Want to know the best Jean Arthur movies? How about the worst Jean Arthur movies? Curious about Jean Arthur box office grosses or which Jean Arthur movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Jean Arthur movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Jean Arthur (1900-1991) was an Oscar®-nominated American actress. From the mid 1930s to the mid 1940s, Jean Arthur was one of the most popular actors working. Between 1936 and 1944, she appeared in 15 $100 million (adjusted) box office hits and 5 movies that earned a Best Picture Oscar® nomination. Jean Arthur‘s IMDb page shows 97 acting credits from 1923-1966. This page will rank 26 Jean Arthur movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her silent films, her early 1930s movies, television appearances, uncredited roles and shorts were not included in the rankings.
Drivel Part: This page comes from a request by Lyle. Lyle made the request many many months ago. After lots of fruitless research we have waved the white flag. Her entire film career from 1923 to 1934 is not included in the page. Ok….1930’s Street of Chance was included….but that is the only one. Maybe some box office numbers on her early career are somewhere out there…..but we can not find it….and we give up! Every movie she made from 1935 to 1953 did make the rankings….and it does include her most famous movies. So we are apologizing up front for all the missing movies.
Jean Arthur 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 Jean Arthur movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Jean Arthur movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Jean Arthur movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Jean Arthur 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 Jean Arthur movie received.
- Sort Jean Arthur 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.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Jean Arthur Table
- Sixteen Jean Arthur movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 61.53% of her movies listed. Shane (1953) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Jean Arthur movie grossed $127.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 20 Jean Arthur movies are rated as good movies…or 76.92% of her movies. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) is her highest rated movie while Arizona (1940) is her lowest rated movie.
- Eleven Jean Arthur movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 42.30% of her movies.
- Five Jean Arthur movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 19.23% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00. 21 Jean Arthur movies scored higher that average….or 80.76% of her movies. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) got the the highest UMR Score while Arizona (1940) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Jean Arthur
1. Gladys Georgianna Greene was born in Plattsburgh, New York in 1900.
2. So how did Gladys Greene become Jean Arthur? Her screen name came from two of her greatest heroes, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc) and King Arthur.
3. Jean Arthur was cast in over twenty low budget westerns (Action Pictures) in a two-year period during the 1920s. She was paid $25 dollars per movie. Twenty movies at $25 per movie equals a total pay of $500!
4. Jean Arthur was nominated for one acting Oscar®….1943’s The More The Merrier.
5. In Danny Peary’s excellent book, Alternate Oscar®, he (Peary) makes a great case of the fact that Jean Arthur should have won the Best Actress Oscar® for 1943’s The More The Merrier.
6. Jean Arthur was married two times….but did not have children.
7. Jean Arthur’s favorite leading man?……Mr. Gary Cooper.
8. Director George Stevens famously called Jean Arthur “one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen” while Frank Capra credited her as “my favorite actress”.
9. After retiring, Jean Arthur was teaching at Vassar at the same time that Meryl Streep was studying there in her junior year. Upon seeing the young drama major rehearsing August Strindberg’s play “Miss Julie”, Arthur remarked it was “just like watching a movie star”.
10. Check out Jean Arthur‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globe® is a registered trademark.
Highly recommend reading “Runaway Brides” by Elizabeth Kendall. It is an excellent look at her and Carol Lombard’s careers. This is also an interesting look at her under rated movie career.
Hey Marquis…..thanks for recommendation on Runaway Brides…I will see if I can track that one down….glad you liked this page….so far it is off to a sluggish start…..but I am sure it will start picking up some traffic. Thanks for the comment and the visit.
Hi Bruce,
The fact that this pages starts almost exclusivly with Mrs Arthurs movies from 1935 on is indicative of her carreer. Albeit good reviews in some minor pictures from that year Mrs Arthurs carreer only took off in Capra’s Mr Deeds. Prior to 1935 there would be little to include on this page with the exception of Street of Chance.
It is akin to John Waynes carreer; B pictures or little known mainstream pictures (with the exception of The Big Trail) until 1939’s Stagecoach.
Mrs Arthur was an extremely potent and talented actress. It was unusual for women of those times to be unabashedly feminine, independant and strongwilled. She deserves a page….nice work.
She was actually 53 in Shane….unbelievable….it had never dawned on me.
Marcel
Hey Marcel….thanks for checking out our Jean Arthur page. Good comparison of her movie making of the 1920s to Wayne’s movie making of the 1930s…..but made almost all B budget westerns…that have been almost forgotten as time has marched on.
Nice description of Jean Arthur. I have been trying to complete this page for at least a year….it was not until I “gave up” that I finally got it done. But I thought it was silly to not have the meat of her career on an UMR page….because we did not have the salad that goes with it.
Yep….53…..though there seems to have been some confusion of her birthdate….seems the studio was saying she was born in 1905 versus the 1900 that seems to be her real birthday.
Once again….thanks for the feedback.
Hi Bruce, Jean Arthur is an interesting choice for a movie page, she’s rarely talked about and she’s been in some very famous movies. And she hasn’t been as busy as other actresses despite living to a grand old age.
I’ve seen 8 of the 26 films you’ve listed, favorites are Shane, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Only Angels Have Wings.
Notable films I’ve missed – Easy Living, The More the Merrier and The Devil and Miss Jones.
If it wasn’t for Shane Frank Capra would have had the top 3 spots on the UMR chart.
Nice work Bruce. Looking at her filmography I should keep her in mind for a top 20 video somewhere down the line. Vote Up!
Hey Steve…..thanks for stopping by. If I would have been able to find box office grosses for early movies her table would have been much much larger. She appeared in lots of B Westerns in the 1920s…earning a grand total of $500 for twenty movies. No wonder she tried her hand at Broadway…I imagine even an extra in a show paid more than that.
Your tally of 8 Arthur movies watched….would put you behind me and Laurent…as we have each seen 9 Arthur movies. I like all of your favorites as well. The More The Merrier and The Devil and Miss Jones also gives you outstanding performances by Charles Coburn (with More The Merrier earning him an Oscar) so I do recommend checking those two movies out.,
I think a Top 20 Video would be a good one….her Top 10…..is very impressive. Thanks again for stopping by.
Hey Bruce I watched The More the Merrier late last night, I had a copy of it in the collection. I wasn’t very impressed with it but it was a good time passer. I smiled a couple of times but no laughs. Jean Arthur looked tiny next to Joel McCrea. James Coburn’s Oscar-winning dad was slightly annoying, maybe I wasn’t really in the mood for screwball last night? The Night of the Demon had more laughs.
Hey Lens Steveman…..sorry you did not enjoy The More The Merrier…..I really like Jimmy’s dad performance in that one…..it even beats out Cary Grant who played the same role in Walk Don’t Run. I guess I need to re-watch The Night of the Demon the comedy….lol. Thanks for the mini-review on The More The Merrier.
Hello Bruce,
Thank you for this page. Jean Arthur is one of my favourite actress. I’ve seen only 9 movies, but I’ve seen 5 of them many times. There are Shane, Only Angels Have Wings and the three movies directed by Frank Capra. I liked very much Plainsman too.
Hey Laurent….glad we got an UMR page on one of your favorites….especially with your favorites getting 5 of the Top 6 spots. Frank Capra loved working with her….and her performances in her movie are pretty impressive. So your tally is 9….you might have me and Steve beat….let me count…nope…we are tied…I have seen the entire Top 10 with the exception of A Foreign Affair. Every time I do one of these pages…a movie joins my “movies to watch list”….in this case it was her Easy Living movie. Somehow I have missed seeing The Plainsman. Thanks for stopping by.
Lots of comments to catch up on….but this is one tired camper after finishing this Jean Arthur page. Will catch up on the comments tomorrow.
I am such a slacker…lol.