Want to know the best Lee Marvin movies? How about the worst Lee Marvin movies? Curious about Lee Marvin’s box office grosses or which Lee Marvin movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Lee Marvin 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.
Seems that we have been receiving requests to do a Lee Marvin (1924-1987) movie page for a very long time. Recently we have gotten three more requests for a Marvin page. So Dan O., Wayne S., Jules and all the other people that wanted a Marvin page….the time is finally here…..as Mr. Lee Marvin now has an UltimateMovieRankings page.
Rugged, white-haired, gritty, lanky and with a low voice…..those are words used to describe a major movie star? When it comes to describing Lee Marvin….they perfectly describe one of the most original movie stars of all-time. Marvin was an Oscar® winning actor who starred in movies for over 35 years. During those 35 years he appeared in many classic movies: The Big Heat, The Caine Mutiny, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Cat Ballou, The Dirty Dozen and Point Blank….just to name a few.
His IMDb page shows 107 acting credits from 1950-1986. This page will rank 48 Lee Marvin movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, cameos, bit parts and some of his movies never released in North America were not included in the rankings.
Lee Marvin Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Lee Marvin 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 Lee Marvin movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Lee Marvin movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Lee Marvin movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Lee Marvin movies 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 Lee Marvin movie received.
- Sort Lee Marvin 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 Facts About Lee Marvin
1. Lee Marvin was born in New York City in 1924. He was named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee….who was a relative. Marvin was also related to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
2. Lee Marvin served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater of World War II. He was wounded in action during the Battle of Saipan. He was awarded four medals….including a Purple Heart. Marvin said “I learned to “act” in the Marines….as I was trying to act unafraid during combat”.
3. Lee Marvin’s rise to stardom….Cliff Notes style. After the war he was working as a plumber’s assistant when he decided to take a chance as an actor. This led to acting jobs first in off-Broadway plays and then Broadway plays. In 1950 he headed to Hollywood. From 1950-1957 he appeared in many supporting roles…usually either as a cop or a thug. In 1957 he gained his first fame….as he landed a role in the hit television show M Squad. In the early 1960s he appeared in 3 John Wayne movies….with his part getting bigger and bigger with each passing movie. This would lead to starring roles….with his role in Cat Ballou (1965) winning him a Best Actor Oscar®. He was a star for the rest of his life.
4. Lee Marvin was married twice in his life. He married Betty Ebeling from 1951-1967. They had 4 children…..1 son and 3 daughters. His second marriage was to Pamela Feely from 1970 until his death.
5. Lee Marvin received one Oscar® nomination for acting in his career. He was nominated and won Best Actor for 1965’s Cat Ballou. His Oscar® win was unusual for two reasons. One….it is the only Oscar® winning performance to be a dual role…..as Marvin played the hero and the villain in Cat Ballou. Two…..it is one of the few times that the Oscar® voters have given an Oscar® to a comedic role. He was nominated for two Golden Globes®. He won for Cat Ballou and picked up a Best Actor nomination for 1969’s Paint Your Wagon.
6. Roles Lee Marvin turned down or was seriously considered for: For A Few Dollars More (Lee Van Cleef role),The Wild Bunch (William Holden role), Deliverance (Jon Voight role), Death Wish (Charles Bronson role), Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood role), First Blood (Richard Crenna role) and Jaws (Robert Shaw role).
7. Lee Marvin best selling singer? Yes it is true….even though Marvin’s co-star in Paint Your Wagon, Jean Seberg, described his voice as “rain gurgling down a rusty pipe”. Lee Marvin’s song Wandering Star from 1969’s was a surprise hit. Selling over one million copies and earning a Gold Record. Wandering Star was even a number hit on United Kingdom charts.
8. Lee Marvin only kept 4 movie souvenirs from his movies. (1) His Oscar® from Cat Ballou. (2) His National Cowboy Hall of Fame citation for his role in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (3) His Gold Record from the single “Wandering Star” from Paint Your Wagon. and (4) The high heel shoe Vivien Leigh hit him with in their movie Ship of Fools.
9. Lee Marvin’s Point Blank (1967) was the first of two movies to be based on the Richard Stark novel The Hunter. The second was the Mel Gibson movie Payback (1999). There is one theory that Lee Marvin dies at the beginning of Point Blank and he is a ghost or spirit for the rest of the movie…..or basically Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense.
10. This Lee Marvin Movie Poster Page by Steve Lensman is a wonderful companion piece to this page….see almost all of Lee Marvin’s movie posters in one place….highly recommend checking out this page.
11. Another great source into the life and movie career of Lee Marvin is the book Lee Marvin: Point Blank by Dwayne Epstein.
12. Two movies not in the rankings. We could not find any box office information on Lee Marvin’s 1955 movie Shack Out on 101. 1954’s Gorilla At Large was not included because his part was so small in that movie…..just in case you want to know why these movies are not in the rankings.
Check out Lee Marvin‘ career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Thanks once again for the video with Lee Marvin singing – I enjoyed it very much. There is a new commercial on TV – Amazon I believe – he is singing a few lines of the song on the commercial. THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS SITE. GOOD JOB!!!!!!!
Hey BERN1960….I have been seeing and hearing that commercial too. Glad you like this site and the video that showcases the voice talents of Mr. Marvin.
Again a great post. Marvin was a great actor in all movies I saw. Dirty dozen, The professionals, comancheros, Big heat, Bad day at black rock, Donovan’s reef, Liberty Valance, Point blank, the killers or Wild one as exemple. About Wild one, I’ve never found the box office figures on Variety. But in the big top rental of 1953 it should have been there. Do you know why it is not ?
Hey Logan….he had a real screen presence….he is only in The Big Heat in a few scenes…but his performance is the one I remember the most. As for The Wild One…..it was made in 1953…but it was released in 1954….so it would not be one the Top Rentals of 1953. That being said…it is not on my Top Rentals of 1954 either…but my list only goes to 57th place….and stops at All The Brothers Were Valiant with box office rentals of $1,950,000. I think when it was released….it was banned so much….that it took awhile for The Wild One to earn all of it’s box office grosses…as it ran through 1955…..so it never reached the Variety Top Rentals in any of the years. Every once in awhile I find a movie that slips through the cracks of Variety…and The Wild One was one of those movies….thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Hey Flora……glad you are available for extra work…..lol. I guess it took an action star like Lee Marvin for me and Steve to surpass your total. I actually watched a western myself tonight…..Broken Lance starring Spencer Tracy and one of your favorites…..Richard Widmark. I was flipping another one of your favorites….Gregory Peck….to the new website…..Mr. Peck is now officially in his new home here at UMS…. … UltimateMovieRankings.com. You can not go wrong with either Guns or Dirty 12.
Reading Flora’s comments, ah just like old times, sniff, where have all the years gone? [wipes tear] Hey I do have a Lee Marvin poster page, thanks for the link Bruce. Lots of facts and stats here I didn’t know about Marvin, and now I don’t have to buy any books about him, cheers. I’ve seen 220 of the, sorry typo, 22 of the 46 films you’ve listed. Surprised to see Cat Ballou at the top of the moviescore chart, above the likes of Caine Mutiny, Dirty Dozen and Liberty Valance. But that was the film that won him the Oscar. Liberty Valance tops the critics chart, as it should, one of the great westerns. The Klansman is a Marvin film I can’t remember seeing and would like to find a copy, if only to see if it’s as offensively bad as the critics made out. Top marks Bruce.
Hey Steve….yep new Flora comments….it is the small things in life that make me happy. A new tally count as well…Flora 24, Steve 22 and Bruce 18….it least our combined total beats her. I told you that you have a Lee Marvin page….speaking of which….one of the posters says the name of the movie is Sgt. Ryker….what movie is that? His Oscar for Cat Ballou got him the top spot. His part as “Meatball” in The Caine Mutiny is small….but very memorable. I had not heard of the Klansman before writing this page…..not thinking that one would see the light of day…..and if somehow managed to be made….I can only imagine the headlines when it played in theaters. As always…your input is greatly appreciated.
Hey Bruce, Sergeant Ryker was a 2-part TV episode from the anthology series Kraft Suspense Theatre in 1963, I’m guessing after the success of The Dirty Dozen it was re-edited and released theatrically in Europe. I haven’t seen it, nice poster though.
Thanks Steve. That clears up some confusion. I thought I had missed a movie somehow….I have to admit I did not even look at the tv credits when I was trying to figure it out.
I’ve seen Sgt. Riker, actually. I had to find a copy of it It is an enjoyable courtroom drama also with Peter Graves.
Flora
Hey, Bruce.
I just read Lee Marvin’s page is done and it may be possible I’ll get this comment finished before Steve. I still plan to visit Shirley M.’s page next among those pages you listed among older pages but I thought that since Lee Marvin’s was done and he wasn’t a frequent costar of Frank’s I would not be talking about the same films over again.
(By he way, Some Came Running is excellent. Shirley won an Oscar. I’ve seen it dozens of times).
Back to Lee Marvin:
I’ve seen quite a number of his cameos and bit parts. My favourite TV appearance of his is on The Twilight Zone. The episode is ‘The Grave”
I’m not a fan of war films, and yet I’ve seen so many of them because of who’s in them, and The Dirty Dozen is one that I own. I’ve seen it countless times. (His father was in WWI, by the way)
To your order of films, I have seen:
The top 5, top 10, and 14 of the top 15 before there are two in a row I’ve not seen. The one I’m missing is Attack.
Overall, I have seen 24 of these 46 titles. Strange that is barely above 50% as the ones I have seen I’ve seen multiple times.
My favourite top 5 films are:
Cat Ballou
The Dirty Dozen
The Big Heat
Bad Day at Black Rock
Point Blank
I quite enjoyed the singing all around in Paint Your Wagon. Being a western, I do not think having a voice double singing the actors part realistically needed.
Of the films I’ve seen, Raintree County is the one I have the most difficulty watching because of what happened with Monty Clift during the making of the film.
Among the films I have not see, I’m most looking forward to is The Killers, a title which sounds just like what I would expect from a Lee Marvin film.
Cheers
Flora Breen Robison
I just saw Bad Day at Black Rock for the umpteenth time this weekend when it aired on TCM. That’s really the only channel I need.
Hey Flora…..thanks for checking out my Lee Marvin page….and kudos for beating Mr. Lensman to the comment page.
1. I have not seen any of his tv appearances…..but almost half of his 107 IMDb credits were television ones….although his Twilight Zone episode is one to track down.
2. Wow you own The Dirty Dozen….I would not have guessed that. He actually did not like that movie…as he thought it was not how war really was…..but wow….that cast is amazing….good old Donald Sutherland still appearing in blockbuster movies almost 50 years later.
3. I have seen 18 Marvin movies….not too far from your tally. I have seen 7 of his Top 10…with Not As A Stranger being the one I want to see the most….Marvin, Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Olivia de Havilland….it is shocking that despite that cast and the fact that it made a ton of money….that it seems like a forgotten film.
4. I like your Top 5…..all classics….I think Seven Men From Now would bump out Cat Ballou for a spot in my Top 5.
5. Let’s see….I see Steve has a tally count now….so Flora gets the Gold with 24….Steve the Silver with 22….and I get yet another Bronze with 18.
6. I love Paint Your Wagon….no way I would like it if Clint and Lee were dubbed.
7. Not that I trying to give you extra work….but I found another classic page missing the Flora touch….. https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/joan-crawford-movies/ this has actually become one of my more popular pages…and I just added in Cogerson Movie Score video.
Thanks for the comments…..and thanks for bringing tears to Steve….see the above comment.
Hey, Bruce.
Does seem like old times. So your combined total is higher than mine, hey. Good for you. I still get the Gold. Good thing too as I was never good at sports expect as an audience member…
I watch a lot of classic television as well as classic films. This is probably not a big surprise as it is the same era. The Twilight Zone is probably my favourite half hour tv show of all time.
As for extra work, now that it is nearing summer, choir rehearsals are finished until September, so …I’ll add Joan Crawford to the list.
I was not familiar with the Klansmen before either.
As for The Dirty Dozen being a film I own, yes it is true that I am not a fan of war films or westerns. But there a huge number of films I have seen because of the stars who are in them. And The Dirty Dozen is full of favourite stars and character actors.
People are surprised when they hear that my favourite Gregory Peck film is The Guns of Navarone. That is another war film that is more of an adventure film. Peck said it was a fantasy film because of the odds.
I have been watching a lot more westerns lately regardless of the stars in them because sometimes I want to watch films where the era is set before the age of phones and computers etc.
Cat Ballou has always been a favourite of mine because Marvin rarely got to play comedy on the big screen, it is a musical, it’s my favourite Jane Fonda film, and it is one of the few films with Nat King Cole whose singing I love.
Cheers,
Flora Breen Robison