Burt Lancaster Movies

Shirley Jones and Burt Lancaster both won Oscars for 1960's Elmer Gantry.
Shirley Jones and Burt Lancaster both won Oscars for 1960’s Elmer Gantry.

Want to know the best Burt Lancaster movies?  How about the worst Burt Lancaster movies?  Curious about Burt Lancaster’s box office grosses or which Burt Lancaster movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Burt Lancaster 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.

Burt Lancaster (1913-1994)  was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique, blue eyes, and distinctive smile.  During his long career he was nominated for four Best Actor Oscars®. He won the Oscar® for his performance in 1960’s Elmer Gantry.  He was also nominated for five Best Actor Golden Globes®.  AFI (American Film Institute) listed Lancaster on their Top 50 Screen Legends list.  He was ranked as the 19th greatest actor.

His IMDb page shows 87 acting credits from 1946-1991. This page will rank Burt Lancaster movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, cameos and his straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings.

Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis in 1957's Sweet Smell of Success
Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis in 1957’s Sweet Smell of Success

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

Burt Lancaster 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 Burt Lancaster movies by co-stars of his movies
  • Sort Burt Lancaster movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Burt Lancaster movies by yearly box office rank
  • Sort Burt Lancaster movies by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or highis should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Burt Lancaster movie received.
  • Sort Burt Lancaster 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.
  • Use the sort and search buttons to make this a very interactive table…for example you want to just see the Kirk Douglas/Lancaster movies….just type in Kirk in the search box and the 5 movies will pop right up.

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Burt Lancaster Table

  1. Twenty-five Burt Lancaster movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 37.31% of his movies listed. Airport (1970) was his biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Burt Lancaster movie grossed $100.00 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  53 Burt Lancaster movies are rated as good movies…or 79.10% of his movies.  Sweet Smell of Success (1957) is his highest rated movie while Vengenance Valley (1951) is his lowest rated movie.
  4. Twenty Burt Lancaster movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 29.85% of his movies.
  5. Seven Burt Lancaster movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 10.44% of his movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 39.86.  43 Burt Lancaster movies scored higher that average….or 64.17% of his movies.  From Here to Eternity (1953) got the the highest UMR Score while Executive Action (1973) got the lowest UMR Score.
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in one of the most famous movie kisses of all time...in 1953's From Here To Eternity
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in one of the most famous movie kisses of all time…in 1953’s From Here To Eternity

Possibly Interesting Facts About Burt Lancaster

1. Burt Lancaster was born Burton Stephen Lancaster in Manhatten, New York City.

2. Burt Lancaster starred with Kirk Douglas seven movies…. Victory at Entebbe (1976), Tough Guys (1986), Seven Days in May (1964), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), I Walk Alone (1948), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and The Devil’s Disciple (1959).  Victory at Entebbe (tv movie) and The List of Adrian Messenger (cameo role) did not make our rankings.

3. Burt Lancaster was married three times.  He had 5 children (3 daughters and two sons).  One of his sons, Bill Lancaster, wrote the screenplay for 1976’s The Bad News Bears. It was based on his experience of being coached by his father.  The coach played by Walter Matthau was based on Burt, who was known for his grumpiness.

4. Burt Lancaster’s production company, Hecht Hill Lancaster, produced 1955’s Marty…..which won the Oscar® for Best Picture.

5. Burt Lancaster directed two movies in his career….The Kentuckian and The Midnight Man.

6. The first film Burt Lancaster directed is also the first film Walter Matthau ever appeared in….1955’s The Kentuckian

7. Burt Lancaster appeared nude in 1968’s The Swimmer.

8. For another very interesting tribute to Burt Lancaster check out this page by Lary Wallace….. Burt Lancaster.

9. Roles Burt Lancaster turned down, auditioned for or was seriously considered for:  Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston role), Old Gringo (Gregory Peck role), Patton (George C. Scott role), The Poseidon Adventure (Gene Hackman role) and Under Capricorn (Joseph Cotten role) and The Wild Bunch (William Holden role).

10. Check out Burt Lancaster‘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.

For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.

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126 thoughts on “Burt Lancaster Movies”

  1. Burt Lancaster was a great actor, Cogerson. He played a wide variety of roles that showed his immense talent. Nice work.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the compliment William F. Torpey……Lancaster’s talent helped him make movies for 6 decades….that is impressive….thanks for the comments.

      Reply

  2. Thank you for the credit. I didn’t expect it and appriciate it alot. Also thank you for another fact filled hub.

    I have been a fan of Burt’s for along time. I didn’t see Trapize on the list. Burt did his own stunts. I don’t know if Tony Curtis did or not. It was a great movie. I also enjoyed Burt in Atlantic City playing an old washed up gangster wanna be. I like the scence where burt looks at the newspaper article about two men murdered in an alley and he tells the clerk proudly, “I did that.”

    I remember Kirk Douglas at an award show mentioning his friend Burt Lancaster who was quite ill at the time. He hoped his friend would get better soon because they had an arguement on going and kirk wanted to finish it. Sadly Burt died soon after.

    Reply

    1. Hey ruffridyer…Trapeze got some love….it finished as his 3rd biggest box office hit…..and 4th overall on the Movie Score table. I remember the scene in Atlantic City….his character was so proud for actually doing a gangster type deed. Lancaster and Douglas made a great team…..I remember after the success of Tough Guys….they wanted to do another movie….sad that they were never able to get their 7th movie together done.

      Reply

  3. You should flood your nearest big-city newspaper’s Email with about 10 of these hubs and do this for a living…Run Silent Run Deep was an all time favorite of my dads and was a thrill for me also,Cogerson.;)

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the great compliment mentalist acer….it would be cool to do this for a living…..but I have almost made 8 dollars here on hub pages…..that almost translates to 16 dollars for the year….lol. Our dads have lots in common….Run Silent Run Deep was my dad’s favorite Clark Gable movie….I remember my mom talking about Gable’s Rhett Butler and my dad always working it to Run Silent Run Deep…thanks for stopping by.

      Reply

  4. Amother great page Cogerson. Burt Lancaster was one of my favourites in my youth, along with Kirk “I’m Spartacus!” Douglas. Enjoyed watching them together in films. OK Corral is one I watch every year. A few weeks ago I watched Seven Days in May, a fantastic film by John Frankenheimer where’s that on your list? 22nd? No I protest that should be higher.

    I’ve never seen The Rose Tattoo, didn’t even know he was in that. From Here To Eternity at no.1 on your moviescore, famous film, very popular but not the best acting role in Burt’s career, Montgomery Clift was the star attraction in that film.

    Hmmm one of his most memorable performances, in Sweet Smell of Success, is a lot lower on the moviescore than I expected it to be. It’s no.1 on the critics score, Seven Days in May is no.3 so in this instance I’m siding with the critics. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve….I agree Seven Days in May is a great movie…you can blame it’s box office success…or lack of box office success……it barely cracked the Top 20 in 1964….and for Lancaster it barely cracks his Top 30 of all his movies……I have not seen Sweet Smell of Success but I will have to see that soon. Lancaster is very good in The Rose Tattoo….he plays a lovable loser.

      I think you have to give Lancaster a little more credit for From Here to Eternity….he was topped billed and received his first ever Oscar nom for the movie…..as always thanks for the comments

      Reply

  5. I love classic movies and many of Lancaster’s films are favourites of mine in general. My favourite Lancaster films are-in alphabetical order (my absolute favourite depends upon my mood):

    Birdman of Alcatraz

    Elmer Gantry

    From Here to Eternity

    Gunfight at the OK Corral

    The Killers (what an auspicious start!)

    The Professionals

    Seven Days in May

    The Train

    Films I admire more than I enjoy them, in alphabetical order:

    Judgement at Nuremburg

    Sweet Smell of Success

    Reply

    1. Hey FloraBreenRobinson….your list of favorite Lancaster movies is filled with classics….and they are were very highly rated according to this movie rating system. I agree, his start in The Killers could not have been any better. I thought Seven Days in May would have finished higher, but its box office was pretty weak…..I think after Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe…the public was starting to get tired of doomsday movies…..thanks for checking out my Lancaster page.

      Reply

      1. I am a big fan of classics. Other favourite actors from the studio era besides Burt are Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, and Gene Kelly. My favourite director is Hitchcock

        Reply

        1. Hey FloraBreenRobinson…I also enjoy the classics….I have pages on Hitch and Peck. I have thought about doing a Gene Kelly…but I will add Mr. Widmark to my very long list of actors I want to do pages on.

          Reply

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