Want to know the best Richard Widmark movies? How about the worst Richard Widmark movies? Curious about Richard Widmark’s box office grosses or which Richard Widmark movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Richard Widmark 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.
This Richard Widmark page comes from a request from film historian Flora Robison. Richard Widmark (1914-2008) was an American actor who was born in Sunrise Township, Minnesota. His career spanned over 50 years and included work in film, radio, stage and television. Widmark made his debut as a radio actor in 1938 and his debut on Broadway in 1943’s Kiss and Tell. His work on the stage earned him a seven-year movie contract with United Artists.
His first movie role was playing a giggling sociopath, in the classic Kiss of Death (1947). His most notorious scene found Udo happily pushing a wheelchair-bound woman down a flight of stairs to her death. The role earned Widmark his only Oscar® nomination, and won him the Golden Globe® for most promising newcomer. After the success of Kiss of Death, he would work steadily until he retired at the age of 76 in 1992, primarily as a character lead. His stardom would peak around the time he played the U.S. prosecutor in 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg, but he would continue to act for another 30 years. His final role would be in the John Cusack movie…. True Colors.
His IMDb page shows 79 acting credits from 1947-1992. This page will rank Richard Widmark movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, some of his movies made outside of the Hollywood system and his straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings.
Richard Widmark Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Richard Widmark 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 Richard Widmark movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Richard Widmark movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Richard Widmark movies by yearly box office rank
- Sort Richard Widmark 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 Richard Widmark movie received.
- Sort Richard Widmark 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Richard WidmarkTable
- Fifteen Richard Widmark movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 24.59% of his movies listed. How the West Was Won (1963) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Richard Widmark movie grosses $74.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 40 Richard Widmark movies are rated as good movies…or 65.57% of his movies. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) is his highest rated movie while The Swarm (1978) is his lowest rated movie.
- Fifteen Richard Widmark movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 24.59% of his movies.
- Six Richard Widmark movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 9.83% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR)Score is 60.00. 28 Richard Widmark movies scored higher that average….or 45.90% of his movies. How the West Was Won (1963) got the the highest UMR Score while National Lampoon’s Movie Madness (1982) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Richard Widmark
1. Richard Widmark’s daughter was married to baseball legend Sandy Koufax from 1969 to 1982.
2. Richard Widmark was married to playwright Jean Hazlewood from 1942 to her death in 1997. One of the few successful Hollywood marriages.
3. Widmark Airport is located in Green City, Missouri and was named in honor of Richard Widmark. Widmark contributed funds to the construction of the airport.
4. Richard Widmark and director Robert Totten had artistic differences during the filming of 1969’s Death of a Gunfighter. Totten was replaced by Don Siegel. When the film was completed, Siegel, saying that Totten directed more of the film than he did, refused to take screen credit for it, but Widmark didn’t want Totten’s name on it. A compromise was reached whereby the film was credited to the fictitious Alan Smithee, thereby setting a precedent for directors who, for one reason or another, did not want their name on a film they made. On IMDB, Alan Smithee has over 100 projects to his name….but the first was Death of a Gunfighter.
5. Richard Widmark made three movies with Sidney Poitier…..1950’s No Way Out, 1964’s The Long Ships and 1965’s The Bedford Incident.
6. Check out Richard Widmark‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Taking A Closer Look At Richard Widmark’s Top Five Movies
5. Kiss of Death (1947) What a start to a movie career. Victor Mature was the star of the movie, but Richard Widmark stole the show. His Tommy Udo, a fiend who delights in pushing crippled wheelchair using women down stairs, is the primary reason to see this movie. Widmark based his character on The Joker from the Batman comics. Widmark would receive an Oscar® nomination for Best Supporting Actor (his only nomination) and would win a Golden Globe® as most promising newcomer. One of my favorite quotes about Widmark in Kiss of Death….comes from writers Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton who wrote, “one will remember that nasty little creep with the wild eyes and high-pitched laugh, neurotic to the core”. Well that nasty little creep went on to make many classic movies over the next 50 years.
4. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Judgment at Nuremberg is a fictionalized film account of the post-World War II Nuremberg Trails. Widmark played prosecuting attorney Colonel Tad Lawson and is joined by another all-star cast….Spencer Tracy (nominated Best Actor), Burt Lancaster, Maximilian Schell (won Oscar® for Best Actor), Judy Garland (nominated Best Supporting Actress), Montgomery Clift (nominated Best Supporting Actor), William Shatner(yep Captain Kirk), and Marlene Dietrich. Movie was nominated for 11 Oscars®, including a Best Picture nomination and 2 Oscar® wins. According to critics and audiences this is Widmark’s best movie with a 86% score. – See more at: http://cogersonmoviescore.com/richard-widmark-movies-best-to-worst.html#sthash.HQW9Chp0.dpuf
3. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) Murder on the Orient Express is based on the 1934 novel by Agatha Christie. Albert Finney stars as Hercule Poirot, who is asked by his friend Bianchi, a train company director, to investigate the murder of an American business tycoon, Mr. Ratchett aboard a train with an all-star cast of suspects. That all-star cast included Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Sir John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York and Anthony Hopkins. Widmark plays the very nasty Mr. Ratchett in one of my favorite Widmark roles. Movie earned 6 Oscar® nominations, including a win for Best Supporting Actress (Ingrid Bergman) and was Widmark’s 3rd biggest box office hit.
2. The Alamo (1960) By 1945 John Wayne had decided to make a movie about the 1836 Battle of the Alamo. It took Wayne 15 years to get The Alamo to the big screen. The result was one of the biggest hits of 1961 and 7 Oscar® nominations, including one for Best Picture. Wayne originally intended that Widmark should play Davy Crockett, while Wayne himself would have taken the small role of Sam Houston so he could focus his energy on directing the picture. However, Wayne was only able to get financial backing if he played one of the main parts, so he decided to play Crockett and cast Widmark as Jim Bowie. Rumor has it that Widmark was not a happy camper about the change in his roles, as he did not really want to play Jim Bowie at all.
1. How The West Was Won (1963) Talk about a big movie….an all-star cast (Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach and narrated by Spencer Tracy).. 3 directors (John Ford, Henry Hathaway and George Marshall)….and 5 segments that span four generations from 1839 to 1889. This western was one of the biggest hits of the 1960s, it earned 8 Oscar® nominations, including one for Best Picture. It won three Oscars®. Widmark appears as ruthless railroad man, Mike King, who violates a treaty by building on Indian territory.
Hey Bob….moving this comment away from that original comment…as it is getting pretty confusing following the comments. So this would is in response to some of your comments.
1. It is a shame that Bing Crosby’s record sells from the 1930s and 1940s are not included in his totals…I am thinking he sold a boat load of records back then….and records were huge back then. I would wager his actually record sells would be right there with Elvis and The Beatles.
2. That might be the first time Leon Tolstoy has ever been mentioned on this website….maybe the site is starting to get “artsy”….lol. Rowling has sold a ton of books….but I wonder what the lasting impact will be….granted Harry Potter is aging much better than Twilight is.
3. Glad my pages have been useful in your comparisons…..I like to think with the amount of movies on the site….there are lots of ways to “play” with the numbers…..I have a list of things I find interesting….but sometimes I have to wait until WoC has time to help figure out how to dig the numbers out of the database.
4. Your conversation with John has been fun to read…..keep it up.
🙂
HI BRUCE
1 Thanks for adding your own interesting list to the exchanges. I expect that Flora’s Agatha Christie letter would be worth more today than any continuing royalties that War and Peace is picking up ! However your point about Rowling and the long-term game is an excellent one because an article that I read once mentioned that the vast sums of money that GWTW made whilst important in keeping turning the wheels of industry in Old Hollywood was long ago spent and is of no value to anyone today whereas Welles’ Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons which made a relative pittance in their day continue to be revered and Kane is usually on any reputable list of Greatest Films. For Welles George’s wish to be remembered for more than one summer’s blockbuster has been fulfilled.
3 Your mentioned the exclusion of Gregory Peck from John’s lists reminds me that all the surveys that we have quoted relate to just the popularity of stars in the US. That was natural enough as in the Classic Era the States were 60-70% of the world market. Nevertheless when it comes to the fine tuning the ranking of stars it should be born in mind that applying global consideration could alter matters. In that respect Quigley all but ignored Greg in his time but in the early/mid 50s Greg and Audrey Hepburn were voted the two most popular stars GLOBALLY and Laddie for example was said to be proportionally more popular in Britain than in the US
4 I think that it stands to common sense that Bing, Dino, Frankie, the Beatles, Elvis Doris etc all sold bucketfuls of records but Wikipedia’s point was that publicists agents and records companies hyped sales so much for publicity that claims that could not be verified were next to useless for the FINE TUNING of ranking artists and unfortunately it was unable to verify less than 20 % of Bing’s figures with reliable sources whereas The Beatles/Elvis/Frankie did not present that problem. Generally you have done a blinder of a job in second-guessing movie grosses but when you were able to verify figures for Warner Bros movies via their ledgers the adjusted gross for Bette Davis for example dropped from $80 million to under $74.4 million per movie whereas the average Doris Day figure grosses $117.4 and Frankie’s average was $132.4.
5 It should also be borne in mind that in the post war period when Sinatra came to the forefront the entertainments industry expanded massively in all directions and not only did television enter the equation but concerts became huge and Sinatra’s concerts right into his old age were sell-outs and so prestigious that Giants like Bob Hope often appeared on the bottom half of the bill in support of Frankie. Elvis concerts too were of course also massive. As you know Spencer Tracy said that in the late 1950s/early 1960s Sinatra was more powerful in Hollywood than most of the old studio moguls; nobody ever made that claim for Bing so that in my opinion to say that Bing or even Elvis was greater than Frankie is based on objective sentiment rather that a hard comprehensive knowledge of all the facts. It must also be remembered that at any one time some 90% of Hollywood actors can’t get work so that to debate the difference in the Crosby/Sinatra greatness would be to such actors a kind of reflected snobbery.
BOB
CORRECTION
In para 5 of my previous post objective sentiment should read subjective sentiment – apologies.
BOB
Got it…no problem.
Hey Bob.
1. As Flora would say….her Agatha letter is priceless…as she will never part with it. Good point about Mr. Welles.
2. I agree about the influence of global box office….now when I do a new page…or update a page….one of the things I do is see what global numbers I have….previously I just ignored that information…my thinking was “it is too difficult” finding that info…now I release what information I do have. Peck and Hepburn were huge back then…..it is a shame that I have very little on them when it comes to global box office.
3. Glad my USC visit has provided lots of new stats…and lots of stats for comparisons…Frank and Doris were huge as well. It will be interesting to see where everybody ranks when I finally (one day I will finish) my updates….as I will be adding an average per movie column to that page.
4. I agree with your last comment.
Thanks for the feedback.
LIST OF MY ALL-TIME FAVOURITE ENTERTAINERS
1/Richard Widmark
2/Gregory Peck
3/James Stewart
4/John McCormack – As one of the great classical singers
5/Morgan Freeman
6/Deanna Durbin – As singer and actress
7/Alan Ladd
8/John Wayne – Most beloved idol of my collective family
9/Marlon Brando
10/Edith Piaf – France’s greatest ever popular singer
11/Glenn Ford
12/Kelsey Grammar & David Hyde Pierce – For Frasier
13/Humphrey Bogart
14/George Clooney
15/Doris Day – As singer and actress
16/Denzel Washington
17/William Holden
18/Lancaster & Douglas – Can’t split them !
19/Audie Murphy – For western movies & real life contribution
20/Peter Falk – For Lt Columbo
21/Rory Calhoun – 1950s B movie Western actor
22/Michael Douglas
23/John Payne – 1950s B movie Western actor
24/Joan Crawford
25/Rhonda Fleming – Sexy 1950s B movie Queen
26/Dean Martin & Elvis – For singing but not acting
27/Dick Van Dyke – For TV work
28/Shirley MacLaine
29/Frank Sinatra – For acting but not singing.
30/Charlton Heston
BOB
Hi Bob, at least Chuck ‘Omega Man’ Heston hasn’t been forgotten. 🙂 I see you’re a big fan of Alan Ladd, rated higher than Wayne and Brando on your favorites chart, interesting.
My top favorites from that group of celebrities is Heston, Bogart, Wayne, Douglas, Stewart and the greatest entertainer of them all, Elvis Presley.
Hey Steve…at least Chuck got invited to the party….granted he has a crappy seat….lol. None of my all-time favorites could secure a seat…as Willis, Caine and Grant are waiting in the parking lot….lol.
Hey Bob….wow…Widmark is first? In your comments you rarely mention him…especially compared to that guy at #9. I will still allow you to comment even though list that other guy at #14…lol. Steve will be happy that Charlton got in the door right before it closed. I guess Bruce Willis, Michael Caine and Cary Grant were right at the door when it slammed shut. Let’s see…I have UMR pages on 24 of them…not too bad….though it might be awhile before I get around to Fleming or Payne.
This of course gets me thinking of my favorites….my Top 10 in no order: (1) Willis (2) Caine (3) Grant (4) John Wayne (5) Tom Hanks (6) Clint Eastwood (7) Kurt Russell (8) John Cusack (9) Orlando Bloom and a tie with at (10) with Judd “severe fan for about 4 years) and James Stewart….I wonder how many times Nelson and Stewart have been mentioned in the same sentence…lol.
An enjoyable list to look at….thanks for sharing it.
What number is Heston on your full chart Bruce, 833rd? 🙂 I like all your faves except maybe Bloom and Cusack, not that I hate them of course just not up there with the others. I’m surprised Bob left out Clint Eastwood on his list. And being a Brit a legend like Michael Caine should figure highly, higher than John Payne at least! I don’t even know what John Payne looks like. 😉
Hey Steve…..well since you have influenced me to see more Heston movies….he is climbing up the list….I am sure if I made a Top 30 he would be in there. Grouping up he was one of the big stars I knew…from the Planet of the Ape movies to his bible epics…the man was a star. When I think of John Payne….I immediately think about his good lawyer in Miracle on 34th Street…especially the scene that shows him having the Santa mail delivered to the courthouse. I have Judd Nelson and he has John Payne…I am sure there is somebody you like that would fall into their category too.
BRUCE:
1 Yes Grant, Tracy, King Gable, Sir Sean and Sir Maurice, and Julia Roberts would have been in the Top 30 had I confined it to people that I admire as ACTORS and actresses with Dino, Elvis etc as singers being excluded.
2 However when Variety to celebrate its 100th anniversary listing in its opinion the top 10 most iconic entertainers of the 20th Century it included not just movie stars but also performers from other entertainment fileds so I took the same liberty in compiling my list.
3 Variety declared the Beatles the greatest icons of the Century and listed the other nine in alphabetical order. They were
1/Louis Armstrong – music
2/ Lucille Ball – for TV
3/ Humphrey Bogart
4/Marlon Brando
5/Charlie Chaplin
6/James Dean
7/Marilyn Monroe
8/Mickey Mouse – a cartoon character.
9/Elvis Presley.
Hey Bob.
1. Just picking on you about your Top 30…..not thinking anybody would be able to have the same Top 30….and it also depends on when you make the list. I love looking at my Top 50 movie page that I made in 1988…..I look at that list and wonder…what I was thinking… but it is still a fun list to look at. https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/my-top-50-movies-compiled-in-1988/
2. Sometimes I forget that Variety covers all entertainment…..seems I rarely look at that “other stuff”…lol.
3. Thanks for sharing the Top 10….all classic names..and all that still have a very strong following.
Bob
about the Variety list
No John Wayne???
Lost all credibility right there.
Interestingly, I have seen a claim made that in polls taken of the public back in the 1930’s, Popeye the Sailor was more popular than Mickey Mouse. Actually, this would make more sense if Walt Disney himself were on this list rather than one of his creations.
I did a list a few years back of my top twelve entertainers of the 20th century, based heavily on sheer popularity, as well as I could judge it.
John Wayne–long term popularity (movies)
Clark Gable–intense popularity and top ticket seller (movies)
Bing Crosby–most popular multi-media entertainer of first half of century
Elvis Presley–most popular multi-media entertainer of 2nd half of century
Jack Benny–most popular radio performer
Lucille Ball–most popular TV actor
Johnny Carson–most popular TV personality
Bob Hope–most durable multi-media personality
Marilyn Monroe–most popular pin-up
Judy Garland–intensely popular all around performer
Charlie Chaplin–most popular silent movie performer
Helen Hayes–most popular stage actor
I didn’t consider Walt Disney as he was not a performer, but he would probably have to rate #1 in impact on entertainment.
This list was purely base on impact, or popularity, not on whom I would consider the most talented.
JOHN
1 Respectable list.
2 The problem is that Variety and indeed the American Film Institute don’t publish the criteria by which they make their selections so it’s difficult to argue with them other than SUBJECTIVELY Bruce in his lists of Greatest Actors/Actresses 1950-2010 makes it abundantly clear how he arrived at his conclusions so that if you disagree with any of them at least you know what you are arguing against.
3 It is also important to be sure whether a list relates to GREATEST STARS or GREATEST ACTORS as Hollywood insiders and historians have always regarded them as two separate concepts though they can overlap at times. For example De Niro and Day Lewis will usually be on great actors lists but not on great stars lists and the Duke and Gable will normally make great stars lists but are never high on great actors lists if the are on them at all. Tracy, Chaplin, Brando and Nicholson are usually to be found – somewhere – on both types of lists. A pool of leading directors rated the French actor Jean Gabin the joint 7th greatest actor ever with Olivier and Tracy
3 Elvis and Sinatra will normally be on great entertainers lists and for me Frankie’s omission is the one weakness in your list but Elvis never makes any great stars/great actors lists because as Bruce’s page on him illustrates his cinematic box office overall was relatively very poor*** and his acting was frankly awful by any yardstick.
*** Average of $68.7 million over just 33 movies against for example John Wayne with an average of $ 129.5 million over an enormous 85 movies.
4 In recent times a 4th concept would appear to have entered the equation, that of GREATEST LEGEND which is generally regarded as somebody whose reputation has survived into modern times and might even have increased for one reason or another. Dean and Monroe may be good examples of the latter and Bogart has been said to be a bigger star now than when he was alive and indeed many film current journalists as well as the American Film Institute seem to think he is the greatest star whoever lived..
5 Anyway it’s all great fun talking about it, isn’t it?
Hey John
1. I agree with you 100% about Wayne’s omission pretty much ruining the Variety list….the man was the biggest personality in Hollywood for almost 30 years….seems that has to get him on the list.
2. Popeye was huge…..but as the years have passed he has fallen way behind Mickey….having three batches of kids….I can say Mickey has been involved in all of their lives…..but Popeye…might not be known at all.
3. As for your list….it is a very solid list…..the only person missing (in my mind is Frank Sinatra)….I am not a huge Frank fan….but I know growing up….he was a celebrity that was always in the news…..Frank, Dean and Sammie Davis….and this was years after his peak years….heck the only two movies he made in my lifetime are First Deadly Sin and Cannonball Run 2 (one of the worst movies ever).
3A. So when fussing about lists….they always say when you say someone should be on the list…you have to tell who you would take off the list….in my mind it would be Helen Hayes….yes she was very talented….but in this list of greats…she seems to be the one that does not fit.
4. Good to see Carson on your list…..he was another huge celebrity….and his influence is still felt today
5. I agree with you about Walt Disney.
6. I understand and like your rules and list.
Bob & Cogerson
Thanks for the replies. Reaction:
Popeye versus Mickey–actually, I think Popeye proved more popular in the fifties and sixties also, although I believe Betty Boop was ahead of both. The problem is that the Fleischer Boops and Popeyes were in black and white, and kids like color cartoons (I can’t blame them), so once color TV became the norm, it was the skids for Popeye and Betty. My grandkids seem to prefer Tom and Jerry. They take after Gramps and think a cat being hit on the noggin with a maul is the height of sophisticated comedy. My own cartoon favorite is the coyote in the roadrunner cartoons. Somehow his fate in the cartoons reminds me of my own life experiences.
Anyway, thanks fellows for the feedback.
Helen Hayes–I was seeking a representative from all the major 20th century entertainments venues–movies, radio, TV, recordings, the stage. Helen Hayes is my representative from the stage. Of course, her popularity is therefore far more limited than the others.
Frank Sinatra–to defend myself, twelve is a tight number. Sinatra was not the biggest record seller, not the biggest movie ticket seller, and not particularly popular on radio or TV. I just can’t see bumping Crosby or Presley for him. Talent does not enter into this. I judge Sinatra more talented both as a singer and an actor than either Crosby or Presley. As popular as he was, he wasn’t as popular as they were. But I would be interested in any counter-arguments. Nothing is set in stone.
Bob & Cogerson
I forgot to comment on “legends” but I wanted to.
Two problems for me. “Legend” with whom? Notice that in the Gallup poll list of the general public, Bogart only came in 7th, and James Dean did not appear at all. The “forgotten” Gary Cooper ranked higher–but Cooper was a much bigger star when the two were alive. Because he only made three films, and all are good, Dean doesn’t have any flops on his resume, while all the long term stars do. It is part of the game if you stay around long enough.
More importantly, I am more interested in the actual history. Except for Wayne (12%)
and Stewart (4%), none of the classic film stars were mentioned by more than 1% of the responders in the Gallup poll. That is cult stuff. Almost everyone back in the thirties or forties knew who stars like Gable or Crosby were. I can’t see cult status overruling general popularity in decades past. But I would also point out that Gable and Crosby finished ahead of James Dean in 2001.
Hey John.
1. I think you are correct….the arrival of black and white had to hurt Betty Bop….actually she herself agrees if your remember Who Framed Roger Rabbit….lol.
2. I like your comment about your life being like Wily E Coyote…..is your name John the Coyote or John Coyote (sounds pretty close to John Cougar)?…lol.
3. I understand your logic about Hayes and Sinatra….makes sense to me. I think not being a stage fan….I automatically downgrade a person’s impact on culture….but I respect your thinking of including Hayes or your list. Frank being the first alternate works for me too…..thanks for the feedback.
Hey Bob, Steve and Flora….good comments….glad you have enjoyed Steve’s You Tube video so much.
Sorry last post meant especially for John – sorry for any confusion
Bob
“Frankie’s omission”
My list is based on pure popularity. Sinatra wasn’t as popular as measured by records sold than Crosby or Presley. If I expand the list to 25 one day, Sinatra will make it.
something I think you (and perhaps Cogerson) would be interested in. On March 16-18, 2001, Gallup did a poll asking Americans’ their favorite movie stars. John Wayne was actually #1 among all names, but here are the classic movie stars mentioned and their positions. * indicates the star was still alive at the time of the poll.
1—–John Wayne
2—–James Stewart
3—–Clark Gable
4—–Cary Grant
5—–Charlton Heston*
6—–Katherine Hepburn*
7—–Bette Davis
8—–Humphrey Bogart
9—–Bing Crosby
10—Elizabeth Taylor*
11—Shirley Temple*
12—Robert Mitchum
13—Spencer Tracy
14—Marilyn Monroe
15—Gary Cooper
Note how well this tracks with the top box-office performances.
JOHN
1 Excellent list and glad to see Heston on it as he rarely gets on these lists.
2 Only surprises are that Bob Hope and Doris Day are not on it. but thanks for sharing it with me and Bruce will definitely be interested.
BOB
BOB
Interesting list, all the usual suspects are on there and it’s great that Heston has a place on the chart.
The three most iconic movie people on that list I would guess are – Bogart, Wayne and Monroe – that is going by poster sales, stills, paintings, modern art, memorabilia etc
Maybe Liz taylor too. The missing icon is James Dean.
Hey Steve…I agree with you 100%… I should snapshot these two comments…lol.
HI JOHN/STEVE
1 We have discussed how when lists of Greats come into play one of 4 separate but at times overlapping categories of artists can be involved, stars, actors, legends and entertainers. Entertainment Weekly has given us a list of Greatest STARS, AFI has listed the Greatest LEGENDS, and IMDB has provided two lists of Greatest ACTORS updated last year and we had Variety’s Top 10 ENTERTAINERS list at the turn of the century and all these lists are readily available on the internet.
2 Entertainment Weekly [EW] also compiled its Greatest ENTERTAINERS list as of 2003 and it relates to the LASTt half of the 20th century. Apparently EW polled its own readers and others and for once we have a broad criteria by which selections were made. the magazine explaining: “The modern pop culture era truly began only after WW2 with the arrival of television and Rock n Roll” and selections were based on those who “most changed the way we see the world.” Time magazine generally based its 100 Greatest People of the 20th Century on the latter kind of criteria .To avoid convolution I will forward on the Elvis Presley Cogerson page part of the EW Entertainers list and it will comprise in rank order all of their Top 20 and a another 10 randomly selected.
3 A further twist is added to matters by Wikipedia who in listing artists with most record sales of all time will admit to its list only those singers whose sales can be authenticated from official sources. Wikipedia finds that The Beatles were the greatest
selling artists of all time with Elvis second and whilst Sinatra also makes its list Bing doesn’t because not even 20% of his sales can be properly authenticated and are merely “claims” made by publicist and journalists down the years. Thank goodness WE MOVIE BUFFS have Bruce to authenticate the movie grosses from the Classic era !
4 I think that Bruce’s preference for simply picking the Tops in each decade is sensible because a survey of a 10 year period is liable to be more precise that one that stretches over 50 to 120 years. However whatever list is compiled nobody will agree with it completely and even when you have hard stats they do not always tell the full story. For example Robert Mitchum’s 20 highest grossing movies amount to about $4 billion but in only 9 of them is he the star and when you extract from Bruce’s table just those 20 films in which Big Bob was the star they come to less than $2.5 billion. However one thing that you and I can agree on is that the criteria for compiling any list that does not include
the Duke must be open to question. EW in both its STARS and ENTERTAINERS lists does not make that mistake. Indeed the EW Entertainers list tends to be widely quoted today and has even been mentioned in COGERSON pages. .Anyway as I’ve said before it’s all great fun.
Hey John….interesting list. I know you and Steve are happy that Heston is so highly ranked. Though I think Cooper is way too low. But it is hard to argue with this list…as it is one classic performer after another. I imagine the ones that just missed would include Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn,Henry Fonda and Bruce Willis (ok I am joking about Bruce).
If you look at my $100 million table….this list is pretty close to those career box office numbers
#1 Wayne
#2 Harrison Ford
#3 Gable
#4 Cooper
#5 Stewart
#6 Tracy
#7 Crosby
#8 Samuel L. Jackson
#9 Grant
#10 Fonda
Good stuff.
1 I can’t disagree as it depends how much weight one puts on talent as opposed to popularity. However that consideration applies to not only entertainment but also to other mediums of communication. For example Leon Tolstoy is regarded as one of the greatest – ie most talented – writers of all time whose War and Peace is considered a masterpiece that few could equal whereas Agatha Christie’s mystery novels are regarded as just competent crime novels but they like the Harry Potter books have made fortunes. So who is the GREATER the intellectually gifted Tolstoy or the enormously popular Christie/Rowling?
2 Sinatra is we agree a more talented singer and actor than either Bing or Elvis so obviously if you place more weight on talent Sinatra/Tolstoy are the ‘greater’ otherwise it’s Rowling/Christie/Bing/Elvis with the qualification that as I have said Wikipedia will not admit Bing to its lists but has listed Frankie because of authentication differences
3 However Time Magazine included Sinatra in its 100 Greatest people of the 20th Century because of his INFLUENCE on the development of music and on other vocal artists after the 2nd world war whereas Bing for example was considered merely a popular crooner with a pleasant voice. Probably to take the debate in the matter any further one way or the other we would need the help of musical scholars and in drawing up its list of 100 Time claims that i held widespread consultations with scholars, industry insiders, historians etc as well as the general public..
4 Anyway this debate has got us away from the Davis/Crawford one which I may have been starting to lose and even the Entertainments Weekly list that I posted this morning deserted me to some extent as it did not include my Darling Doris. So Bruce has compiled a list of 100 Greatest Stars that excluded Chuck and I have just posted a (partial) list of 100 Greatest Entertainers which in its entirety excludes my second favourite female artist of all time. So nobody’s going to “win em all” and I’ll maybe again leave the last word to someone whom Bruce and I know who “wants to be remembered for more than one summer’s [commercial] BLOCKBUSTER”
Thanks for takin the time to think about the issues and engage in lively deabte and Have a good weekend. BOB
HELLO AGAIN STEVE
1 As said Widmark, Laddie, Freeman, Greg and Jimmy Stewart are my Top 5 male faves . Within the 5 placing the pecking order can alternate depending on whose great movie I saw last ! Mr M, Duke and Glenn Ford are probably the last 3 in my Top 10. Durbin, Crawford and Doris are my Top 3 females.
2 Widmark could do the good guy, the bad guy or the flawed guy turned good as in Warlock. all with equal ease. It’s been some time since I saw Bedford Incident but if my memory is correct it was again out of step with what I considered were Dick’s normal politics as that film
seemed to me to be a criticism of military hawkishness and East/West paranoia. I suppose that as I’ve told Bruce in a separate post today no star is all this or that.
3 As always enjoyed exchanges.
BOB
HI STEVE !
1 I am going through your videos on my idols one by one and today it’s Widmark’s turn. Unfortunately I usually don’t find much to say about him as like the others in my top 5 males Morgan Freeman, Peck, Laddie and Jimmy Stewart Richard seems to have led such a well-behaved life that the did not attract to himself the same kind of attention as did controversial ‘nuisances’ like Tracy and Mr Mumbles; and as for the Duke -well he’s the Duke.
2 Recently Maureen O’Hara did give me some new information about Jimmy which I have repeated on his Cogerson page but unfortunately it was not very flattering and seemed to take by surprise even Bruce C.
3 As another of Bruce’s readers has mentioned regretfully only 3 of Richard’s Cogerson $100 mil box office hits were pure Richard Widmark movies in that in the other 12 Richard was either in ensemble or had supporting roles to the likes of Greg, the Duke, and Tracy.
4 However what protects Richard’s star status is in my view the fact that in those 12 he gave riveting performances and also that in tandem with them he made a string of other movies where he was the lead and which can therefore be called true ‘Richard Widmark’ movies.
4 I am pleased to see that you have included 14 of the latter in your chart and have given most of them fine marks and indeed I think that your selection well covers the length and breadth of Richard’s career. I was surprised by your revelation that Richard opposed gun control because what I know of his politics in general would have suggested otherwise to me. He must be one of the few major stars who have appeared in movies that featured father and son Douglas, Kirk in The Way West and Michael in Coma.
5 Anyway thanks for giving me the opportunity to post something new about one of my Top 5 all-time faves. I can’t go on stealing your catchphrase Marked Up so in future to indicate my own great enjoyment of a video or a Cogerson page I will occasionally use the expression Guns Up as that was initially the title that Mr M had planned for his western One Eyed Jacks. So regarding the Widmark video – Guns Up !
Hi Bob, glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the Guns Up! Though I’m sure Flora enjoyed it more than you, Widmark is her second or third favorite. He is one of my many favorites from classic Hollywood.
When I was younger Charlton ‘The Omega Man’ Heston was my no.1 film star and probably still is. I didn’t care about his politics I just wanted him to beat Messala in that chariot race, and save the planet from those damn dirty apes! 🙂
I like watching Widmark play mean and humorless, especially in films like The Bedford Incident, whenever he’s on screen your eyes are riveted on him.
Richard Widmark is my second favourite actor. I’ve watched your video several times and do not tire of it.
I’ve been watching a lot of your back videos and commenting on them if I had not before.
Appreciate all the comments and visits Flora. My plan is to produce as many Hollywood Greats videos as I can get away with, or until I get bored of the whole thing. 🙂
I wish I could add my own music to the videos but unfortunately I’m limited to youtube’s copyright-free tracks.
Great, Steve.
I know what you mean about Youtube rights for music.
I’m surprised there are so many movies available on youtube either for free or for a small fee.
I am glad you enjoy making the videos.