Want to know the best Rock Hudson movies? How about the worst Rock Hudson movies? Curious about Rock Hudson’s box office grosses or which Rock Hudson movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Rock Hudson 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.
Since I started my new hobby, Ultimate Movie Rankings, my mother has been requesting a Rock Hudson page. So since she is my mother, and since she is such a good mother, what can a son do other than produce a Rock Hudson page.
Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr in 1925. After serving as a mechanic in World War II, Hudson moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He appeared in his first film in 1948’s Fighter Squadron. His first big success was 1954’s Magnificent Obsession (one of my mom’s favorites) with Jane Wyman.In 1956 he appeared in Giant which co-starred James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor. It was his biggest hit of his career and earned over $454 million in adjusted for inflation dollars at the box office and Hudson received his only Oscar® nomination for his role as Bick Benedict.
The peak of his career was the time frame of 1957-1964, he appeared on Quigley Publishing’s Top Ten Stars every year, including the top spot in 1957 and 1959. During this time span he made three very popular romantic comedies with Doris Day. The best of those three movies is the classic 1959 film Pillow Talk (my mom’s second favorite Hudson movie). After 1964’s Send Me No Flowers, his movie grosses started to decline. By 1970 his movies were no longer popular at the theaters. He then turned towards television, most notably a show called McMillan and Wife which ran from 1971 to 1977. In 1985 he passed away from an AIDS related illness.
His IMDb page shows 75 acting credits from 1948-1985. This page will rank 50 Rock Hudson movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Rock Hudson 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 Rock Hudson movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Rock Hudson movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Rock Hudson movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Rock Hudson 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 Michael Biehn movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Rock Hudson movie won.
- Sort Rock Hudson 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.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive. For example: Type in Doris Day in the search box and the three Day/Hudson movies will pop right up.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Rock Hudson Table
- Thirteen Rock Hudson movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 25.49% of his movies listed. Giant (1956) is his biggest box office ht when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Rock Hudson movie grosses $91.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 31 of Rock Hudson’s movies are rated as good movies…or 60.78% of his movies. Winchester ’73 (1950) is his highest rated movie while Embryo (1976) was his lowest rated movie.
- Twelve Rock Hudson movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 23.52% of his movies.
- Three Rock Hudson movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 5.88% of his movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 24 Rock Hudson movies scored higher than that average….or 47.05% of his movies. Giant (1956) got the the highest UMR Score while Embryo (1976) got the lowest UMR Score.
Check out Rock Hudson’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.
Steve’s Updated Rock Hudson You Tube Video
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Awesome movie page! That Pillow Talk image is amazing. You can almost believe he has the hots for Doris Day.
02/06/2014 07:00 PM Cogerson
Taylorwise….I think the fact that Rock Hudson convinced America for nearly 30 years that he was a ladies man..is proof that he was a pretty good actor
I’m surprised Ice Station Zebra and A Farewell to Arms didn’t do better. Good hub, I’ll bet your mom likes it a lot!
Paradise….in my research everything I read said that Farewell to Arms was a huge flop back in 1957….but with an 2011 box office of 156 million it had to have made some money…..as for Ice Station Zebra it was probably his last good movie he ever made….thanks for reading and commenting
Hey son, thank you so much for doing a HUB on ROCK HUDSON. I have enjoyed most of his movies, Magnificent Obsession was my favorite – still have it on VCR tape…he also made another movie with Jane Wyman called All That Heaven Allows was good too…plus Battle Hymn. Never Say Goodbye was a good love story. He was a good actor. The ones he made with Doris Day were good – she has such lovely clothes in all her movies. SO SON, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR DOING ROCK HUDSON. YOUR FAVORITE MOM…ENJOY YOUR PAGES VERY MUCH – SO INFORMATIVE.
I never was much of a Rock Hudson fan, but he was a good actor. I agree that he was better in “Giant” than James Dean was. I think I liked him best in “Ice Station Zebra”. My mother was a big fan of “McMillan & Wife”.
Peace,
Rob
Rob….I had never seen Giant until about a year ago….before finally seeing it….all read about was how great James Dean was in the movie….then after it was over(it is a very long movie)….it was Hudson’s performance that stood out in my mind….it sounds like our mothers were both big fans…thanks for reading
Hi – I recently saw Magnificant Obsession on TV once again – cannot remember how many times I have seen this movie. I believe that Rock Hudson did a very good job as an actor and of course such a handsome guy to boot. I have seen 99% of his movies as a couple of titles are not familar to me. Love stories today do not match some of these movies he was in including GIANT. Never Say Goodbye was a good love story too. GREAT JOB. Your Mom
HELLO: Believe it or not Magnificent Obsession was recently on TV and I enjoyed that film so much. He was a good actor and his movies were always entertaining – drama or comedy. GIANT was a very good movie along with so many of his other films. Thanks again.
BERN1960…..so how many times in your life have you watched Magnificent Obsession?
I am not sure how many times I watched Magnificent Obsession – perhaps one dozen or more. I agree that Rock Hudson played a great role in GIANT. Giant was on TV recently and I watched it again – have seen it many times as well. A good movie is like a good book – keep watching it or reading it over and over. THANKS AGAIN FOR THE PAGE
Thanks for the information BERN1960