Fay Bainter Movies

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

Fay Bainter (1893-1968) was an Oscar® winning American actress.  Bainter gained fame as a stage actress in the 1920s and early 1930s.   She signed a movie contract with MGM and appeared in movies from 1934 till 1961.  Her IMDb page shows 65 acting credits from 1934 to 1965.  This page will rank Fay Bainter 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.

Jezebel (1938)

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

1947’s Deep Valley

Fay Bainter 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 Fay Bainter movies by her co-stars
  • Sort Fay Bainter movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Fay Bainter movies by yearly domestic box office rank.
  • Sort Fay Bainter 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 Fay Bainter movie received.
  • Sort Fay Bainter movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Woman of the Year (1942)

Best IMDb Trivia On Fay Bainter

1. Fay Okell Bainter was born in Los Angeles, California in 1893.

2. Fay Bainter became the first performer nominated in the same year for both the Academy Award® for Best Actress, for White Banners (1938), and the Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress, for Jezebel (1938), winning for the latter.

3.  Along with Teresa Wright, Barry Fitzgerald, Jessica Lange, Sigourney Weaver, Al Pacino, Holly Hunter, Emma Thompson, Julianne Moore, Jamie Foxx Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson, Fay Bainter is one of only twelve actors to receive Academy Award® nominations in two acting categories in the same year.

4.  Fay Bainter was in three Oscar® Best Picture nominees: Jezebel (1938), Our Town (1940) and The Human Comedy (1943).

5. Fay Bainter presented the very first African-American winner with the Oscar® statuette when Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for Gone with the Wind (1939)

Fay Bainter presenting Hattie McDaniel her Oscar.

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

(Visited 1 times)

14 thoughts on “Fay Bainter Movies”

  1. Are you doing classes from home for your students?

    I didn’t realize Fay was 40 or so when she made her first film.

    Although her name is not listed her I didn’t realize that Miriam Hopkins who starred in These Three in 1936 was also in the remake The Children’s Hour in 1961.

    When I was in grade school the nuns told all the parents to have their children watch The Children’s Hour when it first aired on TV (circa 1965). Many of the parents thought what the hell were they thinking. We all thought the nuns just saw the title and not knowing the subject recommended it.

    Down to business, there are not many people around on the Top 1000 that Fay appeared with; here they are.

    92 CHARLTON HESTON The President’s Lady (1953)
    105 ROBERT MITCHUM Cry ‘Havoc’ (1943)
    105 ROBERT MITCHUM The Human Comedy (1943)
    112 SHIRLEY MACLAINE The Children’s Hour (1961)
    142 MARC LAWRENCE The Virginian (1946)
    172 MICKEY ROONEY Babes on Broadway (1941)
    172 MICKEY ROONEY The Human Comedy (1943)
    172 MICKEY ROONEY Young Tom Edison (1940)
    193 WILLIAM HOLDEN Our Town (1940)
    241 AKIM TAMIROFF The Soldier and the Lady (1937)
    242 AVA GARDNER Babes on Broadway (1941)
    264 JAMES GARNER The Children’s Hour (1961)
    297 HENRY FONDA Jezebel (1938)
    501 RAY MILLAND Close to My Heart (1951)
    512 KEYE LUKE Journey for Margaret (1942)
    512 KEYE LUKE Salute to the Marines (1943)
    605 LIONEL STANDER The Kid from Brooklyn (1946)
    634 DEBBIE REYNOLDS June Bride (1948)
    708 JOHN DEHNER State Fair (1945)
    801 BETTE DAVIS Jezebel (1938)
    801 BETTE DAVIS June Bride (1948)
    815 DANA ANDREWS State Fair (1945)

    Only Shirley MacLaine is still with us.

    Fay appeared with 22 Oscar winners.

    AUDREY HEPBURN The Children’s Hour (1961)
    BETTE DAVIS Jezebel (1938)
    BETTE DAVIS June Bride (1948)
    CHARLTON HESTON The President’s Lady (1953)
    DONALD CRISP DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS (1939)
    DONALD CRISP JEZEBEL (1938)
    DONNA REED Babes on Broadway (1941)
    DONNA REED The Human Comedy (1943)
    HATTIE MCDANIEL MARYLAND (1940)
    HATTIE MCDANIEL THE SHINING HOUR (1938)
    HATTIE MCDANIEL THREE IS A FAMILY (1944)
    HENRY FONDA Jezebel (1938)
    JAMES GARNER The Children’s Hour (1961)
    JOAN CRAWFORD The Shining Hour (1938)
    JOAN FONTAINE Quality Street (1937)
    KATHARINE HEPBURN Quality Street (1937)
    KATHARINE HEPBURN Woman of the Year (1942)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE This Side of Heaven (1934)
    MELVYN DOUGLAS The Shining Hour (1938)
    RAY MILLAND Close to My Heart (1951)
    SHIRLEY MACLAINE The Children’s Hour (1961)
    SPENCER TRACY Woman of the Year (1942)
    SPENCER TRACY Young Tom Edison (1940)
    SUSAN HAYWARD The President’s Lady (1953)
    THOMAS MITCHELL DARK WATERS (1944)
    THOMAS MITCHELL MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937)
    THOMAS MITCHELL OUR TOWN (1940)
    VAN HEFLIN Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
    WALLACE BEERY Salute to the Marines (1943)
    WALTER BRENNAN Maryland (1940)
    WALTER BRENNAN Mother Carey’s Chickens (1938)
    WILLIAM HOLDEN Our Town (1940)

    Reply

    1. Hey Dan. Yes we are teaching from home these days. My school system rolled out a three phase teaching module. Phases one and two required the students to work on very generic lessons from home. This week is Spring Break so they do not have to do anything this week. Next week starts Phase 3, which is lesson from their real teachers. I am required to create 3 lesson plans per week….while the students only have to do one of those lessons. So far I have 89% of my students in my online Google Classroom. It has been a strange experience so far…but I suspect…this is how students will be taught 50 years from now.

      And now on to Fay Bainter. That is good trivia about Miriam Hopkins being in both movies. I thought I had seen Children’s Hour…..but now realize it was These Three that I have seen. Funny story about the nuns pushing Children’s Hour on the youth of the 1960s. Reminds me of when I thought Halloween was going to be a fun movie….and it turned out to be a horror movie.

      Small lists…but packed with some legends. Not too bad for a person that has not made a movie in 59 years….and only 3 movies in the last 72 years. Mickey Rooney gets the most frequent Oracle co-star title. I am impressed with her 22 Oscar winning co-stars…I would have guessed it would have been smaller. Good stuff as always…..stay healthy!

      Reply

  2. I saw 6 including 3 of top 4. 10s not favorites jezebel(not a fonda fan, very melodramatic), childrens hour(very dark). 9s not favorite: human comedy(dark), woman of the year .
    9 and favorite quality street. (very low rated by UMR, a hidden gem, comedy).
    hidden bomb: heavenly body ( I love William powell and this was awful 2 out of 5 stars)

    Reply

    1. Hey bob cox. Tally count: Flora 20, you and Bob 6 and me in last place with 3. I have seen Jezebel…Bette Davis’ Gone With The Wind….but do not remember Bainter’s part…even though she won an Oscar for the movie. I have seen These Three but not Children’s Hour…but I want to…I like James Garner. I have not seen The Human Comedy…but did watch the Meg Ryan remake with Tom Hanks in a very small role. Good mini-review of Heavenly Body…I will avoid that one. Thanks as always for the feedback.

      Reply

  3. A sample check of the movies in Fay’s filmography indicates that she rarely got top billing in her films and not even equal star billing if another big name like Merle Oberon/Bette Davis/Katie Hepburn was in the film. However you have included in your tables above 4 movies in which she did get top billing: Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch***; War Against Mrs Halliday; Lady and the Mob; and Our Neighbours The Carters.

    ***The 1942 Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch with Fay in the title role was the 4th movie version of the story. The Previous one released in 1934 had Pauline Lord as Mrs Wiggs and W C Fields in the male lead of C Ellsworth Stubbins. Although W C’s role was secondary his image dominates some contemporary posters for his version – see Wikipedia for example.

    You have mentioned Fay’s early stage career and I gather that in those days she was known as a “traveling” stage performer; and one of her successful plays was Dodsworth which as you know was made into a 1936 movie starring Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton and Thin Woman look-alike Mary Astor. In the 1934 stage production Walter again was Dodsworth and Fay was his adulterous wife Fran.

    This new page is “Voted Up!” for providing me with a learning curve on Fay and her movies.

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob….thanks for the information on her billing. Of her three Oscar nominations…two were for Best Supporting Actress….while getting a Best Actress nomination for White Banners. Seems that movie might provide a top billing. I saw that she had success with Dodsworth….they most have gotten that movie to theaters pretty quickly after it’s stage success. Good stuff.

      Reply

      1. HI BRUCE:

        Thanks for the feedback. Whilst Fay was the leading actress in White Banner and got star billing she was actually billed second to Claude Rains the film’s leading man.

        Reply

  4. SNAP! Work Horse – or at least partially. Fay Bainter is a name that I have long been familiar with but I couldn’t have placed her until you produced this new page. So the page has served the purpose of enlightening me.

    I don’t know how my “have seens” will stack up against the other two members of the Big Three [Flora and Steve] but on this occasion at least I can -just about! – beat your miserable total of 4 Bainter movies my having watched the following 6:

    1/The Kid from Virginia starring Danny Kaye

    2/Cry Havoc

    3/June Bride

    4/Give My Regards to Broadway

    5/The President’s Lady. Fay was Susan Hayward’s mother if I remember correctly; and Chuck was of course President Andrew Jackson

    6/The Secret Life of Walter Hirschhorn again starring Kaye

    To be honest just the two Kaye films and The President’ s Lady [because Chuck was in it] interested me and I paid only half attention to the other 3 which my father in the same room as I was watching on TV. Do they therefore count as have-seens? If not then darn it you’ve beaten me again!

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Fay Bainter. I will of course you give you credit for 6 Fainter movies seen. Tally count: Flora 20….you, me and other bob sit at a combined total of 15…..6 for the Bobs and 3 for me. My total has been lowered since my comment last night…as I was giving myself credit for Children’s Hour while I had seen These Three but not the Maclaine, Garner and Hepburn movie. I bet Steve is aware of her Chuck movie. Glad you liked getting more aware of Fay Bainter…I feel the same way. Are we agreeing? Be still my beating heart! Good stuff as always.

      Reply

  5. I have a blind spot when it comes to Fay Bainter. I barely recognize the name. I have seen 4 of her movies. I do not remember her part in Jezebel (Oscar winning), Woman of the Year or The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. Vaguely remember her role in Children’s Hour. Heck…I am not even sure I have Fay Bainter in the above photos. So in a nutshell…I am saying doing an UMR page helped me know her much much better.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.