Want to know the best Faye Dunaway movies? How about the worst Faye Dunaway movies? Curious about Faye Dunaway box office grosses or which Faye Dunaway movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Faye Dunaway movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Faye Dunaway (1941-) is an Oscar® winning American actress. Dunaway’s career began on Broadway in the early 1960s. She made her movie debut in 1967’s The Happening. Her third movie in 1967 was Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie and Clyde was a massive hit and made Dunaway a star. Faye Dunaway’s IMDb page shows 110 acting credits from 1965-2016. This page will rank 41 Faye Dunaway movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows and 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.
Drivel part of the page: A few months ago we wrote a page that listed the Top 25 Actress From 1950-2010. On that page we ranked Dunaway as the 18th best actress from that time frame. Since we think so highly of her, we figured it was way past due to write a Faye Dunaway UMR page.
Faye Dunaway 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 Faye Dunaway movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Faye Dunaway movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Faye Dunaway movies by domestic box office rank by year
- Sort Faye Dunaway movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort Faye Dunaway movies by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each movie received.
- Sort Faye Dunaway movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Faye Dunaway Table
- Eleven Faye Dunaway movie crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 26.82% of her movies listed. The Towering Inferno (1974) is her biggest box office hit.
- An average Faye Dunaway movie grosses $72.00 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 18 of Faye Dunaway’s movies are rated as good movies…or 43.90% of her movies. Chinatown (1974) is her highest rated movie while The Extraordinary Seaman (1969) is her lowest rated movie.
- Eleven Faye Dunaway movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 26.82% of her movies.
- Five Faye Dunaway movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 12.19% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00. 11 Faye Dunaway movie scored higher that average….or 33.33% of her movies. Network (1976) got the the highest UMR Score while The Extraordinary Seaman (1969) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Faye Dunaway
1. Dorothy Faye Dunaway was born in Bascom, Florida in 1941.
2. Faye Dunaway gave up a Fulbright Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London to join the original training program at the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater in New York.
3. Faye Dunaway has been nominated for 3 acting Oscars®. She won for 1976’s Network.
4. Faye Dunaway is one of only four actresses, along with Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock and Liza Minnelli, to win both the Academy Award® for Best Actress (Network) and the Razzie Award® for Worst Actress (Mommie Dearest).
5. Faye Dunaway has been married two times. She has one child. Her first marriage was to Peter Wolf. Wolf was the lead singer for the J. Geils Band. Their song Centerfold is one of our all-time favorite songs.
6. Lead roles turned down by Faye Dunaway: 1969’s Paint Your Wagon, 1976’s Taxi Driver, 1976’s Family Plot, 1977’s Julia, 1977’s Fun With Dick and Jane and 1979’s Norma Rae.
7. Faye Dunaway and James Bond. Dunaway was considered for a role in 1965’s Thunderball and 1983’s Octopussy.
8. Faye Dunaway’s performance as Evelyn Cross Mulwray in 1974’s Chinatown is ranked number 36 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.
9. Faye Dunaway’s cumulative totals: Adjusted domestic box office: $2.95 billion. Her movies received 49 Oscar® nominations…..winning 11 Oscars®.
10. Check out Faye Dunaway‘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. Golden Globe® is a registered trademark.
Faye Dunaway is the # 91 most connectible actor of the 1970’s.
Luv Faye!
Hi Steve,
Nice video on Faye Dunaway, another star of the Towering Inferno (are you trying to instigate something?). Like Bob, I like the still of her with McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair followed by the two very different posters of the film (the first with a drawing of McQueen looking like he’s trying to out-cool himself).
When the video started with the 30th film having a rating of 4.5, I thought this did not bode well for Dunaway, and indeed, there’s lot’s of poorly rated films there. While she has done some stand-out films, one really has to get to about the top dozen to start seeing some good ratings. To be honest, outside of the top dozen, I think I’ve only seen a couple of these films. I remember enjoying The Handmaid’s Tale despite your relatively mediocre rating (and Cogerson’s atrocious rating), but that may be because it was based on a good novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It’s a shame that this beautiful and talented lady was not provided with better parts and films as she got a a little bit older. Actually, the best thing I have seen the more mature Dunaway in was a 1993 Colombo TV film, It’s All in the Game, one of the best Colombos I’ve seen. It’s a delight watching the cat and mouse game she plays with Peter Falk. Two experienced and mature stars enjoying great chemistry.
Now, THE QUESTION: did she deserve to be billed above William Holden in Network when only 2 years earlier she was billed behind him in The Towering Inferno??? (just joking, I only wanted to see if Bob is reading) 🙂
Hi Phil, thanks as always for checking out my video. Faye did appear in a few stinkers, I thought Mommie Dearest was one too but it had a good score on my chart. Never saw it.
I didn’t care much about billings on posters and credit rankings until Bob came along, now I’m not just admiring the artwork I’m also looking at where the names are positioned. 😉
Pretty sure Bob’s a big fan of Columbo too, mentions him all the time. Maybe Bruce can add Peter Falk to the request page, I think he’s appeared in enough theatrical movies to merit a UMR page.
Hey Steve. So you are interested in a Peter Falk page……interesting…. I will keep that in mind…I imagine The Princess Bride would be pretty highly ranked.
PHIL/STEVE Good stuff from Phil as usual. I have long been conscious of the differing order of billing between Faye and Golden Holden over the two films Towering Inferno and Network. Here are some of the alternative reasons which I have considered might have been relevant
1 Unless someone is under contract to a studio a separate contract is of course normally drawn up for each film and terms and conditions will usually vary.
2 Faye was no doubt the more topical star at the time of Towering Inferno/Network and as usual Bruce’s tables help illustrate Golden’s decline after the 1960 World of Suzie Wong as they Work Horse shows that Bill made 12 movies from 1961 until Towering Inferno and that averaged just a paltry $55 million in adjusted domestic revenues, with arguably The Wild Bunch being the only stand-out one.
3 However having refused Golden Holden top billing in Inferno Fox may not have wished to get the boot in by pushing Bill down to 4th. The producers of Network were not hampered by such “guilt”
4 I can’t recall the size of the respective Holden/Dunaway parts in Inferno and Network and Fay’s role might not have been as important in the first film as it was in the latter.
5 Bill had a record even in his heyday of alternating billing with co-stars with whom he made more than one film. For example a quick glance at the posters for the movies concerned on IMDB will demonstrate that (1) He was billed 2nd to Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (1954) but before her in Paris When it Sizzles (1964) (2) He was billed above his pal Glenn Ford in the 1941 Texas but 2nd to Glenn in Man from Colorado (1948) (3) He was billed after Princess Grace in The Country Girl and before her in Bridges at Toko Ri both in 1954.
5 Jimmy Stewart turned down the ultimate Peter Finch part in Network because of the strong language and Golden was sheepishly almost apologetic on TV for his sharing bedroom scenes with Faye in that movie. May I tongue-in-cheek suggest that in reality though it was the prospect of those scenes that induced him to take 2nd billing to her in Network?
I agree with Phil that the Columbo episode It’s All in the Game which I regarded as one of the finest of the series was greatly enhanced by Faye’s star quality and sexiness. Still the Lieutenant was not swayed by her seductive charms and you could no more have persuaded him not to arrest her than you could encourage The Work Horse to credit Superman Returns to Mr Mumbles’ grosses! I AM a great Columbo fan and just the past weekend watched a couple of repeats. I may have mentioned before that Bing Crosby was first offered the role.
Hey Bob…..now this is an excellent and informative comment…not that your others are not. Steve has mentioned that a Peter Falk page might be interesting…I assume you second that? As for Holden and Dunaway….I think Holden’s part was slightly bigger….but Faye got the all important leading lady tag in that one. By the time Network came around…Faye was at her peak…and about to tumble as Network was the pinnacle….while Holden was pretty much done after Network….so I can see how Dunaway jumped Holden.
HI BRUCE
1 Thanks for the additional insight into the Holden/Dunaway billing quandary which makes a change from Phil and me arguing over McQueen/Newman absorbing though that was for me and I’m glad you’ve joined us in a billing discussion. Two matters I love debating are stats and billing and whilst neither of us seem to draw Steve into the former he does at times seem a bit interested in billing though I suppose the latter is more his scene as it is reflected in his posters.
2 Yes I’d love a Peter Falk page and before and even after he became famous for TVs Columbo he did some fine work in the cinema. He was a hoot in The Great Race 1965 with Curtis/Lemmon and in the 1976 Murder by Death he was an under cover detective and if I remember correctly he kept revealing new identities of himself and he explained to somebody”I’m in disguise, in disguise, in disguise,” as only he could utter those lines
Bob, Bruce and Steve,
Firstly, thanks for figuring out, I meant Columbo and not Colombo 😉 Yes, I’ve always enjoyed the scruffy little detective, in great part because Peter Falk is so awesome in the role. When I saw Steve hinted at a Peter Falk page, while I was interested, I did not want to add to Bruce’s long list of requests as I think he needs to relax a bit. However, as Bruce seems open-minded about taking on more work, then yes, this would be a great idea and I think we’ll find many interesting films where Falk was first rate character actor. One of the first is a little crime thriller, Murder Inc. from 1960, in which I think he was nominating for best supporting actor for this chilling portrayal of a contract killer. By the way, we rented Murder By Death from our local library about 6 months ago and my kids are asking for it again. It’s a great satire of famous detectives, with Falk sharing the limelight with a hilarious Peter Sellers, David Niven and others…and it was a big box office hit of 1976.
On Faye Dunaway, I was being cheeky only in part, as I thought it was an interesting question to ask, particularly given the recent discussions on two other stars of The Towering Inferno (who shall remain nameless, at least for a while). Thanks Bob for shedding some light on the subject as we always learn some interesting facts in the process. Following up on Bruce’s additional explanation, one may assume that 2 years after the billing of Inferno, Faye’s star had risen at least a little relative to Holden’s. As you both mention, he declined considerably after his tremendous box office and critical success in the 1950s. However, with The Wild Bunch and Network, Golden Holden showed he could not so easily be dismissed, turning out strong performances in two more great classics, earning his spot at the tail end of the AFI’s 25 classic male legends!
Hey Phil….I would add you to the list of people requesting a Peter Falk page….I guess I should have worked on him tonight instead of Jean Simmons…Simmons is proving to be a difficult subject. Interesting that your kids are requesting to see Murder by Death again. Holden deserved his spot on the AFI top 25….but there is not much after Network for Bill. I wonder how many movies he would have made if he was able to stay sober more. His drinking really aged him. Good feedback as always.
Hey Phil…..good comment breaking down Steve’s Faye video. The top 10 of Dunaway is pretty awesome….the rest is average at best. I am actually two movies behind her….as her two 2017 movies have not been included….but they will be near the bottom as well.
As for The Handmaid’s Tale….the movie got horrible reviews…I agree the story is awesome….and the television show pretty much proves that. I actually think she was awesome in her short movie….”Let’s Make History At The Oscars” at this year’s Oscar ceremony…now that performance though short will live forever.
Baiting Bob….now that is not nice. It is like putting Brando, Ladd or billing on a mouse trap…..or is it you about to find yourself trapped in is trap?…..lol.
Thanks Bruce, I haven’t seen the TV show of The Handmaid’s Tale of the short movie on the Oscar ceremony you mention, so I’ll try to hunt these down. Although my recollection was that Dunaway’s performance at this year’s Oscar ceremony was less than stellar…she left poor Warren Beatty standing alone in tough spot! Bonnie and Clyde should have stood together on that one!
I guess Faye did leave poor Warren by himself. Maybe Bonnie did not love Clyde as much as we thought she did…lol.
HI STEVE
1 Do we need to send out a search party for the Work Horse? He seems to have gone AWOL on us again? Heaven forbid that Hirsch’s ghost should get control of the site once more !
2 Yes it’s sad to see talented and once lovely females fighting the rages of time. My father always looked young for his years even at 70 and he was proud of the fact and even boasted about it. However I had a rather sharp-tongued cousin who cut him short once by saying “It doesn’t matter what you look like Harry. There’s an old clock inside you that still says 70!”
3 It’s a pity that the actresses don’t learn to grow old and fat gracefully like Mr Mumbles did but then Hollywood has always been harder on ageing women than on men and nobody is going to pay a massively obese 80 year old women $3 million for a cameo role. The Dan-like further link is that Mr M was originally to play a cameo in his pal Jack’s The Two Jakes. I am surprised that WH didn’t give Faye box office credit for that movie as I got the impression that in some cases he shared out an actor’s grosses with even a star who it was reported had simply dropped in on the set to watch a fellow movie star filming. Faye and Sharon Stone used to lunch together regularly to compare notes about future projects and business interests. I wonder of they still do that.
4 Anyway great to have your backchat to liven the afternoon and it’s always interesting to get the “insider’s information” about your rankings. You will see that albeit in a very pleasant and interesting way Phil is still keeping going the argument that your McQueen/Newman videos started about billing v the respective the status levels of Paul and Steve McQ. I’ll have to respond again of course but the publicity can’t do your video views any harm and may even tweak the figures for you a bit though they seem fine at the moment.
Bob, even if I don’t respond to your posts rest assured that I do read them and enjoy them. Keep up the good work!
El Supremo popped in a few minutes ago! Has he gone already? Must be very busy.
Not sure I like the new banner at the top, I already miss the old one. Needs getting used to. What are those symbols – headphones? music notes?
HI STEVE
1 I always get a feedback from you to my main posts to you and that suffices That’s not always the case elsewhere as since Sunday I have written a few things to that busy-bee the Work Horse and he hasn’t had time to respond if he intends to. It reminds me figuratively speaking of the novel Far from the Madding Crowd in which one of the characters was being ignored by an important person whose attention he was trying to catch and the character complained “He looked through me if as if I was a leafless tree.” What’s the best cliche to sum up the ole Work Horse on this site – “Now you see me , now you don’t”?
2 I forgot to say that though 2 Jakes turned out a pretty limp affair in terms of cast and box office it was initially planned to include a high-powered cast with apart from Jack and Mumbles, Dustin and one other big name that I can’t remember participating and on a separate occasion Harrison Ford and Roy Scheider were mooted. If they all HAD gotten into it I wonder how many of them WH would have given its gross to!
Hey Bob and Steve.
1. A link to Steve’s Faye video….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIwrH57YIuY
2. It is indeed a crazy week here…I blame Scotty (son #2) he is in town and we have been golfing and watching movies….Odd Thomas, Brimstone (Guy Pearce’s preacher makes Robert Mitchum’s preacher in Night of the Hunter look like a boy scout), Zombie High, Ghost in the Shell, Baby Driver and The Greatest Story Ever Told have been watched since Saturday afternoon.
3. This is a temporary banner….my website has been having some serious behind the scenes issues lately….things are vanishing (top pages, views, banners…..just to name a few). According to my Google Analytics page the views are down 85%….yet my website counter and AW Stats are saying we had a stellar July……still maintaining over 10,000 views a day….normally these sources are pretty darn close.
4. Faye must have gotten some notes from Brando when they made their movie together….as Faye has already had two movies in theaters this year. https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/best-worst-movies-2017/
5. The Phil/Bob conversation has been fun to read.
Good stuff!
HI STEVE
1 Contrary to your misgivings I DO like WH’s new banner and would be sorry if he changed it.
2 Though it was probably not in the Work Horse’s mind the musical notes remind me that his site is very much “All singing, all dancing” which as I’ve mentioned recently were in my time in the Civil Service often used “Buzz words” for something which was highly comprehensive in qualities such as versatility and volume which this site certainly is in my opinion.
AFTERNOON STEVE Re your Dunaway video.
1 An unusual number of truly impressive POSTERS in the video with my pick being – Wicked Lady, Supergirl, Voyage of the Damned, The Handmaid’s Tale, Eyes of Laura Mars and The First Deadly Sin [n which Mr Mumbles was originally scheduled for Sinatra’s role.]
2 Interesting stills were Faye with McQueen and Redford in Thomas Crown and 3 Days of Condor respectively [and nice foreign language posters for both] with Dustin in Little Big Man, an exhilarated Faye and Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde and the almost obligatory one with Chuck in 3 Musketeers. I can’t praise the Bonnie and Clyde one enough.
3 The Work Horse and you agree on 4 of the Top 5 with him choosing 3 Days of Condor instead of 3 Musketeers, your 5th. I concur with HIM but it seems that even WH couldn’t completely resist Chuck because he makes 3 Musketeers his No 6. I was also quite taken with WH’s The Morning After miniature of Faye on his Dunaway page.. Anyway super video overall meriting in my view 96.8%
4 Faye on her costar in Don Juan DeMarco included in your selection:
“He was undoubtedly a genius because he single-handedly developed modern American acting and worldwide he is seen as the embodiment of that way of acting though he also incorporated English styles into his own. In addition he had such a great screen presence that he gave audiences a sense of being in the actual movie themselves. I recently watched that famous taxi scene again and a strange feeling came over me that I was sitting in the back of the taxi with him. He is the yardstick by which all actors and actress of my generation judge their own performances.”
Who needs the impressions of a former night club entertainer and rock singer when we can get the “real deal” straight from the horse’s mouth [no pun intended Bruce!]? – an actress who undoubtedly knows something about the craft she being a multi nominee/winner of Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy and many other awards.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, comment, info, trivia, comparison and quote, much appreciated. Happy you enjoyed the posters and stills.
That last paragraph made me snigger (there’s a word we don’t see much these days, when was the last time you ‘sniggered’? Snicker? No I prefer sniggering to snickering)
Where was I? Oh yes ‘chortling’ now there’s a word I [Stop it Steve!]
Are you saying there are people out there who have dared bad mouth Mr. Mumbles? Who have been less than appreciative of his talent? Wow. Kind of takes your breath away.doesn’t it?
I’ve forgotten what the post subject was… hang on.. oh yes Faye, she was so pretty back then, but after one too many botox injections she now looks like she’s wearing a mask. Ditto Melanie Griffith who is 16 years younger and barely recognisable now. Sad.
Someone posted a comment on my channel saying I shouldn’t have included The Two Jakes on the video, and they were right. Only her voice is heard in that movie. Bruce did the right thing by not including it on his chart. Oh well at least I did give the poster a good airing. [wink]
Four Dunaway films have scored 10 out of 10 on my scoresheet – Chinatown, Bonnie and Clyde, Network and Little Big Man. One scored 9 – The Three Musketeers.
Three Days of the Condor had a maximum score of 8 from my sources, 7.5 from IMDB. Btw did you know the title of the novel was Six Days of the Condor? I guess they wanted a more compact film [cue sniggering].