Want to know the best Robert Donat movies? How about the worst Robert Donat movies? Curious about Robert Donat box office grosses or which Robert Donat movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Robert Donat 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.
Robert Donat (1905-1958) was an Oscar® winning English actor. Donat is best remembered for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (1935) and his Oscar® winning role in 1939’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He suffered from chronic asthma, which affected his career and limited him to appearing in only 20 films.. His IMDb page shows 21 acting credits from 1932 to 1958. This page will rank 17 Robert Donat movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in North American and a handful of his movies that we could not find box office on, were not included in the rankings.
Robert Donat Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Robert Donat 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 Robert Donat movies by his co-stars
Sort Robert Donat movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
Sort Robert Donat movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
Sort Robert Donat 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 Robert Donat movie received.
Sort Robert Donat 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.
Check out Robert Donat’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Be aware. Normally we have some great resources for classic box office grosses. In this case we had to rely on the Harrison Reports for many of our estimated grosses. We like the Harrison Reports, but they are not our favorite source. Usually we feel pretty good in our calculations. That is not the case on this page. After years of looking, we have determined Robert Donat grosses are nowhere to be found. So going with the “something is better than nothing” approach, we decided to finally show our estimated Robert Donat box office grosses. But we freely admit…we are standing on thin ice on this page.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Robert Donat was never on the Oracle of Bacon (mouthful) Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list (I mean he died in 1958). There are people on the list he has appeared with and these are them.
41 MICHAEL HORDERN The Magic Box (1952)
71 RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH The Magic Box (1952)
89 PETER USTINOV The Magic Box (1952)
89 PETER USTINOV The New Lot (1943)
101 BURT KWOUK The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
120 JOHN MILLS Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
120 JOHN MILLS The Young Mr. Pitt (1942)
138 HERBERT LOM The Young Mr. Pitt (1942)
155 ROBERT MORLEY The Young Mr. Pitt (1942)
207 DENHOLM ELLIOTT Lease of Life (1954)
380 LAURENCE OLIVIER The Magic Box (1952)
395 GEOFFREY KEEN The New Lot (1943)
467 PAUL FIX The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)
504 WILFRID HYDE-WHITE The Winslow Boy (1948)
511 TERRY-THOMAS The Ghost Goes West (1935)
511 TERRY-THOMAS The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933)
589 BERNARD LEE The New Lot (1943)
650 ROLAND CULVER The Magic Box (1952)
650 ROLAND CULVER Vacation from Marriage (1945)
653 LESLIE PHILLIPS The Citadel (1938)
657 TSAI CHIN THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS (1958)
665 MAURICE DENHAM Captain Boycott (1947)
699 RALPH RICHARDSON The Citadel (1938)
702 REX HARRISON The Citadel (1938)
722 BESSIE LOVE The Magic Box (1952)
724 STEWART GRANGER Captain Boycott (1947)
793 MARIANNE STONE The Magic Box (1952)
883 MARIA SCHELL The Magic Box (1952)
890 SAM KYDD THE CURE FOR LOVE (1949)
937 GLYNIS JOHNS Sabotage Agent (1943)
941 CURT JURGENS The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
974 CECIL PARKER Captain Boycott (1947)
974 CECIL PARKER The Citadel (1938)
974 CECIL PARKER The Magic Box (1952)
HM (728) LEO GENN The Magic Box (1952)
HM (728) LEO GENN The Young Mr. Pitt (1942)
HM (937) GLYNIS JOHNS The Magic Box (1952)
HM (937) GLYNIS JOHNS Vacation from Marriage (1945)
3 of these actors are still alive, Leslie Phillips 95, Glynis Johns 96 on October 5 and Tsai Chin 86.
Bob appeared with 10 Oscar winners.
CHARLES LAUGHTON The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933)
EDMUND GWENN FOR LOVE OR MONEY (1933)
GREER GARSON Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
INGRID BERGMAN The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
JOHN MILLS Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
JOHN MILLS The Young Mr. Pitt (1942)
LAURENCE OLIVIER The Magic Box (1952)
MARGARET RUTHERFORD The Magic Box (1952)
PEGGY ASHCROFT The 39 Steps (1935)
PETER USTINOV The Magic Box (1952)
PETER USTINOV The New Lot (1943)
REX HARRISON The Citadel (1938)
Hey Dan
1. Thanks for the trivia lists on Robert Donat.
2. Not surprised that Donat is nowhere near being on the Top 1000…an early death and sickness really limited his career.
3. Interesing that 3 of his Oracle co-stars are still alive.
4. 10 Oscar winning co-stars is low….but he did not have a short and limited career.
Good stuff as always.
Before I comment on how many Robert Donat movies I have seen and my favourites, you need to add “Best Actor Win” under the movie title GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS. So far you only “Best Picture Nom.”
In regards to the Box Office issue, I notice that The 39 Steps has a UMR percentage of only 69.3, a low total for a Hitchcock classic. Looking at the Box Office that has a great deal to do with that figure. I guess British movies tend to not do well in North America?
Back to my usual comments.
I have seen 10 Robert Donat movies, including 8 of the top 10.
The HIGHEST rated movie I have seen is Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
The highest rated movie I have NOT seen is The Winslow Boy.
The LOWEST rated move I have seen is Captain Boycott. This is an interesting film about a true story wherin the first boycott happened. The term is named after a real man.
Favourite Robert Donat Movies:
The 39 Steps
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
The Citadel
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Private Life of Henry VIII
Knight Without Armor
The Ghost Goes West
Other Robert Donat Movies I Have Seen:
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
Vacation From Marriage
Captain Boycott
I feel that all Robert Donat movies are worth watching for his performances, no matter what the overall movie is like. I see that Joel H. gave a large percentage of his performances 4 stars.
I hope that I will be able to find more of Donat’s films as I would like to see everything he did.
Hey Flora. Thanks for the headsup on Donat’s Oscar win error….that has been fixed. Good eye on The 39 Steps….the box office is very low….it got a small release back in the 1930s….and has earned money at Hitch events over the years. But he was still about 5 years away from being a Hollywood box office royalty. Your tally count of 10…easily beats me and Steve….heck it doubles our total…congrats for that.
3 of my 4 seen are on your Favorites list….with Inn of the Sixth Happiness being the one missing. Good information on Captain Boycott. As for Joel….he did give Donat’s many 4 star performances. Good luck finding the remaining 8 movies. Great comment….and it is greatly appreciated.
Good God, only 17 films for Robert Donat? Maybe thats why I haven’t produced a video on him yet, but it’s still on the cards.
Goodness, I’ve only seen 3 of his films that I know for sure and they are – The Private Life of Henry VIII, The Magic Box and one of my favorite Hitchcock films, The 39 Steps.
Goodbye Mr. Chips has always escaped me, I should tivo it next time its on TV.
Good work finding stats for these films. Even if you can’t find the grosses you can still include the film with ratings and just add N/A in the box office section.
Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve….this includes all but one of his movies. His entire IMDb page only lists 21 acting credits….so I feel good getting 17 of the movies listed. My tally is 4. So slightly ahead of your tally count. Of your favorites…I have seen two of the three…only missing The Magic Box. As for your suggestion…with NetFlixx, Apple, Prime and other networks streaming so much content….thinking we here at UMR will have to come up with something to get those movies listed. Good stuff as always.
Some weeks ago when Bruce gave us the long-awaited [by me] and very rare George Raft stats table I thought “That’s the last of the really big stars WH has covered now.” Then it occurred to me that I was forgetting Robert Donat [born Friedrich Robert DonaTH] who though never a top box office star like Al Leach, The Duke and Mr Mumbles was nevertheless a prestige actor of enormous stature – an “actor’s actor” as the saying goes and certainly in the forefront of those who deserve their own Cogerson pages.
Now that it has arrived Robert’s Cogerson page is very timely for me because a re-run of his Lease of Life is on local television tonight and I had already made plans to watch it. I have not seen it before and my appetite is of course whetted by WH giving the movie a better than good 64% rating and The Master awarding Robert’s performance 4 stars. Can a re-run do any better than that?
[TEACH: Will you permit me to straighten another of your ornaments? – it’s Lease OF Life and not FOR.]
When I was very young, in the days before I was educated by Bruce and Joel in respect of movies, I tended to confuse Robert with Ronald [Colman] as both were enormously-admired thespians, were Englishmen, played sophisticated characters and spoke with lovely accents. Robert has a slight edge on Ronald though as Donat is among the cream of Englishmen: a Mancunian – and we all know WHO among us regulars lives in Manchester, the United Kingdom’s Arkham the haunt of the Great Cthulhu! [Dictionary definition: “Mancunian -A fine person who was born in or currently resides in the most majestic city of Manchester.]
My own fave Donat pictures are Count of Monte Cristo, 39 Steps, Goodbye Mr Chips, The Citadel, and The Winslow Boy, the latter being one of my all-time favorite movies overall and as The Master give it 4 stars for Robert’s performance, and his pupil awards it a fine 72% rating, I feel that for once I am in the company of The Big Boys and not this site’s Wooden Spoon Guy!
As Hirsch says Donat made very few films but he generated a net worth that at the time of his death in 1958 was equivalent to around $22 million in today’s cash – a good accumulation of wealth for a Brit thespian in the days when salaries of movie stars were more tightly controlled than they are today and the Yanks usually got the bigger bucks.
“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
HI STEVE
I always think about Cthulhu with a tinge of melancholy as a pal of mine who was obsessed with Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth and the Lovecraft stories in general and with whom I had many discussions about them is now dead. He would have loved that quote of yours.
We’ll have to try and get WH interested in the Dark Gods of Arkham [aka Manchester]
Hey Bob…your conversation with Steve is going right over my head….but not to worry…I get confused a lot….lol.
Thanks for the feedback. Donat’s beautiful screen voice was not initially ‘God-given’ as he had a stutter when he was a young man. However “It’s an ill wind that blow nobody any good” because Robert underwent speech therapy to remove the stutter and in the process his voice was honed into the magnificent instrument that later manifested itself in his screen performances.
For me that voice had the opportunity to be heard at its very best in The Winslow Boy because the part of an English parliamentarian barrister required fine oratory skills. Steve and I are treated to those skills almost daily in the Brexit debates in the English House of Commons.
To completely understand the conversations that Steve and I have about the Dark Gods you would need to read H P Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos stories and know the latter’s family tree. It may help you initially to know that Cthulhu’s parent deity is Nug and Shub Niggurath the offspring of Yog-Sothoth.
Indeed in the stories H.P. helps us by tabulating a wider family tree on which he, Lovecraft, is shown as having himself descended from Cthulhu via Yogash The Ghoul, Kbaa the Serpent and Ghoth the Burrower. [I searched for Joel among that lot but couldn’t find him. I suppose that even H P had to draw the line at making his cruel Dark Gods TOO terrifying.] Anyway I hope all is going well for you in your secondary job: teaching! Take care.
ADDITIONAL TRIVIA-WIKIPEDIA
“Cthulhu is a fictional deity created by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Cthulhu is a powerful monster from another planet. It (Cthulhu is neither male nor female) is very ancient compared to humans, being around since the dinosaurs. It has the alien appearance of a large green dragon with the head of an octopus and human-like hands. There are said to be many people who worship it as their deity because of its powers over the mind.
In one of Lovecraft’s stories, The Call of Cthulhu, he said that Cthulhu currently lies in a dreamlike state in the underwater sunken city of R’lyeh (rill-ee-yeh), waiting for the time when the Old Ones shall rise again. In the story, R’lyeh is located in the southern Pacific Ocean” [Though I think I may have read somewhere that its suburbs stretch to Manchester in England – ie Cthulhu may be part-Mancunian].
Hey Steve….nice quote….but I am clueless where it comes from…it might be explained in Bob’s next comment.
Hey Bob…glad you enjoyed this Robert Donat page. Check another Hirschhorn subject off the list. Hope you enjoy Lease of Life. That was his second to last movie. Interesting and understandable about getting Colman and Donat mixed up. Glad you feel like you are the company of the Big Boys…happy to have you at our table…lol. 22 million is a nice nest egg. Good stuff as always.
“Some stars make 100 films and leave virtually no imprint. Robert Donat made only 18 and yet received respect and popularity on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Rating The Movie Stars 4 Star Robert Donat Performances -1983 Book
1933’s The Private Life of Henry VIII
1934’s The Count of Monte Cristo
1935’s The 39 Steps
1935’s The Ghost Goes West
1937’s Knight Without Armour
1938’s The Citadel
1939’s Goodbye Mr. Chips
1945’s Vacation From Marriage
1948’s The Winslow Boy
1951’s The Magic Box
1954’s Lease of Life
1958’s The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness
Joel’s Book has Robert Donat ranked as the 9th best actor in his book Rating The Movie Stars.
Overall I have seen 4 Robert Donat movies. The Private Life of Henry VIII…..but I barely remember his role. The 39 Steps….my favorite Donat role. Goodbye Mr. Chips….good role…ok movie…still surprised they gave him the Oscar that year…especially with Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler roaming around the awards ceremonies. The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness…for a movie with the word “happiness” in the title…this is a pretty depressing movie.