Want to know the best Shirley Temple movies? How about the worst Shirley Temple movies? Curious about Shirley Temple’s box office grosses or which Shirley Temple movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Shirley Temple movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place…. because we have all of that information and much more.
Shirley Temple (1928-2014) was easily the most popular and famous child star of all time. On American Film Institute’s Top 50 Screen Legends list, Temple is ranked as the 18th best actress. Right behind #17 Lillian Gish and right before #19 Rita Hayworth. That is an outstanding accomplishment for somebody that never made another movie after turning 21. In the mid 1930s she was the biggest star in Hollywood. In the 1940s her starring roles with the exception of 1945’s Kiss and Tell all flopped. From 1944 to 1949 as a supporting actress she appeared in some of her most successful movies of her career. After the sequel to Kiss and Tell (1949’s A Kiss For Corliss) flopped Shirley Temple retired from making movies. From 1950 to her death in 2014 she never appeared in another movie.
Her IMDb page shows 60 acting credits from 1932-1963. This page will rank 37 Shirley Temple movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, shorts, and bit parts were not included in the rankings.
Shirley Temple Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Shirley Temple 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 Shirley Temple movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Shirley Temple movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Shirley Temple movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Shirley Temple movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Shirley Temple movie received.
- Sort by how many Oscar® wins each Shirley Temple movie received.
- Sort Shirley Temple movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the sort and search buttons to make this table very interactive.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Shirley Temple
1. Shirley Temple was born Shirley Jane Temple in Santa Monica, California.
2. Shirley Temple’s road to stardom Cliff Notes style….Temple’s mother encouraged her infant daughter’s singing, dancing, and acting talents, and in September 1931 enrolled her in Meglin’s Dance School in Los Angeles. At Meglin’s she was discovered by casting director Charles Lamont. She signed a movie contract with Fox Films in 1932. 1934 was Temple’s coming out party. In May she appeared in a small part in Stand Up And Cheer but her role brought Temple her first notoriety. In May, Little Miss Marker was released to box office success. In June she appeared opposite Spencer Tracy in Now I’ll Tell and opposite James Dunn in Baby Take A Bow. In August, she appeared with Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard in Now and Forever. Fox quickly developed a movie for Temple….Bright Eyes opened up in December was a smash hit and Temple was officially a phenomenon at six years old!
3. Shirley Temple was given a Juvenile Oscar® at the 1935 Oscar® ceremony. “In grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934.”
4. Shirley Temple was voted as the Top Box Office Star for 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1938. Three of those years Clark Gable was the number two Box Office Star.
5. Some things we found interesting about Shirley Temple and Fox Films.
- Fox did not realize they were sitting on a gold mine…as they loaned her out to other studios many many times from 1932 to 1934.
- It seems Fox only really noticed Temple when Paramount tried to buy her contract from Fox for $50,000 after they used her in Paramount’s Little Miss Marker.
- The success of the Shirley Temple movies saved Fox from bankruptcy.
- When MGM was making The Wizard of Oz they wanted to use Temple in the Dorothy role. Fox refused to loan her out even though her popularity was diminishing.
- When Temple’s two movies in 1940 flopped…..Fox dropped her from her contact. A serious case of what have you done for me lately.
6. According to the American Film Institute, Shirley Temple is the 18th greatest female star of all-time.
7. Shirley Temple was married two times in her life. She was married to actor John Agar from 1945 to 1950….they had one child. She was married to Charles Black from 1950 until his death in 2005…they had two children.
8. Shirley Temple and her appointments. She was a United States Delegate to the United Nations in 1969. She was Ambassador to Ghana in 1974. She was United States Chief of Protocol in 1976 and she was appointed United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1989.
9. A non-alcoholic cocktail, “The Shirley Temple”, was created in her honor. It consists of ginger ale (or 7-Up), grenadine and orange juice, topped with a maraschino cherry and a slice of lemon.
10. Check out Shirley Temple’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.
Nice work Bruce. I think I’ve only seen 3 of Shirley Temple’s films from beginning to end – The Blue Bird, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer and John Ford’s Fort Apache starring that cowboy actor, forgot his name. 😉
Since You Went Away no.1 on the moviescore, I’ll have to check it out.
Hey Steve….thanks for commenting on my Temple page….3 is not bad….I have seen 16….my mother-in-law bought my little girls a 18 Temple movie collection….I have watched 13 of those movies so far as well as 3 more of her teenage movies. Tally count Me 16, Flora 14 and you 3. If it was not for that collection I would be at 3 too. I think that cowboy you mention was named Pedro Armendáriz. I have not seen Since You Went Away…but it was a huge hit….got 9 Oscar nominations including a Best Picture nomination….it might be worth checking out.
Interesting. So where are you getting this box office information? For her to be the top draw it does not look like many of her 1930s movies were huge hits. I would wager that your numbers are too low.
Hey STB fan……I got the majority of the box office numbers from the excellent book…Fox Studios History by A. Soloman. I think the fact that she made so many movies from 1934 to 1939 is why she topped the yearly surveys….4 or 5 solid box office movies per year outperform somebody that had one blockbuster hit. I
I like many of the people of my age are named after Shirley Temple. Shirley MacLaine, Shirley Jones and Shirley Davenport. Well at least two of us are famous. She was a wonderful person. I am still sad about her passing last year. Nice Temple tribute.
Hey Shirley D….well at least Shirley Jones and Shirley Davenport are pretty famous….I have never heard of Shirley MacLaine before….lol. Her passing was very sad…hard to believe it has already been over a year since that news came out. Thanks for the comment and the visit.
Temple did not get fired from Fox. Her parents mainly her mother got Temple released from the contract. They signed a deal with MGM almost immediately after leaving Fox. Granted that turned out to be a one picture deal.
Hey Film HiManiack…..thanks for stopping by. Maybe the word “dropped” would be better to use. After reading further it seems that maybe it was a mutual decision. Yep the MGM deal got Kathleen made but no other movies.
I have been a Shirley Temple fan all of my life. Seeing your rankings is interesting especially since many of her teenage movies are at the top of those rankings. My favorite Temple movie is number The Little Colonel. Good stuff here.
Hey Temple Fan….I was also surprised by how many good movies she appeared in when she was considered to be past her prime at 14….lol. Thanks for stopping by.