This page of Top 100 Movie Stars comes from two lists. The first list is the American Film Institute’s Top 50 Classic Stars. The second list is our list of the Top 50 Current Stars. Current at least compared to the AFI list. There are 50 Actors and 50 Actresses Listed Here. Yes some great performers were left off…but overall we feel this is an outstanding Top 100.
- AFI’s Top 50 Stars – stars before 1950
- UMR’s Top 25 Actors – actors who became stars after 1950
- UMR’s Top 25 Actresses – actresses who became stars after 1950
Top 100 Movie Stars by Category
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies any way you want.
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by the number of their movies in our database
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by career adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by career average critics and audience rating…all their movies combined
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by how many career Oscar® nominations and Oscar® wins their combined movies earned
- Sort Top 100 Movie Stars by their career average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- The actor link takes you to our UMR page on that performer
Our Top 100 Stars Are Ranked By Using All The Stats In The Table – James Stewart is our “Best of the Best” while Sophia Loren is the “Worst of the Best”.
| Rank | Top 100 Star | Overall Rank | Movies | Total Adjusted Domestic Box Office | AVG Review % | Oscar Noms / Wins | AVG UMR Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Stewart | 1st | 76 | $10,571,600,000 | 70.3 % | 081 / 014 | 79.10 | |
| Cary Grant | 2nd | 65 | $9,373,000,000 | 72.6 % | 071 / 009 | 79.90 | |
| Gary Cooper | 3rd | 73 | $10,767,500,000 | 67.7 % | 101 / 018 | 79.50 | |
| Spencer Tracy | 4th | 62 | $9,606,156,000 | 68.4 % | 090 / 017 | 77.70 | |
| Tom Hanks | 5th | 50 | $8,355,000,000 | 68.8 % | 090 / 020 | 73.10 | |
| Gregory Peck | 6th | 53 | $7,875,800,000 | 67.2 % | 095 / 022 | 73.90 | |
| Humphrey Bogart | 7th | 70 | $8,624,000,000 | 69.8 % | 052 / 010 | 76.70 | |
| Fred Astaire | 8th | 39 | $5,850,000,000 | 69.7 % | 059 / 007 | 81.50 | |
| Clark Gable | 9th | 64 | $11,475,200,000 | 67.5 % | 047 / 017 | 82.70 | |
| Marlon Brando | 10th | 38 | $5,874,800,000 | 69.1 % | 092 / 023 | 72.60 | |
| Burt Lancaster | 11th | 69 | $7,010,400,000 | 69.5 % | 088 / 020 | 70.10 | |
| Harrison Ford | 12th | 52 | $11,996,400,000 | 67.0 % | 088 / 022 | 68.90 | |
| Judy Garland | 13th | 31 | $5,784,600,000 | 72.5 % | 039 / 006 | 87.60 | |
| Paul Newman | 14th | 60 | $7,512,000,000 | 66.7 % | 102 / 022 | 67.40 | |
| John Wayne | 15th | 94 | $12,154,200,000 | 64.5 % | 077 / 014 | 73.80 | |
| Olivia de Havilland | 16th | 48 | $7,483,200,000 | 65.4 % | 081 / 025 | 74.50 | |
| Ingrid Bergman | 17th | 32 | $4,899,200,000 | 72.3 % | 066 / 013 | 74.00 | |
| Clint Eastwood | 18th | 65 | $7,065,500,000 | 69.5 % | 049 / 013 | 74.30 | |
| Jack Nicholson | 19th | 51 | $5,599,800,000 | 69.9 % | 097 / 022 | 66.30 | |
| Leonardo DiCaprio | 20th | 26 | $3,842,800,000 | 71.1 % | 095 / 031 | 73.30 | |
| Tom Cruise | 21st | 42 | $7,047,600,000 | 66.7 % | 055 / 009 | 78.40 | |
| Robert Redford | 22nd | 47 | $7,256,800,000 | 67.6 % | 070 / 027 | 70.00 | |
| Daniel Day-Lewis | 23rd | 17 | $1,052,300,000 | 80.2 % | 082 / 021 | 78.10 | |
| Meryl Streep | 24th | 59 | $4,489,900,000 | 69.5 % | 119 / 028 | 67.30 | |
| Katharine Hepburn | 25th | 43 | $5,314,800,000 | 69.0 % | 063 / 014 | 71.30 | |
| Cate Blanchett | 26th | 47 | $4,577,800,000 | 69.9 % | 094 / 029 | 61.80 | |
| Dustin Hoffman | 27th | 55 | $7,067,500,000 | 66.5 % | 088 / 023 | 63.70 | |
| William Holden | 28th | 66 | $7,510,800,000 | 64.6 % | 088 / 028 | 66.60 | |
| Jack Lemmon | 29th | 53 | $5,225,800,000 | 67.9 % | 073 / 015 | 69.70 | |
| Brad Pitt | 30th | 45 | $4,315,500,000 | 68.3 % | 076 / 013 | 71.70 | |
| James Cagney | 31st | 61 | $6,801,500,000 | 66.8 % | 046 / 008 | 75.30 | |
| Myrna Loy | 32nd | 74 | $9,057,600,000 | 65.3 % | 041 / 013 | 73.40 | |
| Marlene Dietrich | 33rd | 32 | $3,952,000,000 | 70.1 % | 043 / 008 | 77.00 | |
| Gene Hackman | 34th | 76 | $7,083,200,000 | 65.7 % | 092 / 017 | 57.50 | |
| Deborah Kerr | 35th | 39 | $4,543,500,000 | 67.0 % | 071 / 022 | 71.10 | |
| Irene Dunne | 36th | 31 | $4,067,200,000 | 67.9 % | 042 / 007 | 79.40 | |
| Vivien Leigh | 37th | 15 | $3,196,500,000 | 71.6 % | 041 / 015 | 78.00 | |
| Claudette Colbert | 38th | 48 | $6,273,600,000 | 66.4 % | 041 / 008 | 74.60 | |
| Bette Davis | 39th | 79 | $6,351,600,000 | 65.2 % | 084 / 014 | 65.00 | |
| Henry Fonda | 40th | 83 | $8,690,100,000 | 64.2 % | 058 / 013 | 66.60 | |
| Grace Kelly | 41st | 11 | $2,338,600,000 | 77.2 % | 028 / 008 | 89.50 | |
| Audrey Hepburn | 42nd | 25 | $2,862,500,000 | 71.9 % | 058 / 015 | 69.50 | |
| Shirley Temple | 43rd | 37 | $5,072,700,000 | 67.6 % | 013 / 002 | 80.00 | |
| Charles Chaplin | 44th | 13 | $2,860,000,000 | 81.9 % | 007 / 001 | 83.00 | |
| James Dean | 45th | 3 | $930,300,000 | 85.5 % | 017 / 002 | 98.70 | |
| Edward G. Robinson | 46th | 72 | $7,365,600,000 | 66.6 % | 033 / 002 | 68.70 | |
| Gene Kelly | 47th | 40 | $5,140,000,000 | 64.8 % | 052 / 013 | 72.30 | |
| Ginger Rogers | 48th | 55 | $6,644,000,000 | 64.7 % | 039 / 003 | 72.30 | |
| Marilyn Monroe | 49th | 25 | $3,217,500,000 | 70.8 % | 030 / 007 | 73.40 | |
| Greta Garbo | 50th | 24 | $2,217,600,000 | 71.9 % | 014 / 001 | 80.00 | |
| Laurence Olivier | 51st | 49 | $3,856,300,000 | 67.2 % | 073 / 017 | 64.50 | |
| Doris Day | 52nd | 39 | $4,945,200,000 | 65.2 % | 029 / 004 | 78.20 | |
| Steve McQueen | 53rd | 26 | $3,400,800,000 | 69.7 % | 030 / 005 | 71.80 | |
| Robert DeNiro | 54th | 95 | $5,937,500,000 | 62.2 % | 099 / 019 | 51.50 | |
| Denzel Washington | 55th | 47 | $3,886,900,000 | 68.2 % | 035 / 007 | 71.10 | |
| Jean Harlow | 56th | 22 | $2,844,600,000 | 69.7 % | 004 / 000 | 80.20 | |
| Barbara Stanwyck | 57th | 81 | $7,484,400,000 | 64.8 % | 029 / 001 | 67.40 | |
| Elizabeth Taylor | 58th | 48 | $6,840,000,000 | 58.4 % | 076 / 023 | 61.20 | |
| Al Pacino | 59th | 46 | $4,117,000,000 | 65.6 % | 078 / 016 | 59.70 | |
| Morgan Freeman | 60th | 70 | $7,028,000,000 | 62.3 % | 061 / 018 | 58.00 | |
| Mary Pickford | 61st | 33 | $4,596,900,000 | 65.8 % | 001 / 001 | 79.70 | |
| Julie Andrews | 62nd | 28 | $5,862,920,000 | 64.7 % | 064 / 012 | 69.18 | |
| Barbra Streisand | 63rd | 19 | $4,005,200,000 | 59.1 % | 044 / 008 | 78.00 | |
| Michael Caine | 64th | 100 | $6,500,000,000 | 62.3 % | 072 / 013 | 48.80 | |
| Kirk Douglas | 65th | 71 | $5,580,600,000 | 64.1 % | 048 / 015 | 59.70 | |
| Lillian Gish | 66th | 31 | $3,865,700,000 | 68.6 % | 006 / 001 | 69.60 | |
| Robert Mitchum | 67th | 85 | $7,335,500,000 | 62.1 % | 037 / 006 | 58.50 | |
| Mel Gibson | 68th | 44 | $5,253,600,000 | 63.8 % | 038 / 011 | 66.20 | |
| Julie Christie | 69th | 34 | $3,002,200,000 | 67.8 % | 054 / 012 | 58.20 | |
| Natalie Wood | 70th | 44 | $4,822,400,000 | 61.7 % | 051 / 015 | 66.00 | |
| Shirley MacLaine | 71st | 51 | $4,411,500,000 | 61.1 % | 075 / 017 | 57.60 | |
| Sidney Poitier | 72nd | 46 | $4,140,000,000 | 63.6 % | 054 / 012 | 62.40 | |
| Diane Keaton | 73rd | 48 | $4,387,200,000 | 63.6 % | 067 / 017 | 54.80 | |
| Robin Williams | 74th | 66 | $6,923,400,000 | 57.1% | 056 / 010 | 54.59 | |
| Anne Bancroft | 75th | 50 | $3,495.000000 | 63.9% | 044 / 003 | 55.50 | |
| Sean Connery | 76th | 57 | $6,857,100,000 | 62.8 % | 034 / 007 | 57.00 | |
| Sally Field | 77th | 33 | $4,669,500,000 | 61.0 % | 046 / 013 | 63.30 | |
| Jane Fonda | 78th | 45 | $3,978,000,000 | 62.2 % | 063 / 013 | 58.80 | |
| Rita Hayworth | 79th | 35 | $3,790,500,000 | 64.0 % | 035 / 005 | 69.20 | |
| Lauren Bacall | 80th | 36 | $3,272,400,000 | 68.0 % | 018 / 005 | 62.60 | |
| Richard Burton | 81st | 47 | $4,032,600,000 | 61.0 % | 073 / 018 | 53.80 | |
| Joan Crawford | 82nd | 78 | $6,762,600,000 | 58.8 % | 032 / 003 | 60.50 | |
| Peter O'Toole | 83rd | 37 | $2,834,200,000 | 66.0 % | 054 / 021 | 57.30 | |
| Will Smith | 84th | 32 | $5,574,400,000 | 58.4 % | 012 / 003 | 69.50 | |
| Marx Brothers | 85th | 18 | $1,704,600,000 | 68.0 % | 001 / 000 | 67.70 | |
| Kate Winslet | 86th | 36 | $2,354,400,000 | 66.0 % | 054 / 016 | 52.10 | |
| Ava Gardner | 87th | 42 | $4,569,600,000 | 60.3 % | 030 / 003 | 61.70 | |
| Buster Keaton | 88th | 29 | $664,888,000 | 66.6% | 003 / 002 | 64.60 | |
| Orson Welles | 89th | 56 | $3,382,400,000 | 66.0 % | 034 / 009 | 50.50 | |
| Jodie Foster | 90th | 40 | $2,568,000,000 | 66.7 % | 027 / 007 | 59.00 | |
| Carole Lombard | 91st | 39 | $3,279,900,000 | 63.4 % | 008 / 000 | 68.30 | |
| Julia Roberts | 92nd | 46 | $4,926,600,000 | 58.1 % | 022 / 001 | 60.50 | |
| Faye Dunaway | 93rd | 43 | $3,186,300,000 | 60.3 % | 049 / 011 | 44.90 | |
| Susan Sarandon | 94th | 76 | $3,724,000,000 | 62.1 % | 034 / 002 | 47.00 | |
| Sandra Bullock | 95th | 37 | $3,977,500,000 | 54.2 % | 025 / 014 | 54.80 | |
| Mae West | 96th | 12 | $1,515,600,000 | 60.4 % | 002 / 000 | 67.60 | |
| Charlize Theron | 97th | 44 | $2,455,200,000 | 59.8 % | 029 / 010 | 48.30 | |
| Goldie Hawn | 98th | 30 | $2,649,000,000 | 57.1 % | 016 / 004 | 57.80 | |
| Angelina Jolie | 99th | 35 | $3,178,000,000 | 56.2 % | 016 / 001 | 53.10 | |
| Sophia Loren | 100th | 35 | $2,261,000,000 | 58.4 % | 018 / 001 | 51.20 |
So what do you think of our rankings? Look good? Think we are crazy? Left somebody out? Look forward to some feedback.
Want more stats? The following link takes you to a page that ranks over 500 Movie Stars…..because more people were involved in the database…the rankings are different. Ranking 564 Movie Stars.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
(Visited 1 times)
1/James Dean-308.3
2/Grace Kelly-212.9
4/Julie Andrews-210.4****
5/Vivien Leigh-200.8
5/Charles Chaplin-191.2
6/Judy Garland-176.8
7/Clark Gable -161.8
8/Betty Hutton-164.2
9/Danny Kaye-158.8
10/Bing Crosby-158.7
11/Tyrone Power-156.6
12/Spencer Tracy-152.2
13/Ingrid Bergman-149.0
14/Greer Garson-146.3
15/Leslie Howard-145.4
16/Olivia De Havilland-145.4
17/Esther Williams-142.2
18/Marlon Brando-141.6
19/Gary Cooper-139.8
20/Fred Astaire-139.4
21/Betty Grable-139.2
22/Jennifer Jones-138.9
23/Mary Pickford-137.2
24/Gregory Peck-136.8
25/Montgomery Clift-136.7
26/Cary Grant-136.3
27/Elizabeth Taylor-135.6
28/Charlton Heston -134.1
29/Frank Sinatra-132.5
30/James Stewart-130.4
****Voice roles combined I know the English think they’re a privileged race but Julie’s not occupying 2 places in MY list
Glad you used your temporary page…good list and good stats.
Bruce:
1 It was very kind of you to fast track the update that you have now given us. On the basis of your update I will next post a revised ‘quick glance’ list of classic STARS’ averages and have expanded it to 30 names as (a) I have gone beyond your Top 100 Greatest Stars List and included ALL of the Top 30 best averaging classic stars in your new list (b) I personally wanted Chuck and Sinatra included (c) I didn’t DARE leave out Grant!
2 I couldn’t get the Duke into the 30 but it’s worth mentioning that as you’ve commented previously his average of 123.3 over 84 films is stupendous and indeed probably the prize for a high number of films AND a high average should go to the King.
3 Anyway it’s all great fun, isn’t it? but I think I’ll leave lists for a while or Dan will be thinking I’m trying to steal his thunder! Thanks again for provisionally bringing further consistency to matters.
PS: Clint Eastwood thinks the greatest actor of all time is Tom Cruise and is the only one of the current crop who will be remembered in the long term. The first part of his statement is a reasonable opinion but as to the second part as Doris sang in the song “The future’s not ours to see.”
1 I noticed that in one of our exchanges you started throwing average and not total grosses at me for the likes of Crawford and Greer Garson and I recalled that a couple of years ago Bruce listed the Top 10 stars with the best averages in his pages. However since then Bruce has changed a lot of his then-existing figures and of course has brought many new pages into play
2 I haven’t been able to find any current list from Bruce in the matter and it struck me that it might be fun to do a few and leave on this site permanent records of them realising of course that the pecking order could change again as Bruce carries on with his work of keeping his figures under review and introducing yet further profiles.
3 I will be lodging two lists in my next couple of posts and the averages are all based completely on Bruce’s figures and each is listed on the star’s individual page and only stars in his current Top 100 have been included. There are a number of high averaging stars who it seems did not meet the criteria for Bruce to include them in his Top 100 list such as Bing, Hope, Chuck Heston, Tyrone Power and Betty Grable all of whom are among stars whose careers I personally admire. However “Don’t shoot the messenger!” and any complaints/queries should be addressed to Bruce.
Bob
I’m not going to shoot the messenger, but what is exactly the message?
I think there are several ways to look at it. Quantity? Most tickets sold overall. Quality? Highest average. Some combination? And how do you weight them against each other.
But each of us will decide for himself what should matter. If I could, the way I see it is somewhat like baseball stats. Take two pitchers.
Bert Blyleven—–pitched 22 years—–287 wins—–250 losses
Bob Feller———pitched 18 years——266 wins—–162 losses
Who is better? Blyleven won more games, so he gets the quantity award. Feller gets the quality award as he has a better winning percentage. Who had the best single years (sort of like top grossers in movies). Blyleven won 20 games in his best year. Feller beat that five times, with win totals of 27, 26, 25, 24, 22, plus one of 20. Then you look at historical context, and you find that Feller won “only” 266 games because he lost three full years and most of a fourth to WWII service. Should this be put on the balance? Some would say no. Some think it should.
It is up to each baseball fan to decide. Same with movie fans with movie stats.
JOHN:
1 I’m greedy I like to consider ALL measures of success and averages, total grosses, ticket Inflation, CPI inflation all fascinate me. “Take the broad view. Always take the broad view.”
2 You threw averages at me and I thought you were now taking i a keen interest in t average grosses and sought to help you as a matter of courtesy.
3 Though I’m a fan of both the older Bing and Cooper in HIS later years it seems to me that you are always over-protective of those two. Therefore my “Don’t shoot the messenger”quip was meant as a non-pompous way of saying Bing’s been excluded but if you want to create a storm in a teacup about it you must tackle Bruce as in my lists I am just conveying stat calculated and decisions taken by him. decisions made by him.
Anyway great hearing from you again.
Bob
I’m not going to create a “storm in a teacup” about your list. Your list is your list with your criteria. So I Cogerson’s. And Steve’s over on IMDB.
As for being over-protective of Bing and Cooper. I have I guess thousands of movies on DVD’s and Blu-rays. Collecting movies is my worst old man vice (well, the one I will admit to). Only four feature Bing Crosby–White Christmas, The Country Girl, High Society, and King of Jazz. Now that I think of it, I don’t even have Going My Way, The Bells of St. Mary’s, or Holiday Inn or any of the road pictures. Bing movies are just not my cup of tea. I do recognize, though, that Crosby was a fantastically popular multi-media entertainer in his prime, in the running for the most popular in the 20th century. He wouldn’t be on any list of my favorites. On a list of top ticket sellers, yes, he should be there if the list is at all realistic.
As for Cooper, I like him better than Crosby, but he is no where near a favorite of mine. If I were going to pop in a western, I would go with Wayne or Scott, or even Murphy or Madison, before Cooper. Just not a actor who turns me on that much. But I have to be fair, and he was often very good, and he was good early in his career in such as The Virginian and Mr. Deeds. He had the ability to play macho and then anti-macho. Not many actors could pull that off as well as Cooper.
Anyway, I look forward to your list and will restrain myself from commenting, so you need not be upset.
*of the four Bing movies I have, I have two because I purchased a Grace Kelly collection and they came along with more interesting films for me such as Rear Window and Dial M for Murder.
Hey John…lists are made for discussion….and great debate. I think Bob looks forward to your concerns about his list…lol. Good thoughts on Coop and Bing.
Hey John….I liked the baseball stat comparison. I like to think Bill James (baseball stat man) is a huge influence on this page….my UMR formula is actually based on one of his old baseball stat formulas.
You have poised a good question about quantity vs quality. On movies that gives Wayne the edge…..he is number one in total gross….but among the best on average per movie. I love Harrison Ford…but take away his two big franchises and you are left with a good but not great career.
As for Byleven or Feller…..it is not even close ….one was an all-time great while the other was a journeymen who played a very long time. Rapid Bob all the way!
You have to compare them to their league in their time. There are also more relief pitchers used in Blyleven’s time and there are 30 teams now as opposed to 16 in Feller’s time. Feller would still probably win.
Good points Dan….I liked Blyleven…but seeing him as a Hall of Famer seems strange even with so many wins. My favorite player was Dwight Evans of the RedSox…even though he was an outfielder to Blyleven’s pitcher..they had similar careers…..but it was not good enough to get Dewey into the Hall of Fame….trying to not be bitter…lol. Feller would have had won many many wins. My late dad would back me up on that. Thanks for the visit and the comments…..they are greatly appreciated.
Hey Bob…..I look forward to those lists. I figure when I get done with the “flips” of the older pages….I will generate more lists like that…..boy do I wish this site was dynamic…..it would make running this site so much easier. Actually when I look at some of the lists you mentioned…I don’t even remembering writing them.
The last list I did was Top Career Ticket sellers…..but when I do another massive list like that I will start to forget about Top Career Tickets Sold page. Either my memory is going or I have too many pages to keep up with.
As for the upgrades…closing in on 80% done. Rock Hudson is just about complete and will be tomorrow’s post.
You forgot Charles Bronson !!!! and Val Kilmer !!!!
Hey Glenn….both Bronson and Kilmer are quality actors….both were considered….but in the end both did not make the Top 100….50 Actors and 50 Actresses. We do have a page that only looks at Charles Bronson….you might like it. https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/charles-bronson-movies/
Thanks for checking out our page.
LIST A
20 CLASSIC STARS WITH HIGHEST AVERAGE PER MOVIE
IN COGERSON TOP 100 STARS TABLE
1/James Dean-$306.7 million average
2/Vivien Leigh-202.7
3/Julie Andrews-195.7
4/Charles Chaplin-190.9
5/Judy Garland-184.4
6/Clark Gable-167.5
7/Spencer Tracy-165.5-still getting billed below Gable after all these years.
8/Danny Kaye-163.0
9/Ingrid Bergman-152.5
10/Marlon Brando-144.4
11/Olivia De Havilland-143.2
12/Cary Grant-142.3
13/Fred Astaire-141.3
14/Gary Cooper-139.3
15/Mary Pickford-137.0
16Gregory Peck-13.3
17/Elizabeth Taylor-132.2
18/Paul Newman-131.8
19/James Stewart-131.7
20/John Wayne-131.0-still the daddy of them all in domestic ticket sales and total grosses !
LIST B
COMBINED LIST OF 20 CLASSIC AND MODERN STARS WITH HIGHEST AVERAGE PER MOVIE IN COGERSON TOP 100 STARS TABLE
1/James Dean-306.7
2/Harrison Ford-226.2
3/Barbra Streisand-205.8
4/Vivien Leigh-202.7
5/Julie Andrews-195.7
6/Charles Chaplin-190.9
7/Judy Garland-184.4
8/Will Smith-173.0
9/Clark Gable-167.5
10/Spencer Tracy-165.5-Still getting billed below Gable!
11/Tom Hanks-163.8
12/Tom Cruise-163.5
13/Danny Kaye-163.0
14/Ingrid Bergman-152.5
15/Robert Redford-151.7
16/Marlon Brando-144.4
17/Olivia De Havilland-143.2
18/Cary Grant-142.3
19/Fred Astaire-141.3
20/Julia Roberts-140.6
Hey Bob…Dean being first seems unfair…as he only has 3 movies. It has taken Harrison Ford almost 50 years of hits to keep that average up. Will Smith has actually seen his average go down over the last 10 years. Not thinking Julia is still in 20th place…as her last 5 movies have maybe reached her old average….that includes 3 disappointments in the last 12 months. The two Toms are pretty close…I wonder if they are still that close. Good stuff as always.
CORRECTION In list a Greg should read 136.3 apologies.
I can fix that the next time I am in my desktop computer.
Bob
Just one thing. Some stats seem out of date. I looked up just Gable and Tracy on their own boards. Gable now has 64 films listed and a 166.4 average. Tracy now has 60 movies listed and a 149.80 average. As the top grossers are easier to find, I guess, than the lesser films, the more films that are found, the lower the average is likely to be.
You’re shooting the messenger! However Bruce is aware of that and will update his table in due course and then I’ll produce a fresh table. I don’t want to do that piecemeal because it’s confusing and meaningless (though I have amended a few of them). Also I think Brando may have to come down a couple of places but I’m allowing him to remain in his present sunlight as long as possible for Bruce has already hit him hard.
Meanwhile my present lists reflect Bruce’s current one and you’ve cheered me up by telling me that that cantankerous b—–d Tracy will also be coming down.
Hey John…this page will get updated when I finish updating my pages…it has been a slow process but the end is coming. Excellent understanding that the harder to find movies will generally have a lower gross and will pull down that average. My Loy page went from 62 to 70 movies….of the 8 new movies only 1 would be considered a modest hit…and when you put those new movies into her totals her average really went down.
Your list has me thinking I need to update that page….and update it quickly. I see Mr Brando has a Top 10 spot….while Wayne being in the Top 20 is really impressive considering how many movies he made. I think if you put a minimum in….then some of the big legends would move up even more…as people like Dean, Kaye would not make the list. Thanks for pulling out this information.
HI BRUCE
1 Thanks for considering this matter. As I’ve told John I like to look at all variations of lists. However your Total Box Office Grosses column is for me the definitive one though someone like Streisand who has a massive average gross over a FULL career of 19 films deserves credit too and indeed you gave her that in one of your write-ups.
2 However I am uncomfortable with the likes of Dean heading any list as in East of Eden he was second billed and in Giant third billed and in a supporting role and he made only full-length 3 films so that if he had happily lived on and had a FULL career he would surely have gone through flops and eventual decline that would have dragged down his average.
3 Vivien Leigh is another star whose high average troubles me as whilst she had a magnificent stage career and was a brilliant actress her Hollywood box office career rests almost solely on GWTW and Streetcar. On the other hand although Charlie has just 12 films on your page we do know that he made droves of other movies and that if you had been able to get figures for them they would probably have reflected a healthy box office.
4 I mentioned to you that you once had a cut off point of a 22 movie minimum but you rightly pointed out that Streisand would then be excluded which given her great box office record over at least a not pathetic number of films would have been an anomaly.
5 However you have now I am pleased to say profiled a great number of stars for us and look like carrying on with more pages so that at some stage you are going to perhaps have to find some way of devising a ranking system that is not cluttered with too may people who brought relatively little to the box office though your excellent rotatable sort columns at present addresses some of the problem. Perhaps the exclusion at least for ranking purposes of performers with an adjusted box office gross of less than say $3 billion is one option.
6 Meanwhile taking into account total grosses, average grosses, entertainment value/acting ability, wider impact transcending movies, rental returns and my CPI observations my own “common sense” assessment of the 15 greatest male legends of all time in ranking order is in the next post and I have tried to be as impartial as possible so that for example two of my own Top 4 favourites Laddie and Widmark are not on the list, so that if John doesn’t like my list “Frankly my dear———–!”
Hey Bob….love this comment….so glad to see that all of my work on this page is being read and studied…makes me feel proud. Since the comment made me so happy…I quickly before work put this page (very raw…not even edited) file…of the current UMR page….it has all of the most recent additions to our UMR database (Nicole Kidman is listed)….so even if I have not updated their “pages”…their stats are updated.
https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/bob-john-temporary-file/
It is massive…should keep you busy for awhile….lol.
Hi
I think I’m suffering from fatigue with all these lists. If you done a list of 200, there would still be someone left out, no matter how thorough. Everytime I check the list, I think of somebody new. For example, an actress Margaret Sullivan who was big in the late 30’s. Her best known role would be Little Shop Around The Corner with James Stewart. She was absolutely fantastic, her career faded due to a lot of health problems and now I doubt very few people would know who she is.
In the 1970’s there was an actress Marsha Mason, who was nominated 4 times, I think her most famous role would be The Goodbye Girl. She was actually married to Neil Simon. Very gifted actress but again almost forgotten.
The point I’m making is that a lot of these stars who have enormous talent but will never appear on any list. Take the late Doris Roberts, who spent years working as an actress in theatre and small T.V roles. Never any real recognition as a star, but then comes along an opportunity in the mid 90s for Everybody Loves Raymond when she was nearly 70 years old. She grabbed it with both hands and made the part her own and won several Emmy’s and will be forever remembered for that role as Marie.
There’s no doubt that luck plays a massive part in people’s careers.
Oh, I think a lot of people know who Sullivan is. You cannot be a fan of Jimmy Stewart and not know who she is. Jimmy Stewart was in love with her. He always was. And she loved it. He had to love her only on screen. He was very careful with her. She was happy around him.
Hey Flora….thanks for sharing the information on Stewart and Sullivan…..good stuff to know!
Hey Chris…I am fatigued with these lists too….but I am glad I finished this project. I agree with you about Sullivan and Mason…and you could include Ellen Burnstyn too. So many great performers….but seating was limited. In the end I like the 100 I picked…..granted some of the actresses that MADE the list did not compare very well to some of the actors that DID NOT make the list. RIP Doris Roberts…that was sad news….but her 70s and 80s were pretty successful. I am sure everybody on this list got good luck to go with their good talent. As always thanks for sharing your movie thoughts. FYI My next “project” is called James Dean The Butterfly Effect….as I thought it would be fun to do a page that showed an alternate universe in which Dean survived and had a long career.
Oh, then Paul Newman would not have been a star. He got the role in Somebody Up There Likes Me because James dean died.
Yep the ripple effect has been the best part of doing this page….Dean would have taken many of Newman’s early roles. It should be interesting whenever I finish it.