James Coburn played Derek Flint in two Flint movies
Want to know the best James Coburn movies? How about the worst James Coburn movies? Curious about James Coburn box office grosses or which James Coburn movie picked up the most Oscar nominations? Need to know which James Coburn 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.
One of my father’s all-time favorite movie scenes occurred in 1963’s The Great Escape. In that movie James Coburn (1928-2002) played an escaped POW during World War II who is hiding in plain sight at a French cafe. Since YouTube is so awesome I was able to locate and attach my dad’s favorite The Great Escape scene at the bottom of this page. This attached scene is why Coburn became one of my favorite actors. When I started writing these movie pages….Coburn was one of the first people I wrote down on a list of actors/actresses that I wanted to write about.
Since writing that original list, 4 and a half years have passed and I have written over 250 movie pages….yet I never did a Coburn movie page. But why?Although Coburn appeared in many classic movies….The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Charade, Our Man Flint and Duck You Sucker….he has also appeared in his fair share of clunkers. When going through his IMDb credits I counted over 20 movies (many turned out to be straight to VHS movies) that I had not even heard of before…. and I consider myself a James Coburn fan. So the other day when I was looking at my Michael Caine (another favorite of mine) page….I saw all of his clunkers ….and thought why am I holding the clunkers against Coburn and nobody else? At that point I decided to give Mr. Coburn some Ultimate Movie Rankings love. His IMDb page shows 174 acting credits from 1957-2002. This page will rank James Coburn movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, cameos, movies not released in North America and straight to home entertainment movies were not included in the rankings.
Mel Gibson and James Coburn in 1994’s Maverick
James Coburn Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
James Coburn 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 James Coburn movies by co-stars
Sort James Coburn movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
Sort James Coburn movies by yearly domestic box office rank
Sort James Coburn 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 James Coburn movie received and how many Oscar® wins each James Coburn movie won.
Sort James Coburn 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.
1. James Harrison Coburn III was born on August 31, 1928 in Laurel, Nebraska. Coburn was raised in California. 2. James Coburn’s rise to stardom…Cliff Notes style. While in the Army he narrated Army training films. Studied acting at Los Angeles City College. Made stage debut in Billy Budd. Selected for a Remington Products razor television commercial. Starting getting television role work in 1957. First movie role was in 1959’s Ride Lonesome. From 1960 to 1965 appeared in supporting roles in many popular movies. In 1966, Coburn became a genuine star following the release of Our Man Flint. In 1967, he was voted the twelfth biggest star in Hollywood. 3. Even though James Coburn was one of The Magnificent Seven (1960)….he only had 11 lines in the entire movie. Coburn was a big fan of Seven Samurai (1954) and his favorite role in that film was the character that he ended up playing in the Americanized version. 4. In 1979, James Coburn started suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis, which left him debilitated at times. In 1998, a holistic healer started him on a dietary supplement, which resulted in a drastic improvement in his condition. This is why he has so few IMDb credits in the 1980s. 5. James Coburn received 1 Oscar® and 0 Golden Globe® nominations…..but he made that 1 nomination count as he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for 1997’s Affliction. 6. James Coburn’s passions in life included martial arts, card playing and enjoying fine Cuban cigars! Coburn and Steve McQueen were a pallbearers at the funeral of Bruce Lee. 7. James Coburn starred in 3 Sam Peckinpah directed movies. 1965’s Major Dundee, 1973’s Pat Garret & Billy The Kid and 1977’s The Cross of Iron. 8. James Coburn was married twice; first to Beverly Kelly from 1959 to 1979..they had two children, James Coburn IV and Lisa Coburn. James Coburn IV is a sound mixer with over 40 IMDb credits. His second marriage was to actress Paula O’Hara from 1993 until his death in 2002. 9. James Coburn was offered the role in Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars….but he turned it down. That was good news for Clint Eastwood. Later Coburn would make a Sergio Leone western…1971’s Duck You Sucker…which is also known as A Fistful of Dynamite. 10. James Coburn’s last acting role was on the HBO series….Arli$$. The name of the episode was The Immortal….seems like a fitting way for Coburn to end his acting career. Check out James Coburn’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page. Another page worth checking out is this James Coburn Movie Posters page written by Steve Lensman. Lots of great art work on Coburn’s movies.
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globe® is a registered trademarks.
(Visited 10,794 times)
46 thoughts on “James Coburn Movies”
FABULOUS! Hey, I really enjoyed this site. Yes, your father and I both enjoyed that scene at the cafe…….he was a good actor Thanks for the videos. Those I enjoyed as well. SO MANY OF THOSE ACTORS ARE NOT WITH US ANY MORE EXCEPT IN MEMORIES INCLUDING YOUR FATHER.
Hey BERN1960….glad you liked my Coburn page….I was thinking about Dad while I was writing this one….which is why I included his favorite scene. Glad you liked the videos……thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Coburn was the very personification of tough guy coolness. He definitely left his mark in American Cinema, glad to see him getting some belated respect.
One of my father’s favorites too Bruce, he was also a fan of Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Garner. So you can guess what his favorite prisoner of war movie was. 🙂
Good to see Great Escape and Magnificent Seven topping the moviescore, I never get bored of watching those movies, usually at Easter or Xmas.
It’s been years since I watched The Nutty Professor, was it just a cameo? Maverick was a fun movie. I saw Firepower at the cinema but can’t remember it much. I have Looker on one of my drives, an interesting little movie.
Hard Times aka The Streetfighter is one of my favorite Charles Bronson movies, watched it a number of times at the cinema back in the 70’s. Watched The Last Hard Men recently in HD, very violent and nasty but no classic.
Okay I’ve seen… 27 of the 52 films you’ve listed, probably more I just can’t remember them.
Yep Sergio Leone wanted James Coburn for A Fistful of Dollars, if he had said yes, where would Clint Eastwood be today? Might have been a popular TV actor instead.
Excellent work on one of the greats Bruce, Voted Up!
Hey Steve….I can easily imagine our two fathers watching The Great Escape in the 1960s too. My uncle was a huge fan too….I remember him having a record of the soundtrack…I must have looked at that record cover 1000 times or more.
Actually I changed the columns around a little bit on this page…..the movies are ranked by critics/audience rating versus the movie score system. I have to admit….for one of the few times it looks like my ranking system did not do very well this time out. It joins my Mel Gibson page as being one of the worst when looking at my UMR score.
His role is a supporting one in The Nutty Professor but it is way larger than a cameo. Glad you mentioned The Last Hard Men…..I need to fix my Heston page because my database had the movie as The Last Hard Man….which kind of seems like the name of a X rated movie versus a Heston movie.
My tally count is….drum roll as I count….21 live action and 1 computer animated movie for a total of 22. Clint probably one would doing western television conventions if Coburn had taken A Fistful of Dollars…..as always thanks for the visit and the comment.
“The Last Hard Man” Ho ho should have left it in, just to see if anyone mentions it. 🙂
So is the Moviescore renamed ‘critic/audience rating’ now or is it the ‘ultimate movie rankings score’?
Thanks for the poster page link, much appreciated.
Hey Steve….for this page only I moved the critic/audience rating to the last column which is the default setting for the rankings…..once somebody is done sorting and searching the tables. Movie score did not do a very good job on this page….luckily that is rare….even though when I think the scores are good….some people like to nit pick the rankings. As for The Last Hard Man….I had that error on the Heston page for 4 plus years….one of my friends is a huge Heston fan….yet he did not catch that error in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 or 2015…lol.
Hello Bruce.
I’m glad you did a James Coburn page. It gave me box office information on another Anthony Quinn film (A High Wind in Jamaica) and another Randolph Scott film (Ride Lonesome) and I never knew how much (Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round) made. I’ve seen almost all of Coburn’s earliest films from Ride Lonesome through his 1970’s output. I always thought he would have been a bigger star if he had picked better scripts but I like many of his films. Ride Lonesome, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily, The President’s Analyst, Duck, You Sucker and Bite the Bullet are my Favorites. Thanks again Bruce.
Hey Lyle….those two movies were almost impossible to find really solid information….I actually think the amount of money they earned was even less than the small amounts shown here. Movies that appear as part of double bills might be the hardest movies to find out how they really did in theaters.
Seems the days that Coburn was a leading man was a very short window….I think you are correct…his movie picking reminds me of James Caan’s after Caan hit it big with The Godfather….both failed to take advantage when they were on top. I have seen all of your favorites except for Ride Lonesome….and I agree they are all very good movies. Thanks for the comment.
What about his cameo in The Muppet Movie? smile emoticon Seriously, The Great Escape FTW!
Hey Becky….I thought about including his epic role as El Sleezo Cafe Owner in The Muppet Movie but in the end I left off all of his cameos…..like his cameo in California Suite. Payback made the cut though….I never knew why his role went uncredited in that movie….thanks for checking out my latest movie page.
I liked the video you attached. It has been years since I watched the Great Escape. Now I am motivated to watch it soon. As for Coburn? I liked him but he was nowhere near a favourtie to me. I did like Looker but wow it got slammed in your rankings. So where is my Seth Rogen page? How about Paul Rudd? Steve Carell? Let’s get some fresh blood in these pages.
Hey Timlin33. Thanks for checking out my Coburn movie page. Glad that clip has you motivated to watch The Great Escape again. Fresh blood is coming with the new page…..it however will probably be Ms. Elizabeth Banks….but I will be getting to one of the three you mentioned pretty quickly….Rudd seems like the most interesting to me…..and that would include a few Seth Rogen movies.
FABULOUS! Hey, I really enjoyed this site. Yes, your father and I both enjoyed that scene at the cafe…….he was a good actor Thanks for the videos. Those I enjoyed as well. SO MANY OF THOSE ACTORS ARE NOT WITH US ANY MORE EXCEPT IN MEMORIES INCLUDING YOUR FATHER.
Hey BERN1960….glad you liked my Coburn page….I was thinking about Dad while I was writing this one….which is why I included his favorite scene. Glad you liked the videos……thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Coburn was the very personification of tough guy coolness. He definitely left his mark in American Cinema, glad to see him getting some belated respect.
Hey Mary P….I agree with your comment 100%…..I am still amazed it took me this long to do a page on one of my favorites. Thanks for stopping by.
One of my father’s favorites too Bruce, he was also a fan of Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Garner. So you can guess what his favorite prisoner of war movie was. 🙂
Good to see Great Escape and Magnificent Seven topping the moviescore, I never get bored of watching those movies, usually at Easter or Xmas.
It’s been years since I watched The Nutty Professor, was it just a cameo? Maverick was a fun movie. I saw Firepower at the cinema but can’t remember it much. I have Looker on one of my drives, an interesting little movie.
Hard Times aka The Streetfighter is one of my favorite Charles Bronson movies, watched it a number of times at the cinema back in the 70’s. Watched The Last Hard Men recently in HD, very violent and nasty but no classic.
Okay I’ve seen… 27 of the 52 films you’ve listed, probably more I just can’t remember them.
Yep Sergio Leone wanted James Coburn for A Fistful of Dollars, if he had said yes, where would Clint Eastwood be today? Might have been a popular TV actor instead.
Excellent work on one of the greats Bruce, Voted Up!
Hey Steve….I can easily imagine our two fathers watching The Great Escape in the 1960s too. My uncle was a huge fan too….I remember him having a record of the soundtrack…I must have looked at that record cover 1000 times or more.
Actually I changed the columns around a little bit on this page…..the movies are ranked by critics/audience rating versus the movie score system. I have to admit….for one of the few times it looks like my ranking system did not do very well this time out. It joins my Mel Gibson page as being one of the worst when looking at my UMR score.
His role is a supporting one in The Nutty Professor but it is way larger than a cameo. Glad you mentioned The Last Hard Men…..I need to fix my Heston page because my database had the movie as The Last Hard Man….which kind of seems like the name of a X rated movie versus a Heston movie.
My tally count is….drum roll as I count….21 live action and 1 computer animated movie for a total of 22. Clint probably one would doing western television conventions if Coburn had taken A Fistful of Dollars…..as always thanks for the visit and the comment.
“The Last Hard Man” Ho ho should have left it in, just to see if anyone mentions it. 🙂
So is the Moviescore renamed ‘critic/audience rating’ now or is it the ‘ultimate movie rankings score’?
Thanks for the poster page link, much appreciated.
Hey Steve….for this page only I moved the critic/audience rating to the last column which is the default setting for the rankings…..once somebody is done sorting and searching the tables. Movie score did not do a very good job on this page….luckily that is rare….even though when I think the scores are good….some people like to nit pick the rankings. As for The Last Hard Man….I had that error on the Heston page for 4 plus years….one of my friends is a huge Heston fan….yet he did not catch that error in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 or 2015…lol.
Hello Bruce.
I’m glad you did a James Coburn page. It gave me box office information on another Anthony Quinn film (A High Wind in Jamaica) and another Randolph Scott film (Ride Lonesome) and I never knew how much (Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round) made. I’ve seen almost all of Coburn’s earliest films from Ride Lonesome through his 1970’s output. I always thought he would have been a bigger star if he had picked better scripts but I like many of his films. Ride Lonesome, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily, The President’s Analyst, Duck, You Sucker and Bite the Bullet are my Favorites. Thanks again Bruce.
Hey Lyle….those two movies were almost impossible to find really solid information….I actually think the amount of money they earned was even less than the small amounts shown here. Movies that appear as part of double bills might be the hardest movies to find out how they really did in theaters.
Seems the days that Coburn was a leading man was a very short window….I think you are correct…his movie picking reminds me of James Caan’s after Caan hit it big with The Godfather….both failed to take advantage when they were on top. I have seen all of your favorites except for Ride Lonesome….and I agree they are all very good movies. Thanks for the comment.
What about his cameo in The Muppet Movie? smile emoticon Seriously, The Great Escape FTW!
Hey Becky….I thought about including his epic role as El Sleezo Cafe Owner in The Muppet Movie but in the end I left off all of his cameos…..like his cameo in California Suite. Payback made the cut though….I never knew why his role went uncredited in that movie….thanks for checking out my latest movie page.
I liked the video you attached. It has been years since I watched the Great Escape. Now I am motivated to watch it soon. As for Coburn? I liked him but he was nowhere near a favourtie to me. I did like Looker but wow it got slammed in your rankings. So where is my Seth Rogen page? How about Paul Rudd? Steve Carell? Let’s get some fresh blood in these pages.
Hey Timlin33. Thanks for checking out my Coburn movie page. Glad that clip has you motivated to watch The Great Escape again. Fresh blood is coming with the new page…..it however will probably be Ms. Elizabeth Banks….but I will be getting to one of the three you mentioned pretty quickly….Rudd seems like the most interesting to me…..and that would include a few Seth Rogen movies.