Brian Keith Movies

Brian Keith

Want to know the best Brian Keith movies?  How about the worst Brian Keith movies?  Curious about Brian Keith box office grosses or which Brian Keith movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Brian Keith movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Brian Keith (1921-1997) was an American film, television, and stage actor.  His roles went from westerns in the 1950s to Disney movies in the 1960s to good-hearted curmudgeon roles in the 1970s and 1980s.  His IMDb page shows 162 acting credits from 1924-1999. This page will rank 47 Brian Keith movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His many television appearances, and some of his 1950s B westerns were not were not included in the rankings.

Drivel Part 1:  Growing up, Brian Keith, was one of the tv dads I watched all the time in re-runs.  I imagine I watched each episode of Family Affair at least three times.  He has always reminded me of John Wayne….anybody else see the resemblance?  Drivel Part 2:  Last night the Cogerson family was visiting new neighbors.  Amazingly the talk turned to movies (I wonder how that happened?).  WoC was showing off UMR.com and asking…”Who is your favorite actor? I bet we have a page on them.”  Well the first 4 or 5 answers, did in fact have UMR pages.  Then Rebecca (the mom of the family) asked if we had a Brian Keith page.  Well…last night the answer was no….but today the answer is yes!

Brian Keith and Maureen O’Hara in 1961’s The Parent Trap

Brian Keith Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Brian Keith Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Brian Keith movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Brian Keith movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Brian Keith movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Brian Keith movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Brian Keith movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Brian Keith movie won.
  • Sort Brian Keith movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
 
Brian Keith and Steve McQueen in 1966’s Nevada Smith

Possibly Interesting Facts About Brian Keith

1.  Robert Alba Keith was born in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1921.  He was the son of character actor Robert Keith and stage actress Helena Shipman.

2.  Brian Keith made his movie debut when he was 3 years old.  He appeared in the silent movie Pied Piper Malone in 1924.  He would not return to movies until he was in his 30s.

3.  Brian Keith served in the United States Marines during World War II.  He was a radio-gunner in the rear cockpit of a two-man Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber. He received an Air Medal for his service.

4.  Brian Keith spent seven years on the New York stage in summer stock and live television before moving to California to find work films.

5.  Brian Keith and Michael Landon were best friends.  They became friends on the set of tv series Crusader in 1955.  They lived near each other and remained close until Landon’s death in 1991. 

6.  Brian Keith was married 3 times and had 7 children.

7.  Brian Keith was offered the Robert Ryan role in 1969’s The Wild Bunch.  He had to turn it down due scheduling conflicts with his tv show Family Affair.

8.  Brian Keith and his dad Robert Keith both made movies with Marlon Brando.  Robert appeared in Brando’s The Wild Ones and Guys and Dolls.  While Brian appeared in Brando’s Reflections in a Golden Eye.

9.  Brian Keith and suicide.  Normally avoid negative stuff here…but sharing this fact.  Keith’s step mother killed herself by jumping off the H in the legendary Hollywood sign in Los Angles in 1929. His daughter Daisy killed herself in 1997, just 10 weeks before Brian Keith killed himself.  He had been diagnosed with emphysema and lung cancer. He also had financial problems and was depressed by the suicide of his daughter.

10. Check out Brian Keith’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time

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41 thoughts on “Brian Keith Movies”

  1. I’m trying to find the title of a movie with the same storyline as Man Without a Star. It had Brian Keith as the top hand that replaced Ben Johnson when he quit because the woman owner of the ranch was bringing in too many cattle which caused a range war. Brian Keith lost a gunfight with the “kid” at the end of the movie.
    The guy that played ‘Bones’ McCoy on Star Treck was also in it.

    Reply

    1. Hey Charles……hmmm….well….I know three movies that starred Brian Keith and Ben Johnson. Ten Who Dared, The Rare Breed and Something Big….but none of those movies sound like the one you are mentioning….and DeForrest Kelly is not in either of those movies. Let me do some further research. Thanks for stopping by and asking your question.

      Reply

    2. I think the movie being talked about is called The Bull of the West. That was a tv movie shown in 1972 that used two episodes from The Virginian television show from 1963 and 1965. Pretty sure the episode with Keith, Johnson and Kelly was Duel at Shiloh. Hope that helps.

      Reply

      1. Thank you In The Shadows. Sounds like the right answer to me. Do you happen to see Clare’s question about a Robert Young movie?

        Reply

    1. Hey G. Vandross…..I am right there with you about Brian Keith and his connection to Uncle Bill and Family Affair. This page has been picking up a lot of views in the last few weeks…..not sure why…..but I will be glad to have people visit our UMR Keith page. Good feedback.

      Reply

  3. Can someone identify the title of the western movie which saw BRIAN KEITH hold off a horde of A[ache while the rest of troop escaped. The sequences show ….
    Brian Keith is a Cavalry soldier. He is behind a large rock. A large band of Apache are coming at him. We see many hands dive into an open bag full of cartridges. Brian is firing a Henry Repeater. He is whistling as he holds the Apaches from catching up to the rest of the Troop… and I believe there is a woman riding with the Troop. BUT… what is the name of the film that scenario appeared?

    Reply

    1. I would guess either Arrowhead or Fort Dobbs if Keith was a supporting actor. If he was the lead actor then maybe it was The Raiders. My final guess would be The Hallelujah Trail.

      Reply

      1. Hey In The Shadows….thanks for putting out some suggestions for Graeme’s question. I have only seen The Hallelujah Trail…..so I do not know the answer to the question….but those 4 suggestions seem like good places to start. I bet Steve could confirm or deny the Arrowhead suggeston….as I am sure he has seen that Heston movie at least once. Good stuff.

        Reply

    2. Hey Graeme M. I am sorry to say that I do not know which Brian Keith movie that is. In The Shadows has provided 4 possible answers….hope that helps…..and maybe some of the more knowing UMR regulars can provide a better answer. Thanks for finding our Keith page.

      Reply

  4. Brian Keith’s father Robert Keith was a brilliant character actor. His two best performances for me were in 1956’s Written in the Wind and the 1958 The Lineup in which he played a psychopathic killer who, along with fellow hitman Eli Wallach, murdered several people in a joint rampage during the course of the movie. For my money son Brian was to no great extent a “chip of the old block” as I found him on many occasions a relatively wooden actor. However as always the posters and stills in your video are first-class and deserve a solid 97% rating in my book.

    The best POSTERS for me are: (1) The Raiders (2) Five against The House (3) a stunning one for Krakatoa (4) foreign language one for Arrowhead (5) a quite raunchy one for Chicago Confidential (6) 1st one for Tight Spot (7) the 2 for A Tiger Walks (8) The Rare Breed with Jimmy in iconic prominence (9) Run of the Arrow (10) 2 for Nightfall – a forgotten B movie gem. (11) The Wind and the Lion and (12) The Young Philadelphians [aka The City Jungle].

    My pick of the STILLS are (1) Lobby card for 5 Against the House (2) Chicago Confidential (3) Brian with my Doris (4) Chuck and Brian in Mountain Men – I think, as they were really unrecognizable (5) lobby card for Sharkey’s Machine (6) lobby card for Deadly Companions (7) lobby card for Run of the Arrow (8) Brian with Brando and Taylor – the only occasion on which those two megastars ever paired together in a movie though they frequently socialised in private life (9) Brian with McQueen and (10) Brian with Big Bob.

    Reply

    1. Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing and rating my Brian Keith video, appreciate the info.

      Glad you liked the picture gallery.

      I have to disagree with you about Keith being ‘wooden’, in the films I’ve seen him in he was amiable, had bags of charisma and in good humour (or ‘humor’ in the US).

      I thought Keith deserved an Oscar nomination for playing Teddy Roosevelt with such gusto in The Wind and the Lion. And another for his blustery Russian scientist in that much loved classic Meteor. [Stop it Steve!]

      ‘gusto’ ‘blustery’ doesn’t quite fit in with your ‘wooden’ interpretation eh? [Bob glares]

      No 10s or 9s in Brian Keith’s filmography but there are 11 films scoring 8 out of 10 including Hooper, Run of the Arrow, The Violent Men, The Russians are Coming and The Lion and the Wind.

      Young Philadelphians tops the bill at IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. Bruce’s top 5 doesn’t match mine at all.

      “I’ve made I don’t know how many pictures. Forty, I guess. I’ve seen only about a half dozen of them. We made Reflections in a Golden Eye in Rome, last spring. I really enjoyed working with Liz and Brando and that great director, John Huston. But the kind of picture I enjoy seeing is something like The Parent Trap. That was a charming thing, with Hayley Mills playing my twin daughters. I saw that four times. I even took my wife’s parents to see it. I like it so much, I forgot I was in it, as a matter of fact.”

      Reply

      1. HI STEVE Thanks for our feedback on my Brian Keith post.

        Interesting quote about Brando. In fact one thing Brian and his dad did have in common was both supported the Greta Mumbler in films – Brian in Reflections of course and Dad Keith in The Wild One and Guys and Dolls. Robert Keith also supported another of my idols, Laddie, on 3 occasions -Branded (1950) Drum Bear (1954) and Duel of Champions in 1961, Robert’s own final main screen film.

        Whilst you and I might disagree about Brian’s acting abilities it occurs to me on reading your Geoffrey Rush post that we do maybe agree that the “outing” of celebs who are supposed to have behaved “inappropriately” has probably gone a bit too far, especially when some of the accusations relate to alleged occurrences a life time ago?

        I’m told that for the most part the pursuers go after those celebs who have annoyed a lot of people in matters that often have nothing to do with the inappropriate behaviour accusations, and I suppose by that token the Master if still around might have been accused of even trumped-up offences. I just hope for The Work Horse’s sake that nobody retrospectively tries to unfairly accuse The Master of being a pedophile or a stalker. Hirsch has certainly upset enough people to attract undue attention to himself.

        For example some historians allege that Nixon was brought down not really because he was a crook [which he seemingly was] but because he signed the retreat of the US Vietnam without achieving victory.

        Maybe therefore when we see the witch hunting that is going on today we were in hindsight too hard on the Senator from Wisconsin and his red scare witch hunts.

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob. Interesting about Brian Keith’s dad being Robert Keith. My mom, the other day was talking about David Keith and how he was Brian’s son. At first, I was like….I did not know that….but when I thought about Brian and David’s looks….I was like….how did I not now that. However, after an internet search I see that Brian and David are not related at all….even though they could pass for father and son. Brian will have to be happy with his two generations of actors in his family.

          Reply

          1. HI BRUCE

            Thanks for your feedback on my Brian Keith comments.

            Given that Steve and I are divided about Brian Keith’s acting abilities it would have been interesting to read what The Great Man might have thought of Brian. But unfortunately neither father nor son Keith are mentioned in The Dark Book.

            Anyway if you haven’t already seen the movies you can witness for yourself Robert Keith’s versatility in playing a devoted father whose “trampish” daughter’s promiscuity gives him a fatal heart attack in 1956’s Written on the Wind and by way of great contrast Robert acting a brutal psychopathic mass-murdering hit-man in the 1958’s The Lineup.

            You give Written on the Wind a high 84% rating and IMDB gives The Lineup 74%. Despite several combs down your 1958 annual review I haven’t been able to spot an entry for The Lineup which was released Stateside on 1 Jun 58. I saw it in July 58 over here on a double bill with Van Heflin’s western Gunman’s Walk which IS in your 1958 chart.

  5. Added Steve’s Brian Keith video to this page. Our thoughts on his latest.

    “Brian Keith….a big name from my childhood. A neighbor requested a Keith page about a year ago….so I will have to send this video to them. Overall I have seen 14 of his movies…no new ones since I wrote my page. Our pages/video are pretty far apart. As neither one of our Top Picks made the others Top 5. But variety is the spice of life. Favorites would include #10 Hooper….just recently re-watched that one. #5 Nevada Smith….a small but important role for Keith #2 The Young Phillies….one of Newman’s first starring roles and #19 Mountain Men. Added this video to our Keith page. Voted up and shared.”

    Reply

    1. Bruce, thanks for the comment, vote and share, much appreciated. I’ve seen 10, Flora 11, Bruce 14.Oh dear our rankings don’t match at all. Different sources, different scores. It happens. :)

      Reply

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