a predecessor in the American Look.
Annette Westbay (1896–1960) was an American actress and playwright who was active in the early 20th-century. Born in Poland, she was adopted by an American couple and began to perform in theater productions in the 1910s. She wrote plays, sometimes in collaboration with her husband, George Scarborough.
