Want to know the best Fred Astaire movies? How about the worst Fred Astaire movies? Curious about Fred Astaire box office grosses or which Fred Astaire movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Fred Astaire 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.
A little while ago, I got the idea that I needed to have a page for the Top 25 Classic Actors and the Top 25 Classic Actresses according to the American Film Institute. A quick check of my existing pages found I had already done movie pages on 19 of the actors and 10 of the actresses. So now that I have 21 pages to write, I figure I should get started with the 5th highest rated actor, Fred Astaire.
Fred Astaire (1899-1987) was born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska. Fred Astaire’s first dance partner was his older sister Adele. They became a very popular vaudeville dance act when Fred Astaire was only 7 years old. By 1917 the brother and sister dancing act was already appearing on Broadway. In 1932 Adele retired from dancing and Fred moved to Hollywood to appear in movies. In 1933 he appeared in Flying Down To Rio. Astaire got 5th billing in the movie and his dance partner in the movie, Ginger Rogers got 4th billing. Reviewers singled out their dancing and the pair would be matched up 9 more times in their career.
The Rogers-Astaire team owned the box office for the rest of the 1930s. The pinnacle of their collarboration was 1935’s Top Hat which has some of the best dancing ever filmed for motion pictures. Fred Astaire had many successes without Ginger Rogers, as he appeared in the box office hits, Holiday Inn, Blue Skies, Easter Parade, and The Towering Inferno. His last movie was 1981’s Ghost Story which was almost 50 years after his screen debut.
His IMDb page shows 50 acting credits from 1933-1981. This page will rank 39 Fred Astaire movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, cameos and some of his movies made outside of the Hollywood system were not included in the rankings.
Fred Astaire Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Fred Astaire 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 Fred Astaire movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Fred Astaire movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Fred Astaire movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Fred Astaire movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Fred Astaire movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Fred Astaire movie won.
- Sort Fred Astaire 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 search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
- ### If worldwide box office is the same as domestic box office…then worldwide grosses were not available.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Fred Astaire Table
- Twenty-nine Fred Astaire movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 74.35% of his movies listed. The Towering Inferno (1974) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Fred Astaire movie grosses $147.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 32 Fred Astaire movies are rated as good movies…or 82.05% of his movies. Top Hat (1935) is his highest rated movie while The Amazing Dobermans (1976) is his lowest rated movie.
- Twenty-four Fred Astaire movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 61.53% of his movies.
- Five Fred Astaire movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 15.15% of his movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 33 Fred Astaire movies scored higher that average….or 84.16% of his movies. Top Hat (1935) got the the highest UMR Score while The Amazing Dobermans (1976) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Fred Astaire
1. Fred Astaire survived a disastrous screen test. According to Astaire the result of the screen test was “He can’t act…his is going bald…also dances”. Others claim it said “Can’t act, can’t sing, going bald, can dance a little”….either way not a good screen test.
2. Between 1933 and 1939 Fred Astaire starred with Ginger Rogers in 9 movies. They would appear in their 10th and final film in 1949’s The Barkleys of Broadway. Their screen partnership is one of the greatest of all-time.
3. Fred Astaire was married twice in his life. He married Phyllis Potter in 1933 and they were married until 1954 when she passed away after a battle with cancer. Fred Astaire had three kids with Potter: step son Peter, son Fred Jr. and daughter Ava Astaire McKenzie. In 1980 he married Robyn Smith.
4. Fred Astaire received one Oscar® nomination for acting in his career. He was nominated but did not win Best Supporting Actor for 1974’s The Towering Inferno. He was given an Honorary Oscar® in 1950 “For unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures”.
5. Fred Astaire received more love from the Golden Globe® voters as he received 5 Golden Globe® nominations. Those five movie were: The Towering Inferno, Finian’s Rainbow, The Pleasure of His Company, On The Beach and Three Little Words.
6. Fred Astaire became good friends with legendary music composer George Gershwin back in 1916 many years before they both would become famous.
7. Fred Astaire retired from movies after making 1946’s Blue Skies. He unretired as his fan support talked him back into making more movies….he returned in 1948 to replace an injured Gene Kelly in Easter Parade.
8. Fred Astaire insisted on a stationary camera rather than a moving camera to film dance numbers..it was a rule he stuck to over the years…always saying…..”Either I dance or the camera dances”.
9. Two famous roles Fred Astaire turned down…..the lead role in Yankee Doodle Dandy and the part of Bert on Mary Poppins.
10. Check out Fred Astaire‘ career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to my movie pages on the Screen Legend
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Hi Cogerson; Astaire is one of my favorites. I’ve seen all his collaborations with Ginger Rogers dozens of times. My favorites are “the Gay Divorcee” and “Top Hat”. I didn’t like “Carefree” as much as some of the others. I think it was because they messed around with the usual formula. It was the only one of their films that followed from Rogers perspective as the protagonist, rather than Astaire who was usually the one who set the plot in motion. That one and the Vernon and Irene Castle film were my least favorites.
I loved his dance along with Gene Kelly (His rival for the title of big screen dancing king) in “the Ziegfeld Follies”. (I’d vote for astaire as the king.)
I personally wouldn’t list Astaire as the 5th best actor of all time because I see him more as an entertainer/dancer than an actor. (Although he did give an excellent dramatic performance in “On the Beach”.) He was more of a movie star than an actor.
I wonder how different “Yankee Doodle Dandy” would have been if Astaire had played the role. Would Fred have have gotten the oscar that Cagney got?
Another excellent, fun movie page with another great superstar.
Nice work,
Rob- I think the list as AFI meant it referred to the top *Movie stars* of all time, with actors and actresses having separate lists, but it was a reference to star power, not acting ability. And Astaire was the number one musicals star for a long time. Although he was a solid actor when given a drama though as can be seen in On the Beach. (Same thing can be said of Kelly who did quite well in Inherit the Wind.) The scripts for boy meets girl musicals don’t really have any meat to them. Think of the list not as actor/actress but male star, female star.
RE: my last comment: It was supposed to say regardng Rob saying he gave a strong performance in On the Beach… and then make the comment about Kelly in Inherit the wind. But I just repeated what he said and put Kelly’s reference in brackets. Sigh. I need more tea!worst.
Hey Flora….good points on Astaire and Kelly’s dramatic efforts. On the Beach is high on my list of movies to watch….it is one of my mom’s favorite movies. As for the AFI list, I think it is more of the ranking of the actor/actress legacy….James Dean also made the list and his career only has 3 films….but he has stood the test of time…just like Fred Astaire has.
Now that I am on a Fred Astaire movie watching kick…I secured copies of Swing Time(your recommendation) and Follow the Fleet. When I was watching Top Hat and the song/scene Cheek to cheek came on…I could not help but think about the movie The Green Mile…which has a clip of that scene in the movie….I never knew which Rogers/Astaire movie that was from before today.
Hey Rob, glad that you liked my Astaire hub, I figured you might like him as well. I know that you like Bing and the two of them made some major blockbusters back in the day. I did not include his one scene with Kelly from Ziegfeld Follies on the hub as IMDB does not list him in the movie…and evidently he only has the one dance scene(although a great dance scene). Having now seen 3 Fred Astaire movies…Carefree is sitting last in my personal rankings…although I have picked up two more of the Rogers/Astaire movies to watch.
As for the AFI ranking of 5th it seem pretty high, but he was probably one of the most famous actors in the world for a very longtime….as always I greatly appreciate your comments and compliments.
Regarding favourite quotes. I think my favourite line that fred has from his musicals is from Easter Parade. Judy is love with him from the beginning but Fred is still in love with Ann Miller, his old partner while Peter lawford loves Judy. When Fred and Judy have their first kiss, Fred asks her, “why didn’t you tell me I was in love with you.?”
Hey Flora…thanks for sharing your favorite quote. Well I have closed the gap on Fred Astaire movies as I have now watched #5 Top Hat and #18 Carefree. I really enjoyed Top Hat….Astaire reminded me of Cary Grant in those great screwball comedies in the 1930s. Carefree was not nearly as good as Top Hat…but I liked the fact that Ralph Bellamy actually put up a fight to keep the girl in this movie….did he ever get the girl?…lol. Anyway only 24 movies behind you now
Well, interesting PAGE. I have seen many of Fred Astaire movies but do not remember the name of the older ones. They have played on TV many times but not lately. The Towering Inferno was good with him playing a small role. He certainly knew how to dance along with Gene Kelly. Good Page Cogerson – enjoyed reading it
Hey BERN1960…Thanks for checking out my Fred Astaire movie page. Without a doubt the man knew how to dance. Thanks for the compliment and comment.
I wish there was someone around who still danced like he did. His class and elegance was timeless. Great job Cogerson!
Hey Alecia…it would be nice if we had a modern day Fred Astaire…I do not think we even have a close option currently….thanks for the compliment and for the comment.
Who doesn’t love Fred? His dancing & musical talent in general was second to none….always wonderful movies, the dancing scenes the best, of course. “Fred & Ginger,” those names go down in history with no explanation necessary…as THE couple of the Dance World. I always saw him as a sweet,happy,gentle man. As wonderful as he was, I confess I’m glad he turned down Yankee Doodle Dandy…..Can NOT imagine anyone in that role but James Cagney…seriously….No one.
Hey fpherj48….thanks for checking out my Astaire page….all my life I have heard about Fred and Ginger…and it took this hub to finally get me motivated to actually watch some of their movies. I agree with you about Cagney being the only guy for Yankee Doodle Dandy. As always thanks for your contribution to the page.