Telly Savalas (1922 –1994) was an Oscar®-nominated American actor. Savalas achieved his greatest success in television crime drama Kojak (1973–1978). Over time, his movie career seems to have been overshadowed by his television success. His IMDb page shows 130 acting credits from 1959 to 1995. This page will rank 28 Telly Savalas movies from Best to Worst in five different sortable columns of information. The following table only includes his movies that we were able to find a box office number on…we will continue to search for more Telly movies. This page comes from a request by Brando90 (Bob?) and Flora.
Telly Savalas 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 Telly Savalas movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Telly Savalas movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Telly Savalas movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Telly Savalas 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 Telly Savalas movie received.
- Sort Telly Savalas 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.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Telly Savalas
1. Aristotelis Savalas was born in Garden City, New York in 1922. His parents were Greek immigrants
2. When Telly Savalas started grade school he could only speak in Greek.
3. Telly Savalas also served three years in the United States Army during World War II where he received a Purple Heart. He always refuse to talk about his service during World War II. He also worked for the US State Department as host of the Your Voice of America series, then at ABC News, before beginning an acting career in his late thirties.
4. Telly Savalas earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar® nomination for only his 4th movie….1962’s Birdman of Alcatraz.
5. Telly Savalas was as the star of the television series Kojak. Kojak was a bald New York City detective with a fondness for lollipops and whose tagline was “Who loves ya, baby?” He was not the first choice for Kojak….that honor goes to Marlon Brando.
6. Telly Savalas is the godfather to Jennifer Aniston.
7. Telly Savalas the singer? Yep….Savalas had some chart success. His spoken word version of Bread’s “If” produced by Snuff Garrett was #1 in Europe for 10 weeks in 1975 and his sung version of Don Williams‘s “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend” topped the charts in 1980.
8. Telly Savalas is one of many to play James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In our minds he is easily the best Blofeld. Speaking of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, during the filming at Piz Gloria, the cast and crew received their per diems in cash. Upon seeing George Lazenby with a suitcase stuffed full of cash, Telly Savalas (he was a champion poker player) invited him to a late-night poker game that he regularly held with crew members, and promptly relieved Lazenby of having to carry so much extra weight. Upon hearing of this, Harry Saltzman visited the location, joined the game over Savalas’s protests, and won back Lazenby’s money. He then informed Savalas in no uncertain terms that he was not to victimize his “boy” (Lazenby) again.
9. Telly Savalas was married three times. He had 6 children…..3 went became thespians.
10. Check out Telly Savalas‘ career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve’s Telly Savalas You Tube Video
HI BRUCE I loved Telly as Kojak but until I saw Steve’s Savalas video a few weeks back I was largely oblivious to Telly’s screen career, apart from sporadically noticing him in excellent supporting roles like that of Pilate in The Greatest Story Ever Told. Its good to see stats now being attached to the films and you joining Steve’s practice with a Cogerson page on an actor whose movie career has been as you say probably overshadowed by TV’s Kojak
Whilst I was aware that allegedly Bing was once considered for the part of TV’s Columbo I never knew that Brando had been in the frame for Kojak and I welcome that information [regarding movies “all isgrist that come to my mill” as the saying goes.]
“We can only miss, and sleep and dream
Of, the wonderful things that might have been.
In a way though a slender Dan-like threat weaves its way through the matter because the original episodes of Kojak ran from 1973-1978 and the following year Brando was prominently in the cinema-going public’s focus as there were posters and photos of him everywhere as another iconic bald figure – the mad Col Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.
By the way Brando90 was never me. It wouldn’t have been covert enough and even Steve wouldn’t have been mystified about the real identity !!
Hey Bob
1. Thanks for stopping by.
2. Brando as Kodak was on the internet….so it had to be true….lol.
3. You are right…it seems Brando was offered every role from 1953 to 1980….lol.
4. Maybe this is what Leonardo DiCaprio is experiencing these days.
5. Good to know Brando90 was not you….that request was made many moons ago.
6. Before The Godfather…Brando might have been ready to go to the television series route ….but the double success of The Godfather and Last Tango returned to star power status.
Good stuff, as always.
Hi Bruce, the first Greek to get a UMR page? One of the rare times I have more films on my video than the UMR page, but only 2 more.
I’ve seen 14 of the 28 films on the chart. Favorites include – The Dirty Dozen, Battle of the Bulge, Kelly’s Heroes, Mackennas Gold, Cape Fear, Capricorn One and OHMSS.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld was half Greek in the Fleming novels (and half Polish), so it made sense to cast a Greek in the role.
Brando as Kojak? Did they really believe he would commit to a tv series? Would have been fascinating, an alternate universe where Laurence Olivier plays the great mafia Don, John Cassavetes as Tom Hagen and Dustin Hoffman as Michael Corleone. 🙂
Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up! Thanks for the video share, much appreciated.
great share. I never knew Anthony Quinn was Mexican until you forced me to do my homework. LOL better than my parents ever could do. brando as kojak, never. but what tv would he fit? inquiring minds want to know. a young brando in paladin, gunsmoke,father knows best. I got it moonlighting. he might even have been as good as bruce’s bruce willis. LOL
HI BOB COX
That Bruceie guy has done it again – with a few lines on a new page he incites a whole controversy! He can tell you that when somebody has a go at one of my idols my trigger finger starts to itch. As it is though your scenario about Marlon Brando being too big to fit a TV screen was maybe a bit premature to be valid at the time.
If you look at Last Tango in Paris, going the rounds in 1972/73 when Kojak was being produced and aired, Brando was actually quite slim just then. The story goes that as Last Tango was shot on a very tight budget he waived a normal fee and settled for a % of any profits instead. The controversy surrounding the film along with his own reflected glory from The Godfather turned what would have normally been a low-key “foreign” art house type release into an unforeseen global blockbuster at the box office and it yielded Marlon such riches that he was able to retire from the screen for a 4 year hiatus , enjoy himself and get fat. This seems to have attracted the ire of guys like Joel Hirschhorn who apparently wanted Brando to accept pittance fees, starve himself and make art movies.
As I’ve said, that he was offered Kojack was news to me until Bruce revealed it but it begs the question – Lawrence of Arabia, Butch Cassidy, the 1974 Jay Gatsby and now Kojak , is there any role that Brando wasn’t offered first in his heyday? It wouldn’t now surprise me in fact if he had first refusal of John McClane; and I’m convinced that had Marlon been in movies in the early 1930s he would have been Mae West’s 1st choice as her leading man in I’m No Angel and She Done Him Wrong. Certainly from what I’ve read of his reputation he would have been quite happy to accept her invitation to go up and see her some time when she had nothing on!
Anyway, seriously though, it’s always good to see reflected in your own posts your apparent interest in a wide range of topics and performers.
BOB COX AND BRUCE
My immediately previous post was of course primarily meant for Mr Cox – apologies to both of you.
Bob Roy, Great info on last tango. the brando legend continues to grow if only in our memories. I thought his col. Kurtz was incredibly brilliant. I never got brando until I felt him in don juan demarco with depp (the plus sized brando). I rewatched a lot of his movies then and I had grown enough to admire his greatness.
HI BOB COX
Liked your “grown” statement which leaves me to wonder how many other viewers on this site might follow your lead. some day!
“When I became a man I put away childish things.”
Hi. You have “Beau Geste” at spot #87 for ’66, but it is not found on your posting for that year. Just wondrin’…
Hey Mark….Beau Geste (1966) will show up on the 1966 page the next time we update the entire website….it was a new addition to the database. Apparently it cost over $2.5 million to make and did not even reach the $1 million rental mark. Sorry for the delay. But…good eye.
Thank-you for completing my requested page on Telly Savalas. I have seen 14 of his movies.
The highest ranking film I have seen is The Dirty Dozen at number 1.
The highest rated film I have NOT seen is The Interns at number 3.
The lowest rated film I have seen is Pretty Maids All in a Row at number 26. This I watched for the stars but wish I had skipped it. It was horrible.
My favourite Telly Savalas movies are:
The Dirty Dozen
Cape Fear
Birdman of Alcatraz
Buono Sera, Mrs. Campbell
Makenna’s Gold
Kelly’s Heroes
Love is a Ball
On Her Majesty’s Seceret Service
Hey Flora.
1. You are welcome. You and Brando 90 made this request awhile ago. I actually wonder if Bob is Brando90?
2. Tally count is so close 14 for you, 13 for me and 8 for bob cox.
3. I have not seen The Interns either….I guess it was so successful it got a sequel….The New Interns…with Telly in both movires.
4. Pretty Maids All In A Row is a strange movie… seen about half of that one…just not start to finish. Rock goes to the extreme opposite of his1960s screen persona in that one.
5. Two Peck movies in your favorites? I am shocked…lol. Actually I agree both are goofs movies for sure.
6. You might like the attached trailer for Makenna’s Gold…. It is almost a mini-movie…over 5 minutes long.
7. I have not seen either Mrs. Campbell or Love is A Ball.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Telly Savalas.
saw 8. 2 favorites both 10s , war movies. kellys heroes, battle of the bulge. 2 more 10s dirty dozen, and the greatest story ever told. hidden gem is slender thread.
Hey bob cox….thanks for checking out our latest. I have seen 13 of these movies…compared to your 8 and Flora’s 14. I have also seen The Assassination Bureau but could not find box office grosses on the movie so sadly it did not make the table.
Love Kelly’s Heroes….. really like The Dirty Dozen and like Battle of the Bulge….. a fine WW2 trilogy for Telly. Greatest Story Ever Told is an epic but not a favorite. I have not seen A Slender Thread….actually when I included the trailer it was the first time I got an idea what the movie was about. Good feedback.