Want to know the best Greer Garson movies? How about the worst Greer Garson movies? Curious about Greer Garson box office grosses or which Greer Garson movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Greer Garson movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Greer Garson (1904-1996) was an English Oscar® winning film actress. She was one of the most popular stars working in the 1940s…appearing in 9 $100 million (adjusted gross) movies during that time decade, Greer Garson’s IMDb page shows 41 acting credits from 1934-1982. This page will rank 25 Greer Garson movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her television appearances and short films were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: This Greer Garson page was requested by Chris and Flora. Thanks to the MGM Ledgers we were able to not only secure all of Garson’s domestic box office totals….but also most of her worldwide box office totals. As we were researching this page, the start of Garson’s career reminded us of the start of current star, Jennifer Lawrence. Both started their careers off with lots of box office hits and lots of Oscar® nomination. It will interesting to see if Lawrence’s career follows the same path that Garson’s career took.
Greer Garson Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Greer Garson 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 Greer Garson movies by co-stars of her movies and by by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Sort Greer Garson movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Greer Garson movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Greer Garson 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 Greer Garson movie received.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Greer Garson Table
- Thirteen Greer Garson movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 52.00% of her movies listed. Mrs. Miniver (1942) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Greer Garson movie grossed $156.30 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 14 of Greer Garson’s movies are rated as good movies…or 56.00% of her movies. Random Harvest (1942) is her highest rated movie while Adventure (1945) is her lowest rated movie.
- Fifteen Greer Garson movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 60.00% of her movies.
- Five Greer Garson movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 20.00% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 60.00. 22 Greer Garson movie scored higher that average….or 88.00% of her movies.Mrs. Miniver (1942) got the the highest UMR Score while The Law And The Lady (1951) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Greer Garson
1. Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson was born in East Ham, Essex in 1904.
2. Greer Garson was tutored by Laurence Olivier during her theatre days in London.
3. Louis B. Mayer discovered Greer Garson while he was in London looking for new talent.
4. Talk about getting your career off to a good start: Garson received 6 Oscar® nominations during the first 7 years of her career.
5. Greer Garson holds the record with Bette Davis for most years in a row to receive an Oscar® nomination…..5 years in a row. Garson was nominated every year from 1941-1945. Davis did the same accomplishment 1938-1942.
6. Overall Greer Garson was nominated for 7 Oscars®. She won the Best Actress Oscar® for 1942’s Mrs. Miniver. Only twelve people received more acting nominations than her.
7. Greer Garson’s most famous movie is 1942’s Mrs. Miniver. Winston Churchill once said that Mrs. Miniver had done more for the war effort than a flotilla of destroyers.
8. Greer Garson was married three times. Her second marriage was to actor, Richard Ney. Ney and Garson co-starred in 1942’s Mrs. Miniver, they married after filming ended. Ney played her son in that movie. Greer had three step-children, adopted by her third husband, Buddy E.E. Fogelson, after his brother’s death.
9. Greer Garson played the wife of Walter Pidgeon a total of eight times; in 1941’s Blossoms in the Dust,1942’s Mrs. Miniver,1943’s Madame Curie, 1944’s Mrs. Parkington, 1948’s Julia Misbehaves , 1950’s The Miniver Story, 1949’s That Forsyte Woman and 1953’s Scandal at Scourie.
10. Greer Garsons’ cumulative movie totals: Adjusted domestic box office: $3.65 billion. Her movies received 62 Oscar® nominations….winning 10 times.
Check out Greer Garson‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
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For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Cogerson
I think Greer Garson is probably the most underrated today of the classic era female stars. Yes, she was a titan at the box office during the forties, and certainly she fell badly at the box office in the 1950’s. Her third marriage to a Texas millionaire was a happy one, and she no longer seemed to be as career orientated as she settled into a happy retirement. But what is often missed is that she picked her spots and still got some fine roles, often on TV–
In 1956 she played Regina in a TV version of The Little Foxes. The show has been preserved on kinescope and I have it and for me Garson is superior to Bette Davis in the role.
I recently purchased the 1960 Sunrise at Campobello, and her performance as Eleanor Roosevelt is uncanny. She deserved the best actress Oscar, and won as the Golden Globe & National Board of Review best actress.
To cut to the chase, she got and made the most of opportunities after her days as the Queen of the MGM lot and made quite an impact on this viewer.
Must see Greer Garson films that I have seen so far–
At MGM—Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Pride and Prejudice
Mrs. Miniver
Random Harvest
Madame Curie
Julius Caesar
Post MGM career
The Little Foxes (1956)
Sunrise at Campobello (1960)
Lady at the Bar (1970)–a funny The Men From Shiloh episode in which distinguished lady lawyer Garson has to defend “clod” cowboy Doug McClure from a murder charge in a laughably male chauvinist old west courtroom. Garson’s ability at dry humor is certainly on display in this one.
I intend to keep seeking out Garson performances. They have been most rewarding so far. MGM gave her good opportunities early in her movie career, but later seemed unable to find good vehicles. It is interesting that Garson did not make her movie debut until she was 35, an age at which many actresses are on the cusp of career declines. It perhaps helped that she lied about her age. The old World Almanacs listed her as being born in 1915. She was actually born in 1904. Other performers also shaved years and even a decade off their official ages. Given the ageism of Hollywood back then, I don’t blame them at all.
Hey John
1. Thanks for the input and thoughts on Greer Garson.
2. Glad she made such an solid impression on you.
3. I have seen 4 of the 6 MGM movies you liked so much. She got off to such a good start with Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
4. I have seen none of the Post MGM movies you liked so much.
5. Interesting point about her getting such a late start to her career….seems she successfully avoided the curse of 39.
6. Yep…lying about their age seems like a good career decision.
7. I have been wanting to check out Sunrise at Campobello for awhile now…your comment as me even more interested in seeing.
Good comment.
1 Greer Garson’s heyday was in the 40s when wartime and postwar audiences apparently found her films like Mrs Miniver and Random Harvest comforting and inspiring amidst the mayhem going on all around at that time. Walter Pidgeon was the perfect serial partner for her in those years.
2 Her career as a stand-alone Top Star faded in the 50s though it’s nice to see that Strange Lady in Town did well commercially as that film hold a certain nostalgia for me.
3 My aunts used to talk about Greer Garson a lot when I was boy because her mother and grandfather were from our own homeland of Northern Ireland; and indeed although as Bruce explains Greer was born in Essex, England she ‘self- identified as Northern Irish’ says Wikipedia.
4 When Clark Gable returned from the war MGM was keen to pair off two of its most important stars in Adventure (1945) and the posters for the film had a most fitting tagline GABLE’S BACK AND GARSON’S GOT HIM ! A reproduction of that poster is on Wikipedia now.
5 The worldwide grosses are again a most welcome bonus on the page. In my Walter Pidgeon post this morning I mentioned the 1954 double bill of 2 Garson/Pidgeon solo movies. I have now had the chance to examine some of Bruce’s Pidgeon worldwide grosses and they confirm Wikipedia’s contention that although Greer’s Her Twelve Men topped that bill in Belfast this film did much less well commercially overall that Walter’s Men of the Fighting Lady. .
Hey Bob.
1. Her 1942 was incredible….with Random Harvest and Mrs. Miniver destroying the box office….critics loving the movies….audiences loving the movies….and the Oscar voters falling over backwards to give them awards. It has to be one of the best 1 2 punches in a single year..
2. I agree with you about her heyday being in the 1940s…I imagine by the time Strange Lady In Town did well….it was probably a surprise to the industry.
3. Yep I read that too….about her heritage….seems she was related to the famous McGregors….but I am sure you know way more about that I do…..but I easily picture your aunts talking about Garson.
4. That slogan ….Gable’s Back and Garsons Got Him….is probably one of the most famous of all-time….too bad the movie did not live up to that greatness.
5. Good to know the numbers are looking good. Some of these pages I feel I am standing on thin ice….but in the case of Garson and Pidgeon….I feel comfortable playing hockey on this ice with lots of people….lol.
Thanks for sharing your Garson knowledge and memory. 🙂
I love Mrs. Miniver, when Mr. Ballard asks her if he can name his rose after her. The close up on Greer Garson, is just wow! She is the absolute epitome of loveliness!
Hey SM….thanks for the comment….I am very familiar with that scene in Mrs. Miniver. Glad one of fans found this page….thanks for stopping by.
Loved her movies. She was one of a king with a very unusual but beautiful look.
Hey Nancy….Glad you liked her movies…..she had one awesome 1940s decade. Thanks for stopping by.
I love Greer and Walter films.
I’m not sure I could order them in preference.
I will now simply -not that I ever do anything simply –
let me rephrase this.
I will focus on what films I have seen:
I have seen 17 of her films, most of them in the top half of the page.
When Bruce is back at home and has access to his beloved database, I will say more.
And thanks again for my requested page.
🙂
Hey Flora.
1. Glad to see your computer is back and working again.
2. Glad you found and liked your requested page.
3. Tally counts
1st Lyle. 24 Garson movies watched
2nd Flora 17 Garson movies watched
3rd Larry. 12 Garson movies watched
Bern1960 10 movies, Cogerson 6, Steve and Laurent 2.
4. Look forward to your more detailed Garson comment.
5. Besides not being around my database…..I am also missing the ability to find all the most recent comments….happily the comments have been coming fast and furious….but I like everybody else can only see the last 5 comments….this is making it very challenging.to find all the comments…I will have to wait until I return to Virginia to answer some of those comments.
Well, I have not had time to be on this site that often. So I got silver in the Garson race.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Cat of Flora has requested that you stay away longer.
Flora gets more sleep when you are away and gets more business done.
Regarding the comments.
Of course, I do not have to answer all of them, because this is your site, not mine.
But:
I will tell you what I do personally as someone who has been on your pages for five years:
I check to see what new pages have been done or updated.
Then I check pages which which interest me, including the Henry Fonda page which seems to be just the two of us talking about your autograph room.
AS for Greer:
You come in second last.
Well…..
🙂
Favourite Greer films in no order:
EVery movie with Walter starting with Mrs. Miniver which I know some people don’t like as much as others.
Goodbye Mr. Chips
Random Harvest
Pride and Prejudice
Julius Caesar….
everything she is in even if the movie in general does not interest me.
Hey Flora.
1, Sorry Cat of Flora….vacation is quickly wrapping up….but it will take a few days to start getting new material out….so she has some more time off….lol.
2. I have to admit it has been frustrating trying to find the new comments…I will have to add a few more to the menu when I get back…..I am sure I have missed many comments the last 5 days….but I will fix that soon.
3. I have seen three of your favorites….Goodbye Mr. Chips (she is barely in the movie) and Random Harvest….one of her smashes….and Julius Caesar (once again…her part is pretty small)….I need to check out her version of Pride and Prejudice….are there zombies in her version? The zombie version I saw will make it hard to see that story played straight.
As always…thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Yes indeed.
WE are in no hurry.