Who were the Top Movie Stars of the 1930s statistically? This page will attempt to answer that question. Our main source of information was our Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) pages that covered movie stars that made movies in the 1930s. So far we have box office grosses on 1,297 movies made between 1930 and 1939. Granted this is far from all the movies made during that time frame….but it does cover most of the major movie releases in that decade.
We have included four lists of information. List one looks at the Top 15 stars by adjusted domestic box office. List two looks at the Top 15 stars by highest average rating per movie according to critics and audiences. List three looks at the Top 15 Stars by highest average UMR score per movie. List four shows our entire table of all the stars we looked at while complying these lists.
Top 15 Adjusted Domestic Box Office Leaders 1930 – 1939
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- 1st – Clark Gable $7,151,600,000
- 2nd – Myrna Loy $5,400,000,000
- 3rd – Hattie McDaniel $4,595,000,000
- 4th – Lionel Barrymore $4,262,400,000
- 5th – Robert Young $4,027,200,000
- 6th – Thomas Mitchell $3,926,400,000
- 7th – Loretta Young $3,816,000,000
- 8th – Olivia de Havilland $3,803,400,000
- 9th – Gary Cooper $3,753,600,000
- 10th – Donald Crisp $3,713,500,000
- 11th – Wallace Beery $3,612,000,000
- 12th – Mickey Rooney $3,478,800,000
- 13th – Robert Montgomery $3,420,000,000
- 14th – William Powell $3,328,000,000
- 15th – Maureen O’Sullivan $3,315,200,000
Top 15 Average Critic/Audience Rating Leaders 1930 – 1939 (mininum 8 movies)
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- 1st – Marx Brothers 80.40%
- 2nd – Fred Astaire 76.00%
- 3rd – Thomas Mitchell 75.50%
- 4th – Marlene Dietrich 74.30%
- 5th – Robert Donat 72.80%
- 6th – Greta Garbo 72.60%
- 7th – Hattie McDaniel 72.10%
- 8th – Leslie Howard 72.10%
- 9th – Charles Laughton 72.00%
- 10th – James Stewart 71.00%
- 11th – Laurel & Hardy 70.70%
- 12th – W.C. Fields 70.60%
- 13th – Jean Arthur 70.50%
- 14th – Olivia de Havilland 70.00%
- 15th – Jean Harlow 69.70%
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Top 15 Average UMR (combining box office, reviews and awards) Score Per Movie 1930-1939 (minimum 8 movies)
1st – Fred Astaire
2nd – Marx Brothers
3rd – Tyrone Power
4th – Norma Shearer
5th – Judy Garland
6th – Greta Garbo
7th – James Stewart
8th – David Niven
9th – Charles Laughton
10th – Errol Flynn
11th – Shirley Temple
12th – Clark Gable
13th – Jean Arthur
14th – Marlene Dietrich
15th – Ginger Rogers
Top Movie Stars 1930-1939 Main Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies any way you want.
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- Sort by actor or actress
- Sort by movies made between 1930 and 1939
- Sort by total adjusted domestic box office from 1930 to 1939
- Sort by total adjusted worldwide box office from 1930 to 1939
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each performers’ movies earned
- Sort by average UMR Score
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Default setting is total adjusted domestic box office.
Rank Thespian Movies Adj. Domestic B.O. Adj. Worldwide B.O. AVG Review % Oscar Noms / Wins AVG UMR Score Clark Gable 38 $7,151,600,000 $11,430,200,000 68.7 % 040 / 17 73.13 Myrna Loy 54 $5,400,000,000 $7,305,100,000 63.9 % 031 / 06 64.56 Hattie McDaniel 25 $4,595,000,000 $6,764,700,000 72.1 % 021 / 08 71.01 Lionel Barrymore 36 $4,262,400,000 $6,368,600,000 68.0 % 023 / 05 69.82 Robert Young 48 $4,027,200,000 $4,912,600,000 59.0 % 003 / 01 60.48 Thomas Mitchell 16 $3,926,400,000 $5,756,000,000 75.5 % 043 / 13 77.46 Loretta Young 45 $3,816,000,000 $4,032,600,000 62.5 % 009 / 01 62.31 Olivia de Havilland 18 $3,803,400,000 $6,489,900,000 70.0 % 041 / 18 71.63 Gary Cooper 32 $3,753,600,000 $3,848,800,000 65.0 % 034 / 06 69.24 Donald Crisp 35 $3,713,500,000 $5,796,900,000 63.3 % 043 / 08 66.61 Wallace Beery 30 $3,612,000,000 $4,969,000,000 66.0 % 014 / 07 70.61 Mickey Rooney 26 $3,478,800,000 $4,848,600,000 66.1 % 017 / 06 70.37 Robert Montgomery 40 $3,420,000,000 $4,410,300,000 61.2 % 012 / 03 62.51 William Powell 32 $3,328,000,000 $4,738,500,000 67.5 % 022 / 05 67.57 Maureen O'Sullivan 32 $3,315,200,000 $5,112,500,000 65.1 % 008 / 00 66.74 Leslie Howard 20 $3,314,000,000 $5,268,000,000 72.1 % 028 / 10 68.27 Dick Powell 31 $3,307,700,000 $4,453,200,000 62.5 % 014 / 03 65.87 Fredric March 29 $3,306,000,000 $3,816,900,000 64.4 % 036 / 07 68.87 Tyrone Power 16 $3,289,600,000 $3,469,200,000 64.9 % 030 / 04 76.86 Edward Arnold 33 $3,280,200,000 $3,747,100,000 66.0 % 022 / 04 64.99 Joan Blondell 41 $3,206,200,000 $4,049,700,000 62.5 % 003 / 00 60.94 Ginger Rogers 30 $3,204,000,000 $4,833,500,000 68.7 % 026 / 02 68.92 Spencer Tracy 26 $3,127,800,000 $4,621,300,000 65.7 % 021 / 04 67.03 Joan Crawford 25 $3,095,000,000 $4,712,500,000 61.7 % 004 / 01 68.44 Shirley Temple 22 $3,049,200,000 $3,048,600,000 69.5 % 001 / 00 73.70 James Cagney 32 $2,963,200,000 $4,145,500,000 65.8 % 011 / 02 65.75 Carole Lombard 35 $2,943,500,000 $2,996,500,000 63.1 % 006 / 00 62.97 Pat O'Brien 39 $2,917,200,000 $3,883,800,000 61.0 % 008 / 00 60.38 Robert Taylor 24 $2,872,800,000 $4,455,000,000 61.4 % 008 / 01 67.26 Claudette Colbert 22 $2,864,400,000 $3,030,200,000 67.7 % 018 / 06 71.69 Melvyn Douglas 33 $2,864,400,000 $3,500,500,000 62.6 % 012 / 01 62.21 Jean Harlow 22 $2,860,000,000 $3,962,200,000 69.7 % 004 / 00 70.47 Cary Grant 28 $2,758,000,000 $3,235,300,000 69.7 % 014 / 01 66.41 James Stewart 20 $2,706,000,000 $3,565,900,000 70.9 % 024 / 03 72.94 Alice Faye 21 $2,685,900,000 $2,686,900,000 64.8 % 015 / 03 68.20 Jeanette MacDonald 19 $2,667,600,000 $4,520,200,000 66.4 % 015 / 03 69.74 George Brent 36 $2,649,600,000 $3,653,200,000 64.4 % 016 / 03 61.68 Don Ameche 18 $2,595,600,000 $2,595,000,000 61.7 % 013 / 03 68.69 Humphrey Bogart 30 $2,592,000,000 $3,550,500,000 63.9 % 011 / 00 63.78 John Barrymore 30 $2,589,000,000 $3,816,500,000 65.8 % 015 / 01 64.22 Barbara Stanwyck 32 $2,556,800,000 $2,829,500,000 63.1 % 005 / 00 62.06 George Raft 30 $2,532,000,000 $2,766,600,000 64.1 % 003 / 00 63.28 Bette Davis 36 $2,520,000,000 $3,567,800,000 63.7 % 017 / 03 62.08 Kay Francis 41 $2,488,700,000 $3,485,900,000 62.9 % 003 / 01 59.10 Claude Rains 20 $2,460,000,000 $3,391,100,000 69.3 % 025 / 08 70.25 Basil Rathbone 27 $2,421,900,000 $3,706,300,000 70.5 % 021 / 03 67.24 Ray Milland 31 $2,396,300,000 $2,436,500,000 62.8 % 007 / 00 61.80 Victor McLaglen 29 $2,354,800,000 $2,820,300,000 65.4 % 011 / 04 62.85 Joel McCrea 29 $2,349,000,000 $2,493,000,000 63.5 % 013 / 01 62.69 Jean Arthur 19 $2,350,300,000 $2,477,000,000 70.5 % 026 / 04 71.15 David Niven 16 $2,347,200,000 $3,022,300,000 68.1 % 024 / 03 75.28 Vivien Leigh 6 $2,238,600,000 $3,848,600,000 72.4 % 013 / 08 71.34 Boris Karloff 34 $2,199,800,000 $2,391,800,000 67.2 % 006 / 00 61.33 Charles Laughton 17 $2,125,000,000 $2,765,000,000 72.0 % 020 / 02 73.07 Henry Fonda 20 $2,096,000,000 $2,371,100,000 63.1 % 012 / 02 64.81 Irene Dunne 24 $2,035,200,000 $2,256,000,000 63.9 % 021 / 05 64.88 Douglas Fairbanks Jr. 26 $2,020,200,000 $2,620,200,000 67.0 % 009 / 02 62.63 Miriam Hopkins 23 $1,996,400,000 $2,105,400,000 65.5 % 009 / 01 64.54 Janet Gaynor 19 $1,995,000,000 $2,104,200,000 63.6 % 012 / 01 67.24 Rosalind Russell 20 $1,990,000,000 $2,837,800,000 63.7 % 006 / 00 65.47 Fay Wray 32 $1,980,800,000 $2,496,400,000 63.0 % 009 / 01 58.14 Lew Ayres 36 $1,936,800,000 $2,180,900,000 59.0 % 008 / 02 56.58 Constance Bennett 25 $1,922,500,000 $2,262,400,000 63.2 % 013 / 00 61.32 Mary Astor 28 $1,920,800,000 $2,251,100,000 65.3 % 012 / 01 61.42 Marie Dressler 14 $1,883,000,000 $2,432,800,000 64.7 % 005 / 01 72.35 Errol Flynn 13 $1,846,000,000 $3,173,200,000 69.7 % 017 / 04 73.65 Fred MacMurray 19 $1,810,700,000 $1,831,500,000 65.4 % 004 / 00 65.72 Lyle Talbot 31 $1,807,300,000 $2,104,800,000 59.1 % 008 / 02 57.00 Randolph Scott 15 $1,804,500,000 $2,041,900,000 64.2 % 003 / 00 67.79 Will Rogers 19 $1,795,500,000 $1,844,500,000 62.8 % 002 / 00 64.42 Edward G. Robinson 24 $1,795,200,000 $2,373,000,000 64.4 % 004 / 00 62.09 Norma Shearer 13 $1,794,000,000 $2,750,700,000 65.4 % 018 / 02 75.9 Walter Brennan 17 $1,785,000,000 $1,973,600,000 65.8 % 012 / 03 67.65 Fred Astaire 11 $1,756,700,000 $2,891,400,000 76.0 % 019 / 03 81.87 Joan Bennett 24 $1,756,800,000 $1,990,900,000 61.8 % 006 / 01 60.49 Walter Pidgeon 25 $1,740,000,000 $2,508,500,000 60.3 % 000 / 00 58.00 Ronald Colman 15 $1,734,000,000 $1,863,500,000 66.4 % 020 / 02 70.53 Nelson Eddy 10 $1,706,000,000 $2,908,700,000 66.0 % 007 / 01 73.66 Bing Crosby 20 $1,686,000,000 $1,725,800,000 65.6 % 005 / 02 64.06 Herbert Marshall 26 $1,682,200,000 $1,897,000,000 65.2 % 008 / 01 60.35 Sylvia Sidney 20 $1,586,000,000 $1,713,300,000 67.1 % 006 / 00 64.04 Monty Woolley 15 $1,543,500,000 $1,880,000,000 66.8 % 001 / 00 67.11 Marlene Dietrich 13 $1,535,300,000 $1,535,900,000 75.3 % 009 / 01 72.61 Greta Garbo 13 $1,534,000,000 $3,428,000,000 72.6 % 013 / 01 75.31 Joe E. Brown 25 $1,532,500,000 $1,917,200,000 57.7 % 004 / 02 56.71 William Demarest 16 $1,507,200,000 $1,723,500,000 66.8 % 011 / 01 64.74 Charles Bickford 21 $1,493,100,000 $1,779,000,000 60.7 % 007 / 00 59.98 Ralph Bellamy 24 $1,478,400,000 $1,700,200,000 62.3 % 009 / 01 58.71 Ann Sheridan 21 $1,430,100,000 $1,846,900,000 56.9 % 004 / 00 56.90 Laurel and Hardy 15 $1,423,500,000 $1,595,600,000 70.7 % 003 / 00 67.71 Judy Garland 8 $1,421,600,000 $2,017,600,000 68.7 % 009 / 02 74.13 Paul Muni 13 $1,378,000,000 $2,409,400,000 68.3 % 024 / 08 70.96 Elisha Cook Jr. 14 $1,356,600,000 $1,428,500,000 63.5 % 001 / 00 63.68 Priscilla Lane 11 $1,345,300,000 $1,663,800,000 63.9 % 001 / 00 68.72 Dorothy Lamour 13 $1,337,700,000 $1,337,500,000 62.5 % 003 / 01 65.58 Bela Lugosi 24 $1,320,000,000 $1,627,100,000 63.5 % 004 / 00 58.46 Walter Huston 20 $1,312,000,000 $1,671,000,000 63.9 % 011 / 01 60.95 Paul Lukas 19 $1,311,000,000 $1,581,800,000 63.7 % 010 / 02 61.46 Madeleine Carroll 14 $1,265,600,000 $1,327,900,000 65.0 % 009 / 00 64.66 Luise Rainer 8 $1,252,000,000 $2,094,500,000 65.8 % 015 / 06 74.48 Mae West 8 $1,249,600,000 $1,249,200,000 66.6 % 002 / 00 72.58 Jane Wyman 17 $1,229,100,000 $1,452,000,000 58.5 % 001 / 00 58.61 Leo G. Carroll 16 $1,224,000,000 $1,745,300,000 67.8 % 019 / 02 64.13 Ruth Hussey 11 $1,196,800,000 $1,446,000,000 64.3 % 000 / 00 66.53 Deanna Durbin 6 $1,182,600,000 $1,182,800,000 70.5 % 017 / 01 81.65 Ethel Merman 9 $1,167,300,000 $1,167,000,000 61.9 % 007 / 01 64.49 W.C. Fields 17 $1,159,400,000 $1,307,200,000 70.6 % 001 / 01 64.05 Ronald Reagan 17 $1,157,700,000 $1,435,500,000 54.8 % 004 / 00 56.51 Eleanor Powell 6 $1,144,200,000 $1,638,800,000 62.0 % 005 / 01 76.30 Katharine Hepburn 15 $1,140,000,000 $1,622,100,000 67.8 % 012 / 02 65.07 Claire Trevor 12 $1,125,600,000 $1,348,900,000 64.4 % 011 / 02 65.96 George Burns 13 $1,114,100,000 $1,178,100,000 62.1 % 003 / 01 62.62 Sonja Henie 6 $1,099,200,000 $1,098,900,000 54.3 % 002 / 00 70.58 Marx Brothers 8 $1,094,400,000 $1,355,400,000 80.4 % 001 / 00 78.52 Fay Bainter 12 $1,082,400,000 $1,325,100,000 66.7 % 007 / 02 67.22 Colin Clive 17 $1,079,500,000 $1,249,800,000 65.8 % 001 / 00 59.56 Joan Fontaine 9 $1,033,200,000 $1,564,800,000 65.8 % 007 / 01 67.23 Merle Oberon 13 $1,032,200,000 $1,032,700,000 66.5 % 018 / 05 65.42 Lucille Ball 9 $1,032,300,000 $1,487,400,000 65.2 % 006 / 00 68.33 Eve Arden 13 $1,032,200,000 $1,375,200,000 62.0 % 005 / 00 60.94 George Sanders 10 $1,029,000,000 $1,137,000,000 62.4 % 003 / 00 64.70 Charles Boyer 13 $1,027,000,000 $1,478,500,000 63.6 % 015 / 01 63.66 Paulette Goddard 5 $1,024,000,000 $1,110,400,000 78.9 % 003 / 00 82.51 Anthony Quinn 8 $911,200,000 $910,900,000 63.6 % 004 / 01 67.97 George Arliss 18 $907,200,000 $1,211,000,000 58.3 % 001 / 00 55.64 Ann Miller 8 $893,600,000 $1,062,000,000 66.5 % 011 / 02 67.42 Robert Cummings 11 $861,300,000 $861,400,000 63.7 % 004 / 00 62.36 Elsa Lanchester 7 $800,800,000 $1,056,600,000 73.6 % 005 / 02 73.66 Charles Chaplin 2 $796,200,000 $796,100,000 92.2 % 000 / 00 94.05 Margaret Sullavan 9 $772,200,000 $988,600,000 69.6 % 001 / 00 66.49 Lana Turner 9 $765,000,000 $893,400,000 63.4 % 000 / 00 62.57 Broderick Crawford 6 $749,400,000 $810,200,000 65.5 % 003 / 00 68.93 Jack Benny 10 $742,000,000 $874,600,000 59.6 % 004 / 01 59.45 Ida Lupino 12 $736,800,000 $815,100,000 60.8 % 002 / 00 58.73 Helen Hayes 9 $727,200,000 $931,800,000 63.4 % 009 / 03 64.49 Laurence Olivier 10 $727,000,000 $726,600,000 58.6 % 008 / 01 60.5 John Garfield 6 $715,200,000 $944,600,000 67.2 % 002 / 00 71.67 Robert Donat 9 $709,200,000 $1,129,000,000 72.8 % 013 / 02 69.28 Charles Farrell 7 $704,200,000 $704,500,000 58.5 % 000 / 00 63.51 Peter Lorre 14 $702,800,000 $717,600,000 65.6 % 000 / 00 58.58 Barry Fitzgerald 8 $680,000,000 $885,200,000 67.3 % 000 / 00 63.55 Bob Hope 7 $665,000,000 $664,800,000 64.5 % 001 / 01 65.18 John Wayne 15 $648,000,000 $842,400,000 58.9 % 007 / 02 54.53 Dennis Morgan 10 $629,000,000 $659,500,000 58.5 % 001 / 00 57.87 Marsha Hunt 10 $625,000,000 $727,300,000 59.1 % 000 / 00 57.67 Betty Grable 8 $605,600,000 $748,800,000 59.1 % 001 / 00 59.75 Ralph Richardson 14 $599,200,000 $817,600,000 64.9 % 005 / 00 57.80 Dean Jagger 9 $550,800,000 $550,500,000 57.1 % 000 / 00 56.38 Johnny Weissmuller 4 $535,600,000 $1,190,600,000 73.0 % 000 / 00 74.55 Buster Keaton 9 $520,200,000 $751,500,000 49.9 % 000 / 00 52.79 Robert Preston 4 $498,400,000 $498,200,000 71.8 % 003 / 00 72.35 Frances Farmer 8 $489,600,000 $518,300,000 64.4 % 002 / 01 59.78 Burgess Meredith 5 $457,000,000 $554,400,000 57.6 % 006 / 00 63.70 Tallulah Bankhead 7 $433,300,000 $433,600,000 61.4 % 000 / 00 58.97 Donald O'Connor 5 $429,000,000 $429,200,000 68.0 % 002 / 00 65.24 Hedy Lamarr 3 $411,000,000 $549,100,000 67.8 % 005 / 00 73.77 Maureen O'Hara 2 $408,600,000 $668,200,000 68.5 % 002 / 00 80.77 Rex Harrison 6 $355,800,000 $574,500,000 62.1 % 004 / 00 59.69 Gene Autry 20 $346,000,000 $346,900,000 58.2 % 001 / 00 50.09 Susan Hayward 4 $311,200,000 $323,900,000 68.0 % 002 / 00 62.08 Greer Garson 2 $297,400,000 $541,800,000 67.3 % 007 / 01 78.93 Edmond O'Brien 1 $244,400,000 $504,100,000 83.5 % 002 / 00 91.00 Paul Henreid 1 $224,700,000 $425,500,000 79.5 % 007 / 01 94.80 Robert Morley 1 $221,600,000 $401,100,000 76.5 % 004 / 00 94.60 Rita Hayworth 2 $212,800,000 $212,700,000 75.8 % 002 / 00 71.43 Linda Darnell 2 $212,200,000 $212,100,000 61.0 % 000 / 00 65.14 Gloria Swanson 6 $193,200,000 $192,900,000 58.6 % 000 / 00 53.47 
Joan Crawford sits in 10th place when looking at the top adjusted worldwide box office leaders of 1930-1939 *Our worldwide box office grosses are hugely dependent on the studio the star worked for. Those working at RKO, Warner Brothers and MGM have the most worldwide grosses in our database. Poor Gary Cooper, he spent many years at Paramount so we have very little when it comes to his worldwide grosses.
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(Visited 1,234 times)
HI AGAIN BRUCE
Cogerson
May 22, 2017 at 11:39 am
Hey Bob Anyway….I think we all know where we stand on Loy….this page is a lot more than Loy
1 In my experience you have always been fair and tolerant but your comments above could be interpreted as a put-down and in any event it was Steve who in good heart and fine spirits first raised the subject of Myrna Loy today in remarks that he addressed to me and I responded to Steve with similar gusto.
Steve Lensman
May 22, 2017 at 4:57 am
The 1930s – Clark Gable and Myrna Loy are crowned King and Queen of the Box Office. That should make Bob’s blood boil. But like it or not Bob, Myrna was a leading lady, not a supporting actress, doesn’t matter if Gable or Powell is billed first she is still the lead actress in that movie
2 It should go without saying that I regard the 1930s page as a highly comprehensive document and now that I have it I will in fact be using it as a point of reference often in the future as I continually use wide swathes of the information that you give us on this site.
3 However whilst my unilateral comments about Myrna often weave in and out of my posts because I have been enjoying the Loy exchanges I have in the past fortnight alone lodged posts on a wide variety of topics other than Myrna to many of which you have obviously not been able to respond, and indeed a few of them have been addressed directly to you – for example my response to your Goldie Hawn birthday update. I am an avid collector of material from your site and your updates usually contain some nugget of new information that I value on top of which I have always firmly believed that you go to such painstaking trouble to provide us with new pages and updates of old ones that courtesy dictates that you get feedback.
4 I do know though that you have been extremely busy in the past while, on top of which it would be unreasonable to expect you to respond to subjects that don’t interest you and/or to which you may have nothing to add. However I did wish to leave here this reminder that my own interests in the site go far beyond making albeit enjoyable quips about Myrna. Also I didn’t want to leave the impression that I was trivialising all the excellent work that you have put into the 1930 s page.
5 Indeed in a way I’m reminded of the saying by the Bard of Stratford on Avon that “The evil that men do lives after them; the good [often dies with them]” because I have when in serious mode praised on this site from time to time Loy’s acting and humanitarian qualities but I get a response only when I make negative comments about her box office status being exaggerated – and I can’t blame HER for that!
Anyway as the saying goes “Tonight, sleep tight, and don’t let the bugs bite!”
BRUCE
PS This post may change the position on your page of my 5pm post to you but it was originally at any rate below the miniature still of one of the most lovely creatures God put n this earth!
🙂
Hey Bob….not thinking a “put down” was not the intention…..just thinking the Loy discussion has been played out….and did not want that to overshadow a massive amount of stats crammed into one page.
Yes….I agree….at this point whenever Loy is mentioned in any capacity….my thoughts and Steve’s thoughts return to our “friendly” discussion. So when I saw and Steve saw Loy sitting in 2nd place on the box office table….”Bob” popped into our minds. I was able to resist a dig at you ……but Steve….was unable….lol.
Good point about Loy and her charity work. She did give back throughout her life.
Yes this is all good natured back and forth on Loy, no spite intended, we’re all friends here in Bruce’s Movie Emporium. And Bob did say some nice things about Loy in recent posts.
STEVE
1 “We’re all good friends her in Bruce’s Movie Emporium.” I agree but did you run that post past John and get his agreement before submitting it?
2 Actually even our worse criticisms of each other’s opinions on this site are like praise compared to some of the comments they exchange on the political and current affairs sites and the language there is for not people who blush easily.
3 I view some of the comments on those sites but don’t get involved because in movies I have idols to both the perceived right and left of the political spectrum and I wouldn’t want to offend the memory of any of them! I remember a British disc jockey being asked to say who was the greater Elvis or the Beatles and he near had a heart attack and avoided an answer the way politicians do.
Bob you and John have more in common than you and I or Bruce, it’s a shame you two can’t get along. You’re both very knowledgable about classic Hollywood and have seen a ton of golden oldies, movies I’ve never even heard of. The only film genre’s I’m pretty sure I can beat you both on is horror and sci-fi. 🙂
Steve
What makes you think Bob and I can’t get along? I try not to take anything personal. We are not talking about important issues here. It is just fun talk about movie history. I do think Bob is slightly off base on Myrna Loy, but he makes good points about her totals being inflated by her years as a supporting actress, even if he takes the critique to an extreme during her peak years. Still, there is validity to his critique I think. I also thought he went off the rails in transferring this critique to the Ingrid Bergman of the 1940’s. For me that just didn’t wash at all. But it is hardly one of the big issues in the world to get angry about and I certainly am not.
Our love of movies comes across in all of these comments……and yes….sometimes our opinions are very far apart….but even in the worst conflicts…..we still fall in the friendly range.
🙂
Hey Phil.
Mmmm I will have to figure out what is up with the Hepburn number as. Currently at work so it might be a little while before I get an answer.
Glad you like these breakdowns….I think they are very interesting.
Hey Phil. Ok I figured it out. One of the biggest complaints we have is that the UMR score is difficult to understand if a movie is a good one or not. I mean a 70 UMR score is outstanding…yet in school grades that is almost failing.
So on a few sites like Audrey Hepburn and Marvel vs D.C. we tried to make our UMR score more grade friendly. When the site goes dynamic, switching all the UMR scores will be one of the main changes.
So that was the long answer.
The short answer is the scores on the Audrey page are not the one used in the previous rankings.
hi Bruce,
here they are, at last, the magnificent 1930 and all the classical stars.
THIS IS THE DECADE with the 1920 which made Hollywood.
by the way i dont care about the rank of my fav because a lot of my fav were at Paramount so no worldwide fo Dietrich by example, most of her film were at Paramount except The garden and the Knight which were great box office in France and in England…
So as usual, “Chapeau Bas “for you Monsieur Cogerson…….and of course many thanks for the job;
i will come back fot this page later
so long
pierre
Hey Pierre…..glad you like this page. Had fun putting it together….will be adding 4 or 5 names to the list in the near future. Yep….the worldwide box office Top 30 is severely flawed…..I wish all the studios would have kept better records back then. I imagine Cooper would be close to Gable if I had that information. Thanks for the nice words, the comment and the visit.
Cogerson
Just on averages. I think they are very misleading in this decade, possibly because there is such a huge gap between the numbers of films made by studio actors grinding them out and those who for one reason or another worked less often. As Clark Gable was pretty big in this decade, I will use him for the comparison.
Charlie Chaplin made two movies with an average critical rating of 90.3–Gable’s top two movies have a critical rating of 90.5
The Marx Bros. made eight movies with an average critical rating of 80.4–Gable’s top eight movies have a critical rating of 84.9
Fred Astaire made eleven movies with an average critical rating of 76.0–Gable’s top eleven movies have a critical rating of 81.7
Marlene Dietrich made thirteen movies with an average critical rating of 74.3–Gable’s top thirteen movies have a critical rating of 80.0
My conclusion is that one can make the case that Gable actually made more good movies in the 1930’s than anyone, but he doesn’t even make the top 15 on the average critical rating list. He is pulled down because the studios kept him working (for an obvious reason). I don’t think Gable is at all unique. I just used him as his low performance in average critical rating is so noticable. But I think the same holds true of the other “workhorse” performers who really kept the studios afloat, such as Cooper and Crawford and the like.
I don’t know what could done on the charts to address this, but I did want to mention this blip for your consideration.
Hey John….I agree the massive amount of movies Gable made in the end hurt him when it came to the averages…..but since this looks at the entire decade Gable is saddled with his early career…..which makes his average gross even more incredible.
I have no issue saying Gable is the star of the decade….and my stats back that up…..he is an easy victor in box office…..in the Top 12 when looking at UMR scores …in the Top 16 when looking at average ratings….and 3rd in Oscar nominations and 2nd in Oscar wins…..nobody has those numbers beat. Six movies from this decade made my Top All-time UMR Top 100 with the top 3 starring Gable.
Gone with the Wind (1939) 95.30
It Happened One Night (1934) 92.33
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) 90.22
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 87.66
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 87.37
Wizard of Oz, The (1939) 84.26
I like the comparisons of Gable to the other leaders….he has my vote!
JOHN AND WORK HORSE
1 Two excellent posts by you guys. Whether one agrees with all the conclusions or not there is academic as there a lot of good hard facts and conclusions in these posts. Well done.
2 As I’ve said before “The past is a foreign country they do things differently there” and it must be remembered that the main name of the game was to make money so that there was reportedly quite a frenzy to churn out movies in the cinema’s first decades and it has always amazed me that in that frenzy so many good movies WERE made that have stood the test of time as classics. Gable had his classics but even the relatively lesser quality ones entertained millions. To do that he and the other top box stars like Cooper, Wayne, Grant, Bogie etc were expected to churn out something like 60+ movies over their main careers whereas some of today’s big box office beasts like Hanks and Cruise get away with building a legend around as few as 40 or so films. It’s therefore often hard to compare today’s cinema with that of the early classic era.
Hey Bob….good points here. You are so correct….Gable and Loy average 40 movies in the 1930s……it now takes an actor like Hanks and Cruise almost 40 years to reach that total.
Cogerson
Just a thought. I was thinking of composers. Harold Arlen wrote Over the Rainbow, Stormy Weather, and probably 50 or so hits. But he wrote over 500 songs total. Most of his songs are unknown today. My point is why should we care about or judge Arlen in any way by his flops. What is important is how much he created which is good. The rest time can and does ignore.
So to cut to the chase, perhaps the average critical rating and UMR ratings should be based on the great or good movies a star makes rather than an average which just penalizes productivity. A way to do that would be to just note how many movies the star made which lands above a certain line, lets say 60, on the critical rating scale.
Just a thought.
Hey John….good suggestion. I think on a star’s main UMR page I want to include all of their movies….that is one of the big differences between my website and others….take Johnny Depp for example….there are many many Top 10 Johnny Depp lists out there….but as far as I can tell….there are only a few that go past 20…..and even less that look at all 48 (soon to be 49 with Pirates 5 about to be added) movies ranked.
We have in the past done pages that look at all the stars together….and using your suggested 60% range was used. https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/top-200-movie-stars-statistically-speaking/ On this page…Orson Welles had the most 60% or higher rated movies….with James Stewart in 2nd and John Wayne and Anthony Quinn tied for 3rd.
Hey John…another think we have set up in the database is a way to look at the Top 10 Best Average UMR Scores….this only looks at the star’s top 10 movies.
Dustin Hoffman 79.71
Jack Nicholson 79.53
Tom Hanks 79.25
Marlon Brando 78.65
Harrison Ford 77.85
Ingrid Bergman 77.62
James Stewart 77.60
Gary Cooper 77.52
Katharine Hepburn 77.36
Spencer Tracy 76.94
Gregory Peck 76.74
Claude Rains 76.27
Robert Duvall 75.77
Humphrey Bogart 75.77
Gene Hackman 75.10
Clark Gable 74.98
Matt Damon 74.61
Elizabeth Taylor 74.60
Robert Redford 74.41
Paul Newman 74.39
Jack Lemmon 74.17
Al Pacino 74.11
William Holden 74.09
John Huston 74.02
George Lucas 73.89
Leonardo DiCaprio 73.66
Morgan Freeman 73.57
Henry Fonda 73.09
Donald Crisp 72.87
Bing Crosby 72.66
Walter Brennan 72.61
Olivia de Havilland 72.60
Cary Grant 72.52
John Wayne 72.49
Fred Zinnemann 72.48
Walt Disney 72.28
Robert DeNiro 71.93
Tom Cruise 71.87
Laurence Olivier 71.75
Elia Kazan 71.71
Samuel L. Jackson 71.53
Christopher Walken 71.35
Burt Lancaster 71.32
Clint Eastwood 71.14
Michael Caine 71.01
Howard Hawks 71.01
David Niven 70.95
Bette Davis 70.95
Sean Connery 70.94
Mickey Rooney 70.79
Judy Garland 70.71
Shirley MacLaine 70.49
William Powell 70.45
Julie Andrews 70.40
Tommy Lee Jones 70.36
Diane Keaton 70.33
Lionel Barrymore 70.25
Martin Scorsese 70.23
Walter Pidgeon 70.23
Meryl Streep 70.16
Deborah Kerr 70.15
Audrey Hepburn 70.09
Natalie Wood 70.07
Claudette Colbert 69.80
Ron Howard 69.78
Thelma Ritter 69.73
Donald Sutherland 69.68
Greer Garson 69.65
Gary Oldman 69.48
Orlando Bloom 69.43
James Mason 69.30
Charlton Heston 69.25
Frank Sinatra 69.20
Sigourney Weaver 69.19
David Lean 69.15
Jane Fonda 69.07
Gene Kelly 68.92
Francis Ford Coppola 68.86
Cecil B. DeMille 68.64
Sally Field 68.62
Vincent Price 68.58
Barbara Stanwyck 68.57
Maureen O’Hara 68.56
James Cagney 68.55
Robert Zemeckis 68.49
Ginger Rogers 68.47
George Stevens 68.41
Myrna Loy 68.38
Tyrone Power 68.25
Jean Arthur 68.23
Van Johnson 68.17
Faye Dunaway 68.08
Charles Laughton 68.04
Robert Downey Jr. 67.93
Fred MacMurray 67.92
Orson Welles 67.73
Anthony Quinn 67.71
Robin Williams 67.56
Stanley Kubrick 67.54
Fred Astaire 67.53
Edward G. Robinson 67.49
Joan Fontaine 67.42
James Cameron 67.30
Montgomery Clift 67.29
Eddie Murphy 67.16
Russell Crowe 67.13
Anthony Hopkins 67.03
Ray Milland 66.93
Sidney Poitier 66.83
Marilyn Monroe 66.74
Harold Ramis 66.73
Kirk Douglas 66.70
Ernest Borgnine 66.61
Peter O’Toole 66.60
Carrie Fisher 66.35
Jennifer Lawrence 66.33
Van Heflin 66.31
Charles Bickford 66.20
Richard Dreyfuss 66.20
Rock Hudson 66.16
Alec Guinness 66.14
Lana Turner 66.12
John Travolta 66.02
Christopher Plummer 66.00
Lauren Bacall 66.00
Grace Kelly 65.97
Tony Curtis 65.97
Bob Hope 65.91
Donna Reed 65.86
Brad Pitt 65.72
Fredric March 65.71
Vin Diesel 65.69
Robert Mitchum 65.68
Bill Paxton 65.64
Jennifer Jones 65.54
Dana Andrews 65.52
Irene Dunne 65.48
Shelley Winters 65.45
Barbra Streisand 65.33
Rosalind Russell 65.31
John Garfield 65.15
Bradley Cooper 65.14
Ben Kingsley 65.08
Mel Gibson 64.99
Don Ameche 64.98
Wallace Beery 64.97
Bill Murray 64.96
Woody Allen 64.83
Ridley Scott 64.69
Alec Baldwin 64.68
Christian Bale 64.68
Michael Douglas 64.58
Richard Burton 64.57
Sydney Greenstreet 64.57
Marlene Dietrich 64.49
Teresa Wright 64.48
Bruce Willis 64.47
Hugh Jackman 64.27
Susan Hayward 64.27
John Hurt 64.26
George C. Scott 64.26
Shirley Temple 64.22
Peter Lorre 64.21
Paulette Goddard 64.16
Steve McQueen 64.06
Rita Hayworth 64.01
Zoe Saldana 63.93
Robert Ryan 63.90
Jeff Bridges 63.88
Errol Flynn 63.87
Lee Marvin 63.86
Paul Giamatti 63.86
Danny Kaye 63.83
Julia Roberts 63.83
Amy Adams 63.79
Peter Sellers 63.76
Liam Neeson 63.73
William Goldman 63.72
Doris Day 63.65
Ronald Colman 63.64
Ava Gardner 63.58
Scarlett Johansson 63.52
Martin Sheen 63.49
Sandra Bullock 63.48
James Caan 63.42
Glenn Close 63.30
Sylvester Stallone 63.21
Robert Taylor 63.11
Gene Tierney 63.11
Oliver Stone 62.99
Richard Widmark 62.97
Will Smith 62.90
Walter Matthau 62.76
Charles Chaplin 62.71
Janet Gaynor 62.62
Ben Affleck 62.62
Clifton Webb 62.59
Dean Martin 62.50
Johnny Depp 62.43
Cameron Diaz 62.43
Daniel Day-Lewis 62.37
Joan Crawford 62.35
Jim Carrey 62.33
Denzel Washington 62.25
Philip Seymour Hoffman 62.21
Seth Rogen 62.19
Jodie Foster 62.17
Jeanette MacDonald 62.15
Elizabeth Banks 62.15
Emma Stone 62.13
Kevin Costner 62.09
Mary Pickford 61.90
Cate Blanchett 61.80
Alan Ladd 61.79
Leonard Nimoy 61.72
George Clooney 61.66
Keanu Reeves 61.62
Jane Wyman 61.52
Lucille Ball 61.50
Anne Hathaway 61.45
Natalie Portman 61.42
Betty Grable 61.42
Gene Wilder 61.26
Lillian Gish 61.18
Arnold Schwarzenegger 61.17
Walter Wanger 60.99
John Candy 60.98
Burt Reynolds 60.98
Ben Stiller 60.97
James Coburn 60.94
James Garner 60.93
Susan Sarandon 60.90
Glenn Ford 60.88
Lee J. Cobb 60.88
Nicolas Cage 60.77
Roy Scheider 60.77
Warren Beatty 60.59
Paul Henreid 60.49
Woody Harrelson 60.30
Norma Shearer 60.19
Chris Pratt 60.19
Steve Carell 60.15
Anne Bancroft 60.13
Dwayne Johnson 60.11
Steve Martin 60.07
John Goodman 59.85
Anthony Perkins 59.71
Julie Christie 59.69
Tim Burton 59.68
George Roy Hill 59.65
Esther Williams 59.49
Josef Von Sternberg 59.32
Mark Wahlberg 59.30
Julianne Moore 59.29
Owen Wilson 59.28
Halle Berry 59.28
Daniel Craig 59.27
Matthew McConaughey 59.23
Charles Bronson 59.05
Jean Harlow 59.05
David Fincher 58.87
Mel Brooks 58.81
Paul Muni 58.77
Paul Rudd 58.69
Deanna Durbin 58.62
Vivien Leigh 58.36
Dick Powell 58.31
Yul Brynner 58.21
Kathryn Grayson 57.89
Kurt Russell 57.81
John Hughes 57.78
Hey John….this is the leaders when looking at their Top 25 UMR Movies
Spencer Tracy 69.14
James Stewart 68.46
Tom Hanks 67.56
Gary Cooper 67.49
Cary Grant 66.98
Billy Wilder 66.97
Humphrey Bogart 66.39
Gregory Peck 65.99
Katharine Hepburn 65.55
John Wayne 65.30
Harrison Ford 65.24
Clark Gable 65.06
Jack Nicholson 64.96
Dustin Hoffman 64.75
Walter Brennan 64.28
Donald Crisp 64.26
Gene Hackman 63.66
Mickey Rooney 63.64
Paul Newman 63.54
Burt Lancaster 63.43
Henry Fonda 63.11
Claude Rains 62.93
William Holden 62.92
Alfred Hitchcock 62.73
Judy Garland 62.72
Tom Cruise 62.64
Samuel L. Jackson 62.51
Bing Crosby 62.27
Clint Eastwood 61.88
Lionel Barrymore 61.87
George Cukor 61.84
Robert Redford 61.83
Elizabeth Taylor 61.74
Tyrone Power 61.71
Bette Davis 61.50
Myrna Loy 61.34
Howard Hawks 61.33
Cecil B. DeMille 61.28
Olivia de Havilland 61.28
Marlon Brando 61.17
Ginger Rogers 61.14
Bob Hope 61.04
Van Johnson 60.55
Morgan Freeman 60.50
William Powell 60.37
Robert Duvall 60.27
Fred Astaire 60.19
David Niven 60.10
Walter Pidgeon 59.96
Robert DeNiro 59.90
James Cagney 59.66
Meryl Streep 59.60
Maureen O’Hara 59.59
Anthony Quinn 59.50
Matt Damon 59.49
Michael Caine 59.48
Frank Capra 59.48
Sean Connery 59.48
Gene Kelly 59.36
Frank Sinatra 59.19
Claudette Colbert 59.18
Ingrid Bergman 59.10
Jack Lemmon 58.77
Barbara Stanwyck 58.65
Donald Sutherland 58.42
Robert Mitchum 58.32
Charles Laughton 58.30
Fredric March 57.96
Edward G. Robinson 57.95
Fred MacMurray 57.81
Lana Turner 57.75
Brad Pitt 57.69
Al Pacino 57.51
Charlton Heston 57.36
Ray Milland 57.29
Wallace Beery 57.22
Errol Flynn 57.06
James Mason 56.88
Thelma Ritter 56.80
Shirley Temple 56.62
Laurence Olivier 56.56
Robert Taylor 56.54
Dean Martin 56.45
Susan Hayward 56.44
Robin Williams 56.29
Deborah Kerr 56.09
Orson Welles 55.96
Kirk Douglas 55.83
Dana Andrews 55.77
Mel Gibson 55.57
Woody Allen 55.40
Rosalind Russell 55.35
Ron Howard 55.31
Diane Keaton 55.29
Tommy Lee Jones 55.02
Joan Crawford 55.00
Ronald Colman 54.83
Van Heflin 54.82
Vincent Price 54.78
Anthony Hopkins 54.72
Natalie Wood 54.66
Eddie Murphy 54.65
Tony Curtis 54.52
Joan Fontaine 54.49
Doris Day 54.46
Martin Scorsese 54.44
Don Ameche 54.42
Mary Pickford 54.42
Shirley MacLaine 54.41
Bill Murray 54.40
Ernest Borgnine 54.38
Alan Ladd 54.38
Christopher Walken 54.32
Jean Arthur 54.32
Bruce Willis 54.31
Robert Ryan 54.23
Denzel Washington 53.89
Irene Dunne 53.85
Jane Fonda 53.72
Betty Grable 53.68
John Garfield 53.66
Gene Tierney 53.62
Gary Oldman 53.60
Donna Reed 53.57
Philip Seymour Hoffman 53.52
Fred Zinnemann 53.52
Walter Wanger 53.50
Walter Matthau 53.41
Paul Giamatti 53.32
Johnny Depp 53.24
Lee Marvin 53.06
Robert Downey Jr. 53.03
Sigourney Weaver 52.89
Sidney Poitier 52.88
George Lucas 52.85
Greer Garson 52.85
Christopher Plummer 52.84
Peter Lorre 52.84
Richard Widmark 52.80
Jerry Lewis 52.79
Sally Field 52.73
John Travolta 52.62
Ava Gardner 52.57
Rock Hudson 52.56
Alec Baldwin 52.49
Glenn Ford 52.48
Rita Hayworth 52.48
Dick Powell 52.33
Lucille Ball 52.32
Marlene Dietrich 52.23
Leonardo DiCaprio 52.12
Paulette Goddard 52.05
George Clooney 52.02
Julia Roberts 52.01
Lauren Bacall 51.89
Julie Andrews 51.82
Shelley Winters 51.78
Jeff Bridges 51.68
Liam Neeson 51.68
Sydney Greenstreet 51.48
Richard Burton 51.13
Steve Martin 51.09
James Caan 51.08
Audrey Hepburn 51.01
Michael Douglas 50.96
John Goodman 50.91
Burt Reynolds 50.90
Bill Paxton 50.85
James Coburn 50.77
Ben Stiller 50.50
Jim Carrey 50.48
Scarlett Johansson 50.47
Ben Kingsley 50.43
Richard Dreyfuss 50.42
Susan Sarandon 50.41
George Stevens 50.40
Nicolas Cage 50.22
Sylvester Stallone 50.20
Woody Harrelson 50.19
Deanna Durbin 50.18
Bud Abbott 50.17
Marilyn Monroe 50.02
Peter O’Toole 49.92
Kurt Russell 49.86
James Garner 49.79
Jeanette MacDonald 49.74
Seth Rogen 49.70
Julianne Moore 49.66
Lillian Gish 49.62
Debbie Reynolds 49.43
Peter Sellers 49.41
Randolph Scott 49.40
Christian Bale 49.36
Robert Montgomery 49.17
Jean Harlow 49.06
Glenn Close 48.96
Ben Affleck 48.81
Will Smith 48.77
Kevin Costner 48.71
Steve McQueen 48.63
Russell Crowe 48.56
Charles Bronson 48.46
Amy Adams 48.33
Francis Ford Coppola 48.27
Mark Wahlberg 48.27
George C. Scott 48.26
Hugh Jackman 48.25
Owen Wilson 48.24
Greta Garbo 48.23
Jodie Foster 48.16
Bruce Dern 48.16
Jennifer Jones 48.15
Matthew McConaughey 48.11
Keanu Reeves 48.08
Faye Dunaway 48.08
John Hurt 48.08
Esther Williams 48.03
Paul Henreid 47.94
Cameron Diaz 47.76
Richard Pryor 47.75
Cate Blanchett 47.59
Steve Carell 47.51
Josef Von Sternberg 47.43
Arnold Schwarzenegger 47.22
Harold Ramis 47.13
Carole Lombard 46.96
Leslie Howard 46.72
Anne Bancroft 46.68
Natalie Portman 46.60
Paul Muni 46.59
Elizabeth Banks 46.53
Vin Diesel 46.50
Ridley Scott 46.21
Martin Sheen 46.17
Sandra Bullock 46.13
Nicole Kidman 46.06
Sean Penn 46.06
John Hughes 46.01
John Cusack 45.82
John Candy 45.76
Oliver Stone 45.68
Dwayne Johnson 45.36
Bradley Cooper 45.34
Anthony Perkins 45.31
Dennis Quaid 45.27
William Goldman 45.19
Buster Keaton 45.18
Kay Francis 45.03
Sylvia Sidney 44.98
Paul Rudd 44.97
Frances McDormand 44.80
Drew Barrymore 44.68
Angelina Jolie 44.68
Gene Wilder 44.38
Priscilla Lane 44.34
Kate Winslet 44.29
Joseph Gordon-Levitt 44.23
Ann-Margret 44.18
Edward Norton 44.13
Carrie Fisher 43.96
Richard Gere 43.73
Halle Berry 43.72
Mark Ruffalo 43.65
Anne Hathaway 43.49
Goldie Hawn 43.45
Yul Brynner 43.41
Charlize Theron 43.41
Michael Keaton 43.38
Stephen King 43.29
Emma Stone 43.18
Will Ferrell 43.07
Reese Witherspoon 42.90
Daniel Craig 42.83
Michael Fassbender 42.82
Zoe Saldana 42.80
Michelle Pfeiffer 42.77
Adam Sandler 42.65
Warren Beatty 42.30
Warren Oates 42.15
Elvis Presley 42.11
Meg Ryan 42.09
Michael J. Fox 42.04
Robert Altman 41.96
Hugh Grant 41.93
Jake Gyllenhaal 41.91
John Sturges 41.87
Roy Scheider 41.79
Jason Bateman 41.67
Shia LaBeouf 41.44
Ryan Gosling 41.38
Laura Hope Crews 41.38
Ice Cube 41.34
Annette Bening 41.13
Keira Knightley 40.91
Chevy Chase 40.87
Channing Tatum 40.40
Sophia Loren 40.36
Jeremy Irons 40.26
Vince Vaughn 40.05
Garry Marshall 39.73
Chris Evans 39.15
Melissa McCarthy 38.97
Anna Kendrick 38.70
Roger Moore 38.61
Emily Blunt 38.50
Jennifer Aniston 37.68
Charlie Sheen 37.67
Ryan Reynolds 37.42
Kevin Hart 36.13
Emma Thompson 35.80
Emilio Estevez 32.48
Naomi Watts 30.78
Jay Mohr 30.54
Chuck Norris 30.06
Milla Jovovich 29.46
Cogerson
Holy cats! I hope the computer did this work and you didn’t go to all the trouble to answer my suggestion with this kind of depth. Anyway, thank you.
John, Bruce, this is similar to an idea I had suggested on the 40s page for the critical ratings of the stars, counting the number of films above 70 or 80 percent. 60 is a bit low in my view, if we’re counting films that are clearly critically acclaimed.
Thanks for the long long list of stars ranked per UMR. I think counting their top 25 films makes sense and gives a better idea of career accomplishments than counting just the top 10 films. Roughly speaking, the ranking was close to what I would have expected. I was surprised, however, to see Audrey Hepburn so low at 51, so I went to her page and I calculated an the average UMR for her 24 films of 61.9. Am I missing something?
Cogerson & others
I like your mural, although Babe Ruth seems odd in this decade. I think of him as a 1920’s icon, although he did play to 1935. A couple of questions. What is that thing in the middle between Cary Grant and Judy Garland which partially obscures Joe DiMaggio? I draw a blank. And anyone have a guess who the dark-haired lady behind Clark Gable is?
Hey John….no idea what the little doll is…. but I would guess that is Vivien Leigh behind Gable.
Cogerson
“I would guess that is Vivien Leigh”
Good guess. Thanks. I can’t say for certain myself, but I can’t think of any other dark-haired ladies whom it could be.
Hello,
may be Dolores del Rio or Lupe Velez but it is not easy to find out…..
Good guesses….I tried to make the photo larger but it did not make any difference….I bet between our three guesses….one of us is correct…:)
I’m guessing the smiling girl behind Clark Gable is Deanna Durbin. If you google image her name there are similaries, though I can’t get find the exact photo.
Hey Steve…that is a good guess…but thinking Bob would have backed that up by now…..I think of all of the suggestions….Hedy Lamarr might be the best guess.
Cogerson
Whole bunch of good guesses. Someone mentioned Jennifer Jones, and it had occurred to me that it does look a lot like her, but she doesn’t make sense as an icon of the 1930’s. One thought has occurred to me though. Everyone is thinking it is an actress. I wonder if it might be the singer Ruth Etting who was big in the 1930’s. She sometimes wore her hair blonde, but was naturally dark-haired and has photos like that. She had high cheekbones like this lady.
Hey John….you are 100% correct it does not have to be an actress….but I admit I have no idea who Ruth Etting is….so I have no idea about your guess. I did try and find the creator of the mural….I think I found the website….but it does not have any place to ask a question or comment….so this mystery might take awhile to uncover.
Congratulations on your incredible work of tabulating such massive amounts of data. You should publish all this in a book.
I wanted to make some comments on your list. You are covering Hollywood’s Golden Age, which was “star” driven. Therefore, excellent character actors like Donald Crisp (and others you listed in the 1940s and 1950s) were not “stars” or have box-office pull. Also, Quigley’s lists have some incredible flaws. For example, the biggest money-making film of 1950 was Samson and Delilah; in 1951, it was Quo Vadis; and in 1956 and 1959, they were The Ten Commandaments and Ben-Hur; yet Victor Mature, Robert Taylor, and Charlton Heston were not listed in Quigley’s top ten. This is a complete contradiction.
Please keep up your great research and contribution to understanding the Hollywood film industry.
Hey Frank….thanks for such nice words about our website. After years of collecting this information finally taking the time to actually look at the information. The end result are these decade pages which I have fun putting together.
Yes Donald Crisp is a supporting actor…..but he was really good….lol. We actually have a Crisp page that looks at his entire career. And those numbers are included here.
I agree 100% with you about Quigley. A fun list to look at, but not statistically accurate. Glad you found our page.