Ellen Burstyn Movies

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

Ellen Burstyn (1932-) is an Oscar® winning American actress.  Burstyn is best known for her roles in films such as The Last Picture Show, The Exorcist, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (she won Oscar), and Requiem For a Dream (one of the most depressing movies ever).  Her IMDb page shows over 160 acting credits since 1958.  This page will rank Ellen Burstyn movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings.  To do well in our overall rankings a movie has to do well at the box office, get good reviews by critics, be liked by audiences and get some award recognition.

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)

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

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Ellen Burstyn 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 Ellen Burstyn movies by his co-stars
  • Sort Ellen Burstyn movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Ellen Burstyn movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Ellen Burstyn movies 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 Ellen Burstyn movie received.
  • Sort Ellen Burstyn movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Resurrection (1980)

Best IMDb Trivia On Ellen Burstyn

1. Edna Rae Gillooly was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1932.

2. Ellen Burstyn’s many name changes.  When she first started her career she shortened Edna Rae Gillooly to Edna Rae.  Then she briefly used the name Keri Flynn and tested at 20th Century Fox as Erica Dean.   She then adopted the professional name Ellen McRae.  And finally…after her marriage to Neil Burstyn she became Ellen Burstyn.

3. Ellen Burstyn is often mistaken for fellow actress Louise Fletcher. People tell her she was great in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) (for which Fletcher won an Oscar®). Fletcher reports being told frequently that she did a wonderful job in one of Burstyn’s roles.

4. Ellen Burstyn plays two unusual roles where she becomes older than her parents. First, as Murph in Interstellar (2014), in which she was older than her father. The second, as Flemming in The Age of Adaline (2015), in which she was older than her mother.

5. Check out Ellen Burstyn’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

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26 thoughts on “Ellen Burstyn Movies”

  1. 3/Outside her Cogerson $100 million crashers her 45 other movies have averaged just $19 million in the adjusted US grosses shown in your table – $880 million overall for the 45. The Exorcist alone out-grossed that lot!

    4/Down the years she has been lower on the bill than the likes of Timothy Bottoms, Art Carney, Rip Torn and Bruce Dern, hardly top-star household names.

    5/Accordingly, by my own way of measuring top stardom Ellen’s career bones as a MAJOR PLAYER never had too much flesh on them for The Curse to feast upon. Contrastingly Gimme More, though she was overvalued as a star in my opinion, has fallen through the floor in comparison with her perceived star status during her heyday of the 1980s/1990s.

    6/As I say though Ellen’s acting skills and versatility have enabled her to survive prolifically in a respectable manner in around 70 movies and 45 television presentations since turning 39.

    7/Also since her 39th birthday she has garnered a total of 92 awards/nominations including (1) 4 Oscar noms and 1 win (2) 5 Golden Globe noms and 1 award. The last 2 of those noms came in 2001 when she was 69 and in her early 80s she (a) won a Prime Time Emmy for 2012’s Political Animals (b) was nominated again for the Emmy in 2016 for House of Cards.

    Napoleon’s response to his lieutenant who reminds him of the great past battle he had won “Yes, I know – but I was younger then.”

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    1. When one ponders the detail trajectory of Ellen’s career it becomes even more obvious that The Curse had little to work on pre her 39th birthday; because whatever weight one attaches to her overall artistic and commercial success it was virtually non-existence until she was 39.

      All of her 94 [I erroneously stated 92 previously- apologies] awards and nominations were earned when/after she was 39; and of all the films she made just 13 grossed over $45 million domestically in your table and of those 13 only one came before she reached 39 and in that one [a supporting role in her debut film Goodbye Charlie] she went under a different name.

      1964/ Goodbye Charlie /$97 million -Ellen was called Ellen McRae /32 yrs. old
      1971/Last Picture Show/$216 million/was 39 that year
      1973/The Exorcist/$$993 million/41 that year
      1974/Harry & Tonto/$67 million/42 that year
      1974/Myrna Doesn’t Live Here/$115 million/42
      1978/Same Time Next Year/$76 million/46 that year
      1991/Dying Young/$72 million/59 that year
      1994/Man Loves a Woman/$110 million/62 that year
      1995/An American Quilt/$49 million/63 that year
      2002/Devine Secrets/$108 million/70 years of age
      2002/Red Dragon/$145 million/70 years
      2014/Interstellar/$207 million/82 that year
      2015/Age of Adaline/$46 million/83rd birthday that year.

      “Youth is everything. I would do anything to get it back except rise early and take exercise.” [Lord Henry Wotton ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray]

      Reply

      1. MAJOR AWARDS/NOMINATIONS: ELLEN BURSTYN

        ACADEMY AWARDS Ellen was given one Academy award and 5 Oscar nominations between the ages of 40 and 69 her final accolade [a nomination for best actress in Requiem for a Dream] being in 2001.

        GOLDEN GLOBES She won 1 Golden Globe and earned 6 nominations between the ages of 40 and 69, again his final one being a nomination in 2001 for the lead in Requiem for a Dream.

        PRIME TIME EMMY AWARDS Between the ages of 49 and 84 Ellen enjoyed 2 such awards and 6 nominations her final one being a nomination in 2016 [the year she became 84] for Most Outstanding Guest Actress in Drama Series – playing Elizabeth Hale in House of Cards.

        ADDITIONAL NOTES: Her career trajectory earned Ellen-

        1/he distinction of “serious consideration” for inclusion in Bruce’s 25 Greatest Female Screen legends 1950-2010.

        2/recognition In IMDB’s list of the 100 greatest actresses of all time. Ellen is ranked 52nd and above the likes of the following actresses: Julie Christie, Olivia de Havilland, Greer Garson, Barbra Streisand, Audrey Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave and Gimme More [aka Demi Moore] who is ranked 93rd

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob….granted I have only seen Requiem For A Dream one time……and it will be staying that way for a very very long time….I was shocked to see that Burstyn got a Best Actress nomination versus a Best Supporting Actress nomination. I do not remember her part being that big….she is awesome in the movie….but my memory had her as a supporting character. However, since that one is so depressing….that is not an itch I will be scratching….lol. Good stuff.

          Reply

    2. Hey Bob…good stat breakdown…..19 million per movie is pretty low…..I did notice the many movies that made the table with the least amount of box office that allows a movie to make our database. I agree with you that she “acting skills and versatility have enabled her to survive prolifically in a respectable manner”…but in the 1970s people were thinking she was going to become the next big actress legend. Instead she has become a well respected thespian that the general public is not too aware of. Good stuff.

      Reply

      1. HI BRUCE

        Good additional stuff in your 7.13am post. I suspect that at one stage Gimme More actually thought that she too would join the ranks of the Great Legends. Today I think most moviegoers who dwell on her at all would [at least in terms of major screen stardom] see her primarily as the former Mrs Wills [despite my own cracks to the reverse to try to wind you up!].

        Indeed about a year ago I saw a reference to her in a fan magazine and the writer put her down as “An actress for the 1990s who is well past her sell by date in the new century.”

        “Just like that region of grassy hills outspread
        A realm of our thoughts know days and nights
        And summers and winters, and has fed
        Ineffectual herds of vanished delights.”

        Reply

  2. intro says ranking cathy bates movies , still.
    I saw 13 including 10 of top 11. 10s and favorites: interstellar. 10 not favorite: the exorcist 9 not favorite:playing by heart, divine secrets of the yaya sisterhood, the last picture show.

    Reply

    1. Hey bob cox. I got rid of that Kathy Bates that did not get replaced….thanks for the heads up. I have seen 20 of her movies. I suspect your 13 is going to do well in our tally contest. I am right there with you, she has many good movies, but known that I would consider great. Good stuff as always.

      Reply

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