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.
Hi, it is June 13th, 2015, and finally Rock Hudson made it to the new page. It was interesting to read all the older and newer comments. Thanks for moving it over. I thought he was a good actor and reading the comments once again I rememberd you taping Magnificent Obsession for me onto a VHS tape (I still have it). You taped part of it in the morning before you went to college and finished after classes in the afternoon. THAT WAS A GOOD LOVE STORY. Thanks once again son………………………….Happy Father’s Day coming up soon!
Hey BERN1960…yep Rock was one of the last ones to make the move….which is finally complete. Still rocking with the VHS….stick to your guns….maybe they will come back. I image a good transfer to Blu-Ray might make viewing Magnificent Obsession any even better viewing experience. As always thanks for the visit and the comment.
Hi
When I was 11 I went to see The Undefeated, it was on all week at the cinema and I enjoyed it that much that I went 3 times. (Admission prices were quite cheap in those days)
I’d never heard of Rock Hudson, it was more about John Wayne. I recently seen it on television and I still think it’s a very entertaining western.
I’d say my favourite Hudson movie would be All That Heaven Allows, very slick and the colour in it is fantastic. I remember when Hudson died, there was genuine widespread sadness. It was sad that he never reached his full potential or given the chance. But he left a fine body of work.
Hey Chris….The Undefeated is one of my mom’s favorite Hudson movies too. She was and is a huge Hudson fan. When I wrote this page….The Undefeated was one of the first movies she went and searched for on the table. I have read that Hudson and Wayne got along great during the filming of the movie…which apparently surprised many people that knew both actors.
Yep it is very sad that we never got to see Rock in his 60s acting….I imagine he might have gotten a good supporting role and picked an Oscar….kinda of like those career Oscars that like to give older actors…Jack Palance and James Coburn popped into my mind. I have not seen All That Heaven Allows….but it was made during peak years….so I will have to check that one out. Thanks for stopping by.
So Bern 1960 is your mom! My parents are on hubpages too and read my hubs. How cool. I loved Seconds too. Hudson was sometimes shortchanged in being assessed talent-wise because of his looks. But films like Seconds show that he was a good solid actor.
Being a fan of mysteries I watched a lot of McMillan and Wife. It was never quite the same after Susan Saint James was killed off.
Magnifiecent Obsession is an excellent film. You really need to see it if you haven’t yet-but imagine you have seen you wrote this.
Other favourites of mine are Giant, Pillow Talk, Written on the Wind, and All That Heaven Allows.
Hey Flora, yep BERN1960 is my mom, she has always loved Rock especially the romantic comedies from 1959-1965. She was a huge fan of McMillan and Wife as well. My mom has not talked me into seeing Magnificent Obsession yet…although I am looking for a Blu-Ray version so she can watch it in hi-def. Seconds is an awesome underrated movie….gotta be one of Rock’s best roles…Written on the Wind is another forgotten movie, Robert Stack got an Oscar nomination for that movie….thanks for the comments.
Dorothy Malone got an Oscar for “Written on the Wind.” I wish it would show up on TV.
Hey Margaret….I hope the classic movie gods make a showing happen very soon. Thanks for checking out our Rock Hudson movie page.
I haven’t seen many of his movies but seem to remember one where he played a ww1 airplane pilot, dating a german spy.
Then there was a horror movie Empryo.
Hey ruffridyer….my mom loves the Day/Hudson movies so I have seen those movies a few times in my life….the movie with him as a WW 1 pilot is 1970s Darling Lili…which finished 23rd on the charts….it co-starred Julie Andrews and was directed by Blake Edwards. While Embryo finishes second to last on the chart….coming in at #49…..as always I appreciate you checking out my page.
Nice informative page Cogerson. I like Hudson’s movies with Doris Day (a really great chemistry between those two, in an age of nice, light, uncynical comedies), and I liked ‘Winchester 73’ (though that’s more down to the fact that James Stewart is one of my all-time favourite film stars). I also like ‘Ice Station Zebra’ (though more for the plot and script than for Hudson’s performance). But it’s probably those light frothy comedies that he was best at, in my view.
Hey Greensleeves Hubs….growing in my house, my mom was always watching Rock Hudson movies, especially when VHS came out…talk about easy gifts to buy for someone….a quick look at her collection and I would buy a Rock Hudson movie she did not have…..if you look at Day and Hudson careers…as 1960s progressed into a more violent world….people stopped buying the innocence of the their movies….Day completely stopped by 1969, and Hudson was never a force at the movies again….thanks for your excellent comments.
Hey Greensleeves….just added Wife vs Secretary to my James Stewart hub….now up to 64 of his movies
My favorites were Giant and Seconds. I’ve heard he was a little uncomfortable with Seconds because of his secret side.
Hey heanders…thanks for stopping by. Danny Peary, a movie historian, agrees with you about Hudson and Seconds. There is a scene in Seconds where Hudson is tied down, and they say that is was real effort and frustration that had him breaking himself free. His secret life must have really been on his mind when he was filming that scene….thanks for the comment. –