Want to know the best Eleanor Powell movies? How about the worst Eleanor Powell movies? Curious about Eleanor Powell box office grosses or which Eleanor Powell movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Eleanor Powell 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.
Eleanor Powell (1912-1982) was an American dancer and actress. Her solo tap numbers in musical movies in the 1930s and 1940s were very popular. Her IMDb page shows 15 acting credits from 1930-1953. This page will rank 13 Eleanor Powell movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her one television and one uncredited role were not included in the rankings.
Eleanor Powell 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 Eleanor Powell films by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Eleanor Powel films by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Eleanor Powel films by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Eleanor Powel films by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Eleanor Powel film received.
- Sort Eleanor Powell films by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Eleanor Powell Table
- Ten Eleanor Powell movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 76.92% of her movies listed. Her biggest hit was Thousands Cheer (1943).
- An average Eleanor Powell movie grosses an average of $159.50 million in adjusted domestic gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 9 Eleanor Powell movies are rated as good movies…or 69.23% of her movies. Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) was her highest rated movie while I Dood It (1943) was her lowest rated movie.
- Five Eleanor Powell movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 38.96% of her movies.
- Two Eleanor Powell movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 15.38% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 11 Eleanor Powell movies scored higher than that average….or 84.61% of her movies. Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) got the the highest UMR Score while George White’s 1935 Scandals (1935) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Eleanor Powell
- Eleanor Torrey Powell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1912.
2. Eleanor Powell and her dancing skills were discovered when she was 11 years old. At 17, she was appearing on Broadway and was named ” “the world’s greatest tap dancer”.
3. Eleanor Powell headed to Hollywood in 1935 and quickly became one of the biggest movie stars of the late 1930s and 1940s.
4. Eleanor Powell considered 13 to be her lucky number. Her name is 13 characters long and she starred in 13 movies.
5. Fred Astaire considered Eleanor Powell as the best of his many dancing partners. Her last public appearance was with Astaire when she received an AFI lifetime award in 1981.
6. After retiring from movies, Eleanor Powell hosted the children’s show The Faith of Our Children. She won numerous Emmy® awards for her work on that show.
7. Though she worked with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly….she considred Bill Robinson the most talented dancer that she ever worked with.
8. Eleanor Powell was married one time. She was married to actor, Glenn Ford from 1943 to 1959. They had one son, Peter Ford. The godparent’s of Peter were…..Bill Robinson and Pearl Bailey. (this last fact comes from Paul Brogan)
9. Unlike most other film dancers of her day, Eleanor Powell did not use a choreographer but devised all her own numbers. Consequently, although she danced with some of the best dancers of her era, his most memorable performances were in solos.
10. Check out Eleanor Powell‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Even with just 13 movies under her belt, Eleanor was a very well known international movie star. One can become a household word with just 1 or 2 movies. It all depends on the impact one makes. Just like James Dean starred in only 3 or 4 films, he is a legend. Everyone I know who was alive during the 30’s and 40’s all without exception remembers Eleanor Powell as a major film star, her dancing of course was her hook.
Hey Jack..I agree with your comment. During the golden age of movie making she was one of the biggest stars working. My way of thinking is that she starred in 10 box office hits…pretty impressive when she only made 13 movies. Appreciate the visit and the comment.
An interesting fact about Eleanor Powell – The godparents for her son Peter Ford were Bill Robinson and Pearl Bailey.
Hey Paul…..I like that fact….I liked it so much….I put it on the page…thanks for sharing. I will comment on your other Powell comment in a little bit….gotta go to work.
She was my great aunt and it’s hard for me to watch her stuff because I am built exactly like her, sans grace. Thank you for writing this, I learned a lot!
Hey Meghan….wow….that is awesome that one of Eleanor Powell family members found our page and liked it…..we had a Gene Kelly family member find our page and they were not so happy. Glad you learned something about your great aunt. Good stuff.
Bravo again for your insightful and wonderful page on Eleanor Powell. One correction, however. Her final public appearance in 1981 was at the AFI tribute to Fred Astaire. It was Mr. Astaire who was being honored that evening although Miss Powell’s appearance brought a thunderous standing ovation from the audience. I was fortunate to know Miss Powell during the last 5 years of her life and she was one of the most gracious and humble human beings I have ever known. I taught a film class this past spring about Ellie’s career and the response was overwhelming. Many noted that while she was not the best actress by any stretch (something she freely admitted), something happened when she began dancing that set her apart from just about anyone else. Thanks again for making this lovely lady a part of your site.
Hello! She was my great aunt and Id love to know more about her if you have the time!
Hey Meghan….not sure I have too much information on her…but I will see if I can find some more “possibly interesting facts about her”. Glad you found our page.
It’s been at least a week since I last posted here. I thought I’d give the UMR a break until Bruce had finished tweaking and refining it, and gave it a bit more attention. I’ve only missed two pages.
I expected more films from Miss Powell. I’ve seen 4 of these – Broadway Melody of 1936, 1938 and 1940, plus Born to Dance. I may have seen Thousands Cheer but I can’t remember.
Good work. Voted Up!
Hey Steve….thanks for checking out our Eleanor Powell page. Your 4 tops me…as I have not seen any of these movies. Her career was short but filled with some massive box office successes. I want to see Born To Dance….hopefully I will be able to find that movie in the near future.
As for the site….lots of changes happening…..but it will probably be awhile before we get this entire site “dynamic”. This weekend was crazy…I was traveling all weekend…while WoC was working of the website….she made some awesome changes. I just got back….and I only have 4 hours before I have to wake up and go to school. But the stuff WoC is mind blowingly good!