Want to know the best Harry Belafonte movies? How about the worst Harry Belafonte movies? Curious about Harry Belafonte box office grosses or which Harry Belafonte movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Harry Belafonte movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place.
Harry Belafonte (1927-2023) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, and social activist. One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the “King of Calypso” for popularizing the Caribbean musical style. His IMDb page shows 20 acting credits from 1953-2006. In the table below, Ultimate Movie Rankings ranks his movies in 6 different sortable columns. Television roles and one short film were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: The other day at work, I was talking with one of our websites greatest promoters, George V. , about Sidney Poitier (Sidney had a birthday on February 20th)….when Harry Belafonte’s name came up. We were trying to figure out who was older Sidney or Harry. Well a quick internet search provided the interesting trivia about the two legendary ground breaking actors. Sidney Poitier was born on February 20th 1927….and then nine days later Harry Belafonte was born on March 1st, 1927. So for his birthday we figured we would do a page on Mr. Belafonte…Happy Birthday Harry. 3/1/18.
Harry Belafonte 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 Harry Belafonte movies by movie titles and trailers
- Sort Harry Belafonte movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Harry Belafonte movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Harry Belafonte movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Harry Belafonte 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 Harry Belafonte movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Harry Belafonte movie won.
- Sort Harry Belafonte 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.
Possibly Interesting About Harry Belafonte
1. Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. was born in Harlem, New York in 1927.
2. Harry Belafonte started his career in music as a club singer in New York to pay for his acting classes. The first time he appeared in front of an audience, he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker himself, Max Roach and Miles Davis, among others.
3. Harry Belafonte first widely released single, which went on to become his “signature” song with audience participation in virtually all his live performances, was “Matilda”, recorded April 27, 1953.
4. Harry Belafonte breakthrough album was 1956’s Calypso became the first LP in the world “to sell over 1 million copies within a year”, The album is number four on Billboard‘s “Top 100 Album” list for having spent 31 weeks at number 1, 58 weeks in the top ten, and 99 weeks on the U.S. charts.
5. Harry Belafonte used his star clout to get several then-controversial film roles made. In 1957’s Island in the Sun, there are hints of an affair between Belafonte’s character and the character played by Joan Fontaine. In 1959, he starred in and produced Robert Wise’s Odds Against Tomorrow, in which he plays a bank robber uncomfortably teamed with a racist partner (Robert Ryan).
6. Harry Belafonte was offered the role of Porgy in Otto Preminger’s Porgy and Bess (1959), where he would have once again starred opposite Dorothy Dandridge (his first two films were with her), but he refused the role because he objected to its racial stereotyping.
7. Harry Belafonte has been married three times and has four children.
8. Harry Belafonte’s album “Midnight Special” (1962) featured the first-ever recorded appearance by a then young harmonica player named Bob Dylan.
9. Harry Belafonte was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Honorary Oscar® Award in 2015.
10. Check out Harry Belafonte‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
1 Jamaican-American Harry is another of those performers from the coloured community who in his prime possessed an exceptionally smooth, silken voice of the kind that Nat Cole and Britain’s Danny Williams demonstrated in their heydays.
2 So much did I enjoy Harry’s singing of lovely songs like Island in the Sun and Mary’s Boy Child that for a time I was almost oblivious to him as a film actor and when I saw his name associated with a movie I tended to think that he had some gimmicky guest star or cameo role in it.
3 However as touched upon on this site Harry whilst he did not have a prolific movie career played strong roles in films that had high dramatic content such as Odds Against Tomorrow, The World The Flesh and the Devil and Island in the Sun which was highly controversial in its day for including allusions to inter-racial romantic interest.
4 Harry was a strong civil rights supporter who used his fame to campaign on behalf of others not as lucky as himself. On Wikipedia at present is a photo of him standing beside Sidney Poitier and Chuck Heston at a Civil Rights march. Certainly it must have been a labour of love for Poitier and Harry when they teamed up for the two outings mentioned in the table above.
5 The term “lucky” can be applied to a talented performer like Belafonte only because of the difficulties that people from his part of the community often faced when trying to forge careers at the time when Harry came on the scene. All the more credit to him therefore for surmounting the obstacles.
6 There are though always those who will respect talent for its own sake. Bob Hope complained that Bing did not socialize much and the latter’s widow Kathryn confirmed that when she said that he never went out much at night except when Louis Armstrong was performing within striking distance whereupon Bing would travel to the city and happily sit all evening listening to Louis play and sing.
7 It is clear that this site shares the ethos of the great Harry Lillis but anyway it’s good to see yet another new page for an artist who to one extent or another was successful as both an actor and musician. Mr Mumbles when asked to describe his own contribution to the musicality of Guys and Dolls replied that “It’s a bit like the mating call of a Yak!”
Hey Bob
1. Great thoughts on Mr. Belafonte.
2. I can see how his movie career would have easily taken a back seat to his music career.
3. Sounds like he was much more picky about his roles than Elvis was a decade later.
4. I think his civil rights activity got him the Honorary Oscar he received more than the movies he put up on the big screen.
5. I like the quote from Brando on his singing….I think Sinatra would agree on that assessment too.
6. As always…thanks for the feedback.
HI BRUCE
Sinatra also agreed with Steve. I think that it was Frankie who first nicknamed Marlon “Mr Mumbles”
Happy Birthday Mr. Belafonte!
Surprised to see that he hasn’t done more movies considering how long he’s been around. I’ve seen and liked the following: The World The Flesh and the Devil, Island in the Sun (in her autobiography “No Bed of Roses” Joan Fontaine tells the sad story of how she received hateful letters back in the day for her participation in that one…good thing this was before facebook and Twitter- considering modern day *shitstorms* ), Carmen Jones and Odds against Tomorrow. Not too familiar with his music, but the Banana Boat Song and Matilda are very well known in Germany, of course…I could do karaoke versions of both if necessary 😉
His daughter Shari was one “hot” lady to look at in the 80’s, but her career never really took off- at least I haven’t heard from her in decades.
Here’s for many more to come, Mr. Belafonte!
Hey Lupino…..thanks for coming to our Harry Belafonte UMR Birthday party. I really want to see The World, The Flesh and The Devil….looks very interesting. Sad that Joan had to deal with hate mail back then. Apparently their “love” was pretty well disguised……having to read between the lines to sort of see it. I had not thought of Shari Belafonte in a long time….her big showing was in the show Hotel….which I actually used to watch. Good to know the Banana Boat Song was big in Germany. Thanks as always for the feedback.
Happy 91st birthday Mr. Belafonte.
I have seen 6 of Harry Belafonte’s movies.
In order of preference, they are:
Carmen Jones
Island in the Sun
Bright Road
Odds Against Tomorrow
Buck and the Preacher
The Angel Levine
I am a fan of his Calypso music as well.
Hey Flora. Thanks for stopping by Harry’s UMR birthday party. Tally count. Flora 6, me 4 and Steve 3. I have only seen Odds Against Tomorrow…which I like…from the 6 you have seen. Hard not to like his music,…a great way to get out of a bad mood. Thanks for the feedback.
Happy birthday to Harry Belafonte.
Birthday wishes to Mr. Belafonte. 91 years young today.
King of Calypso Harry Belafonte gets a movie page eh… and why not.
I’ve only seen 3 of the 12 films listed – Uptown Saturday Night, The Player and Bobby.
I knew him best from his calypso songs, a couple were used in one of my favorite movies of the 80s – Beetlejuice – everyone join in
Come, Mr. Tally Mon, tally me banana
(Daylight come and he wan’ go home)
Come, Mr. Tally Mon, tally me banana
(Daylight come and he wan’ go home)
It’s six foot, seven foot, eight foot, BUNCH!
(Daylight come and he wan’ go home)
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot, BUNCH!
(Daylight come and he wan’ go home)
Hey Steve
1. Thanks for checking out my Harry page.
2. Happy Birthday Mr. Belafonte……truly a ground breaking person.
3. I have seen 4 of his movies….The Player, Bobby, Odds Against Tomorrow and White Man’s Burden.
4. I am shocked that you have not seen The World, The Flesh and The Devil…..a classic science fiction movie…..shocked I tell ya’.
5. Looking at the trailer for that one…..it looks interesting….and it looks like a movie you would be all over…..shocked I tell ya’.
6. His song is a fun part of Beetlejuice……love that movie.
Good feedback as always.