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.

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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. Good work, sure.
    But… What has to be say, it is that Burt Lancaster was UNIQUE. An actor who was beautiful, magnificent ( Vera Cruz, The Crimson pirate) AND intelligent, strong ( Gunfiht at the OK Corrl, The Professionnals) AND sensible (The Unforgiven, Atlantic City),) who could choose not to continue with big action films and break his image ( Sweet Smell of success is a masterpiece but an unsuccessful result, as The Swimmer which made a flop)), who put his partners under light, women (Shirley Booth…) AND men (Tony Curtis, Bruce Dern, Telly Savalas, Ernest Borgnine/Marty), who was able to give money for a film he believed in (Tell The Spartan…) and even to renounce at high wages for a role (Novecento), who believed in causes ( A Child is Waiting, Birdman of Alcatraz) without forgetting his implication in fight for civil rights and against AIDS. To my mind (I’am a French of 66 years), he was MY favourite actor of all time, even if, of course, I like many others (some of them being French, Russian, English…).
    When I was young, I had four aces: Lancaster, Douglas, Widmark and Mitchum. But Burt was, and stay, my favourite…

    Excuse my poor English: nobody’s perfect!
    Best,
    Roger

    Reply

    1. I think your English is very good, Roger.

      I think Cogerson will love your comment.

      He and I have been talking about movies and artists for a long time. I am a big fan of the men you mention.

      My favourite of all time is Gregory Peck.

      Flora

      Reply

      1. Hey Flora…you are 100% correct…..I loved his comment. I like when big fans of the movie subjects find my page. I wish I had updated this page. I have been slacking when it comes to those updates.

        Reply

    2. Hey Martin Roger.
      1. Thanks for the nice words.
      2. I agree with you 100% about Lancaster. He was a unique talent.
      3. I have always wanted to see The Swimmer….it is a very hard movie to find.
      4. Thanks for all the information you shared on him…I found it very interesting….makes me what to research him more.
      5. I like your 4 aces (I have pages on all 4 of them). I image you must have really enjoyed all the Douglas/Lancaster movies.
      6. Your English was very easy to understand…..I can’t even imagine trying to comment in French.
      Thanks for a great comment….glad to see a true Burt Lancaster fan found my page.

      Reply

  3. Like the page. Though pretty sure you have the wrong title for number 30 it is Hands not Head. Other than that great information.

    Reply

    1. Hey Bill….thanks for the headsup….I have fixed that error. I was about to make the same error on a Joan Fontaine page that I am working on….so double thanks.

      Reply

  4. Hello Bruce,
    Good job on the Burt Lancaster page. Burt Lancaster was one of the great film stars. I liked Lancaster in every film he did. And I’ve nearly seen all of them. Little Treasure is the only one I’ve never seen. Thank you for the information on how you figure out the adjusted box office grosses. Thanks again.

    Reply

    1. Hey Lyle your comment on Burt, got me motivated to flip my Lancaster page to my new website. I was actually disappointed in myself when I was typing the co-stars into the page….normally I can without help name 3 or 4 co-stars for each movie…and struggle when I get near the bottom of the rankings. For most of Lancaster’s movies I had to lean heavily on IMDb for co-stars…thinking I am not as knowledgeable on Lancaster’s movies as I thought I was. Hope my explanation on how I calculate adjusted box office made sense.

      Reply

  5. One of the most sensual, sexy, talented, proffesional and handsome actor and man by far. I could go on. There is only one BURT LANCASTER.

    Reply

    1. Hey Cgal….I agree with your comment 100%…glad you were able to find my hub on him….your comment is greatly appreciated.

      Reply

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