1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.
Events
Top grossing films (U.S.)
| Rank |
Title |
Studio |
Actors |
Gross |
| 1. |
Mom and Dad* |
Hallmark |
|
$16,000,000 |
| 2. |
The Bells of St. Mary's |
RKO |
Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman |
$8,000,000 |
| 3. |
Leave Her to Heaven |
20th Century Fox |
Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde |
$5,505,000 |
| 4. |
Spellbound |
United Artists |
Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck |
$4,971,000 |
| 5. |
Anchors Aweigh |
MGM |
Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra |
$4,779,000 |
| 6. |
The Dolly Sisters |
20th Century Fox |
Betty Grable and June Haver |
$4,567,000 |
| 7. |
Week-End at the Waldorf |
MGM |
Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner and Walter Pidgeon |
$4,366,000 |
| 8. |
Mildred Pierce |
Warner Bros. |
Joan Crawford |
$4,338,000 |
| 9. |
The Lost Weekend |
Paramount |
Ray Milland and Jane Wyman |
$4,300,000 |
| 10. |
Saratoga Trunk |
Warner Bros. |
Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman |
$4,250,000 |
| 11. |
Diamond Horseshoe |
20th Century Fox |
Betty Grable |
$4,200,000 |
| 12. |
The Valley of Decision |
MGM |
Greer Garson and Gregory Peck |
$4,103,000 |
| 13. |
State Fair |
20th Century Fox |
Jeanne Crain and Dana Andrews |
$3,750,000 |
| 14. |
Love Letters |
Paramount |
Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten |
$3,211,000 |
| 15. |
A Bell for Adano |
20th Century Fox |
Gene Tierney and John Hodiak |
$3,000,000 |
(*) Road show revenue from several continuous years; figure is approximate
Awards
Academy Awards:
- Best Picture: The Lost Weekend - Paramount
- Best Director: Billy Wilder - The Lost Weekend
- Best Actor: Ray Milland - The Lost Weekend
- Best Actress: Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce
- Best Supporting Actor: James Dunn - A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
- Best Supporting Actress: Anne Revere - National Velvet
Golden Globe Awards:
- Best Picture: The Lost Weekend
- Best Director: Billy Wilder - The Lost Weekend
- Best Actor: Ray Milland - The Lost Weekend
- Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman - The Bells of St. Mary's
- Best Film for Promoting International Good Will: The House I Live In (short film)
Films released in 1945
U.S.A. unless stated
- Abbott and Costello in Hollywood, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
- Along Came Jones, starring Gary Cooper and Loretta Young
- Anchors Aweigh, starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra
- And Then There Were None, starring Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Huston
- Back to Bataan, directed by Edward Dmytryk, with John Wayne
- A Bell For Adano, starring Gene Tierney and John Hodiak
- The Bells of St. Mary's, starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman
- Blithe Spirit, directed by David Lean, starring Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings, based on the play by Noel Coward - (U.K.)
- Blood on the Sun, starring James Cagney
- The Body Snatcher
- Brief Encounter, starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, and directed by David Lean - (U.K.)
- Caesar and Cleopatra, directed by Gabriel Pascal, starring Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains - (U.K.)
- Captain Kidd, starring Charles Laughton
- The Cheaters, starring Joseph Schildkraut and Billie Burke
- Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis), by Marcel Carné, starring Arletty, released following the liberation of France
- Christmas in Connecticut, starring Barbara Stanwyck
- The Clock, starring Judy Garland
- Confidential Agent, Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall
- Conflict, starring Humphrey Bogart
- The Corn Is Green, starring Bette Davis and John Dall
- Cornered, directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Dick Powell
- Les dames du Bois de Boulogne, directed by Robert Bresson - (France)
- Dead of Night, Ealing Studios chiller compendium starring Mervyn Johns and Googie Withers - (U.K.)
- Detour, starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage
- Diamond Horseshoe, starring Betty Grable
- Dillinger, starring Lawrence Tierney
- The Dolly Sisters, starring Betty Grable
- The Enchanted Cottage, starring Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young
- Fallen Angel, directed by Otto Preminger, starring Alice Faye in her last major film role, Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell
- Flame of Barbary Coast, starring John Wayne
- Guest Wife, starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche
- Hangover Square, starring Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell and George Sanders
- Here Come the Co-Eds, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
- The House I Live In (short film)
- House of Dracula
- The House on 92nd Street, produced by Louis de Rochemont
- I Know Where I'm Going!, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey - (U.K.)
- I Live in Grosvenor Square, starring Anna Neagle, Rex Harrison and Robert Morley - (U.K.)
- Incendiary Blonde, starring Betty Hutton
- Kiss and Tell
- Lady on a Train
- Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde
- The Lost Weekend, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman
- Love Letters, starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten
- Madonna of the Seven Moons, starring Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger - (U.K.)
- A Medal for Benny, starring Dorothy Lamour
- The Men who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, directed by Akira Kurosawa - (Japan)
- Mildred Pierce, starring Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth
- Mom and Dad, a hygiene documentary
- Momotaro, Sacred Sailors, the first feature length animated film from Japan
- My Name is Julia Ross
- The Naughty Nineties, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
- Objective, Burma!
- Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, starring Edward G. Robinson and Margaret O'Brien
- Perfect Strangers, starring Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr - (U.K.)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring George Sanders
- La porta del cielo, directed by Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
- Pride of the Marines
- Pursuit to Algiers, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
- The Rake's Progress, starring Rex Harrison - (U.K.)
- Rhapsody in Blue, a biopic of George Gershwin starring Robert Alda
- Rome, Open City (Roma Città aperta), directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi - (Italy)
- A Royal Scandal, starring Tallulah Bankhead
- San Antonio
- Saratoga Trunk, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman
- Scarlett Street, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett
- La selva de fuego (The Forest Fire), starring Dolores del Río - (Mexico)
- The Seventh Veil, starring James Mason and Ann Todd - (U.K.)
- Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
- Son of Lassie
- A Song to Remember, a biopic of Frédéric Chopin starring Cornel Wilde
- The Southerner, starring Zachary Scott
- The Spanish Main
- Spellbound, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck
- State Fair, starring Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain
- The Story of G.I. Joe, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum
- They Were Expendable, starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne
- The Thin Man Goes Home, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
- Thrill of a Romance, directed by Richard Thorpe
- Tonight and Every Night, starring Rita Hayworth
- A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, directed by Elia Kazan
- The Valley of Decision, starring Greer Garson and Gregory Peck
- La vida en un hilo - (Spain)
- A Walk in the Sun, starring Dana Andrews
- Waterloo Road, starring John Mills and Stewart Granger - (U.K.)
- The Way to the Stars, starring John Mills and Michael Redgrave, written by Terence Rattigan - (U.K.)
- The Wicked Lady, starring Margaret Lockwood and James Mason - (U.K.)
- The Woman in Green, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
- Wonder Man, starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo
- Yolanda and the Thief
- Ziegfeld Follies, with an MGM all-star cast
Serials
Short film series
Births
- January 25 - Leigh Taylor-Young, actress
- January 29 - Tom Selleck, actor
- February 9 - Mia Farrow, actress
- February 12 - Maud Adams, Swedish actress
- February 16 - Jeremy Bulloch, English actor
- February 17 - Brenda Fricker, Irish actress
- February 24 - Barry Bostwick, actor
- March 7 - John Heard, actor
- April 2 - Linda Hunt, actress
- May 24 - Priscilla Presley, actress
- May 31 - Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- June 2 - Jon Peters, producer
- June 6 - David Dukes, actor (d. 2000)
- June 11 - Adrienne Barbeau, actress
- July 26 - Helen Mirren, English actress
- August 2 - Joanna Cassidy, actress
- August 5 - Loni Anderson, actress
- August 14 - Steve Martin, actor and comedian
- Wim Wenders, German director, producer and screenwriter
- August 23 - Bob Peck, English actor (d. 1999)
- September 21 - Jerry Bruckheimer, producer
- October 19 - John Lithgow, actor
- October 27 - Carrie Snodgress, actress (d. 2004)
- October 31 - Brian Doyle-Murray, actor and comedian
- November 21 - Goldie Hawn, actress
- December 1 - Bette Midler, actress, comedienne and singer
- December 17 - Ernie Hudson, actor
- December 24 - Nicholas Meyer, screenwriter, director and producer
- December 31 - Barbara Carrera, Nicaraguan-born actress
Deaths
Debuts
Notes