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.
I love Fred Asatire’s films and I think I have seen them all. Ginger Rogers is a favorite of mine as well. I enjoyed your excellent page. Thank you!
Hey James….well when I wrote this page…I had only seen The Towering Inferno…over the last couple of weeks I have watched a ton of Astaire movies…including 9 of the 10 Astaire/Rogers movies. A Ginger Rogers hubs is scheduled as well….thanks for the compliment and the comment.
Whether you create a pulse or no-pulse hub you cease to amaze your fans with your creations cogerson! Granted pulse pages are more exciting to the ones of us who have a pulse! :))
Fred & Ginger rocked the dance floor! I would have liked to have seen them guest star on Dancing With The Stars!
Hey Sunshine625…thanks for stopping in and thanks for such a nice compliment. I imagine Fred and Ginger would have their own dance show if they were still around today. Hard to believe but their peak was almost 80 years ago. Your contributions via you comments are always appreciated.
Lets see. Astaire died when I was 4. No, I can’t say people with a pulse are more exciting. Just the opposite. Today’s stars are famous for being famous.
Re: my 100th hub. Much as I love Gene Kelly (died the day after I turned 20, by the way), I acknowledge that Astaire was a better dancer in technique. He is the best of all time, though I prefer Gene.
Just want to let you know that after I’m finished with my opera,I plan to publish a tribute to Harry Morgan who just died at 96. I wanted to publish one right away, but then that would have been hub #100. And that wouldn’t do!
Hey Flora….let’s see I just watched The Royal Wedding and The Belle Of New York so my Fred Astaire count is up to 18 now. I found You Were Never Lovelier and Roberta so I will soon be up to 20 Fred Astaire movies that I have watched. During this Fred Astaire movie marathon I have gained a new respect for the man and his talents.
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire are considered the best dancers ever…and if Kelly himself gave the edge to Astaire I think I will go along with Kelly’s opinion as well.
I think a Harry Morgan hub would be very interesting…as I do not think many people realize much about his career prior to MASH, which is amazing considering the amount of projects he did prior to becoming famous as Colonel Potter. My wife and I watched Support Your Local Sheriff the same day he passed away….it was strange that after the movie was over we found out he had passed away. I look forward to the new page. And good luck with the opera.
I notice I put down I was 4 when Fred died. I meant to say I was four when his final film was released. sigh. I was 11 when he died.
I see support Your local sheriff several times a year along with Support Your Local Gunfighter. It’s not common for me to watch comedy westerns multiple times. Just these and Bob Hope’s mostly.
Hey Flora…my wife just watched Support Your Local Sheriff for the first time the other night and she really enjoyed it….her favorite part was the jail with no bars. Just watched You Were Never Lovelier last night…I think it will end up being ranked pretty high on my Fred Astaire personal rankings….I thought Adolphe Menjou was very good in the movie. That gets me up to 19 of his movies watched.
You are definitely catching up to me and Steve. As for your wife’s favourite part of Support Your Local Sheriff – that scene is classic. I love the look on Bruce Dern’s face when he sees the “blood”
I think after I have gotten all the Fred Astaire movies my library has my number will be at 20 for awhile. Roberta is the last one I am waiting for….I am actually on a waiting list to watch Roberta…3rd in line…who would have thought there would be a line to watch Roberta. I am also starting to watch some Charlie Chaplin movies in advance of the hub I am going to eventually write as I have only seen City Lights….I do not want to be in the same boat with Charlie that I was with Fred.
The blood paint is very funny in SYLS…every time I watch the movie I always wonder what happened to the Bruce Dern character….did he hang….get loose….become a farmer?
Your page has got me in the mood to watch some Astaire musicals this xmas Cogerson. Top Hat is one of the most famous so I’ll start with that one. Bang Wagon of course, The Gay Divorcee and Silk Stockings with gorgeous Cyd Charisse. And my favourite Fred Astaire musical The Towering Inferno on boxing day as usual. 🙂
Hey Steve…I keep thinking that I am done watching Astaire movies for awhile…but I keep discovering more of his movies at my local library….I did a quick search on 25 of his movies…and the library had 20 of them available for rent. So I now have Roberta and Shall We Dance ready to be viewed…..that will only leave one Rogers/Astaire movie to view. I would say my Top 5 Astaire moments would be….riding the food cart in Daddy Long Legs, dancing on water in Funny Face, dancing on the moving floor in the Barkleys of Broadway….the triplet song in The Band Wagon….Astaire at the end of On the Beach when he decides to go out with the car.
Another thing I have found enjoyment is playing the find Eric Blore game when watching the Rogers/Astaire movies.
Hey Steve…I keep thinking that I am done watching Astaire movies for awhile…but I keep discovering more of his movies at my local library….I did a quick search on 25 of his movies…and the library had 20 of them available for rent. So I now have Roberta and Shall We Dance ready to be viewed…..that will only leave one Rogers/Astaire movie to view. I would say my Top 5 Astaire moments would be….riding the food cart in Daddy Long Legs, dancing on water in Funny Face, dancing on the moving floor in the Barkleys of Broadway….the triplet song in The Band Wagon….Astaire at the end of On the Beach when he decides to go out with the car.
Another thing I have found enjoyment is playing the find Eric Blore game when watching the Rogers/Astaire movies.
Hey Steve…it took me about 2 movies to notice Eric Blore…but when I did a IMDB search on him…I noticed all the Rogers/Astaire movies he was in….it sounds like he might have been their good luck charm.
I just watched On the Beach last night…I first I did not buy the Astaire character but he has a much stronger second half of the movie….I thought he gave an Oscar caliber performance in that one. Your comment confused me at first until I realized that you were joking….Heston could have been in the movie….now that I am a Astaire expert(lol)…I got a kick out of Ava Gardner playing his love interest…after she had done a cameo in The Band Wagon.
Oh yes thats right she plays herself in the Band Wagon.
The last film I saw Fred Astaire in was Ghost Story which is 31st on your moviescore, a horror movie about a female ghost or spectre seeking revenge on the men who killed her.
Glad to hear you have now seen enough Astaire films to have a list of favourites. I love Eric Blore. He is one of the people I’m talking about when I say that that I am such a big fan of classic movies I even know the names of character actors who are otherwise known as “famous nameless faces” to some people.
Roberta was originally a Broadway musical and has Irene Dunne singing the classic “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”
I had noticed you hadn’t updated or published a page lately.
Steve – Would I enjoy Ghost story or would it be too bizarre for me knowing my preferences? I would like to watch it because it is his last film.worst
Flora, I think you might enjoy Ghost Story, it’s a mystery too. It’s classily made with John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks jr as Fred Astaires friends. All pretty old by then. But there are some scary shots of a rotting corpse that might put you off.
Hey Steve….yep my Astaire knowledge is expanding at a very rapid pace….I love little pieces of trivia like that…I think I have seen three of Ava Gardner’s movies in the last couple of weeks. As for Ghost Story….I think I saw Ghost Story when it first came out…but I can barely remember the story…so I have not counted it in my tally count.
Hey Flora….I was watching Flying Down To Rio this morning….when I noticed Eric Blore in the first scene…and I was hoping he would be around awhile…but the band left him in Miami when they moved on. The other character actor I liked was Edward Everett Horton in Top Hat and The Gay Divorcee. And then I got a kick out of seeing Lucille Ball and Betty Grable show up in Follow the Fleet. It has been fun exploring the career of Fred Astaire.
steve – They are all favourites of mine. Thanks for the info.
Hey Flora…between Christmas shopping, watching Fred Astaire movies, and researching my next classic hub(Bette Davis)…HubPages got knocked to the back burner. When I realized over a week had gone by since my last hub I figured I would do my son’s request on Michael Keaton. As the current actors generally do not take as long as the classic actors.
I’m sure your current actors only fans were happy that you decided to do your son’s request. There are a bunch of names on Keaton’s movie page comments that went nowhere near this page.
Hey Flora….I think the mixture of current and classic hubs makes a trip to my profile page and all my links worth the time for anybody that likes movies. I think this Fred Astaire hub is one I have gotten a huge amount of myself as I have been checking my Movie Scores ever time I see a new Astaire movie. So far I like how the Movie Scores rank the movies. Meanwhile a movie page like Michael Keaton seems to bring in a nice response as well…. I think both types provide lots of feedback….I am sure my online writing hobby would have ended months ago without this awesome feedback.
My new Fred Astaire numbers….I have now seen 13 Fred Astaire movies. That includes 7 of his Top Ten Box Office hits….6 of his Top Ten Critical Hits….and 7 of the 10 Ginger Rogers/Astaire movies….I would say Top Hat is my favorite of the ones that I have seen.
Hi Cogerson, I can remember seeing the towering inferno a few times over the years, but the rest of his movies are just faded memories. Maybe i’ve just seen so many clips of him and Ginger that their dance routines have become etched into my brain. They say he was a very good actor too, but boy could he glide around the stage. He was impeccably well spoken too in an age when that mattered. He was a part of my childhood and I’m glad that you have rekindled those rose-tinted memories. Cheers
Hey attempted humour…I think you and I were in the exact boat together….I am had seen so many of his movie clips without seeing many of his movies except for The Towering Inferno….I have seen been on a Fred Astaire movie marathon….and have seen 12 of his movies in the last 7 days….pretty much stopped doing HubPages to watch Astaire movies. Glad that my hub brought back some of those rose-tinted memories.