Want to know the best Van Johnson movies? How about the worst Van Johnson movies? Curious about Van Johnson box office grosses or which Van Johnson movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Van Johnson 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.
Van Johnson (1916-2008) was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at MGM from 1942 to 1954. His IMDb page shows 123 acting credits from 1940-1992. This page ranks 63 Van Johnson movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. But what about his other 60 IMDb credits? Well….his 42 television appearances, his 13 movies not released in North America, his 4 uncredited roles and his one short were not included in the rankings.
Drivel Part: So earlier today we were web hopping around some of our favorite classic movie Facebook pages. While checking out Classic Film Lovers’ Haven we noticed that their current banner was mentioning that tomorrow, August 25th 2016 is Van Johnson’s 100th birthday. Knowing that Flora had requested a Van Johnson page we wonder if we would be able to put together an entire Van Johnson page in time for his 100th birthday….well since you are now reading this page, the answer to that question was yes….thank you Eddie Mannix’s MGM ledgers.
Van Johnson 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 Van Johnson movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Van Johnson movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Van Johnson movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)….we were able to worldwide box office on 48 of his movies
- Sort Van Johnson 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 Van Johnson movie received.
- Sort Van Johnson 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Van Johnson Table
- Twenty-seven Van Johnson movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 42.85% of his movies listed. The Caine Mutiny (1954) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Van Johnson movie grossed $114.80 million in adjusted domestic box office gross.
- That translates to a career adjusted box office of $7.23 billion.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 44 Van Johnson movies are rated as good movies…or 69.84% of his movies. The Caine Mutiny (1954) is his highest rated movie while Plymouth Adventure (1952) is his lowest rated movie.
- Seventeen Van Johnson movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 26.98% of his movies.
- Four Van Johnson movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 6.34% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 34 Van Johnson movies scored higher that average….or 44.11% of his movies. The Caine Mutiny (1954) got the the highest UMR Score while The Enemy General (1960) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Van Johnson
1. Charles Van Dell Johnson was born in Newport, Rhode Island in 1916.
2. Van Johnson met Lucille Ball during the filming of 1940’s Too Many Girls. Ball took Johnson to to Chasen’s Restaurant, where she introduced him to MGM casting director Billy Grady. After his 6 month contract with Warner Brothers was terminated, Johnson signed with MGM.
3. Van Johnson was listed on Quigley’s Annual Top Box Office Star list 6 times. He was ranked 2nd in 1945, 3rd in 1946, 13th in 1947, 20th in 1948, 18th in 1950 and 20th in 1951.
4. Halfway through the filming of 1943’s A Guy Name Joe….Van Johnson was in a serious car accident that left him with a metal plate in his forehead and a number of scars on his face that the plastic surgery of the time could not completely correct or conceal; he used heavy makeup to hide them for years. When the crash happened, Johnson’s scalp was nearly sheared off. The closest rescue units responded, but because the accident happened just over the local county line, the rescuers had to stop at the county line and could not help him. Johnson had to slap his scalp into place and literally crawl nearly 50 yards to get to the rescue workers for aid.
5. Van Johnson’s injury caused the production of A Guy Named Joe to shut down. At first the studio wanted to replace Johnson….but Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne insisted that Johnson be allowed to finish the picture,
6. Van Johnson’s two main nicknames were: King of Dinner Theater & The Voiceless Sinatra
7. Van Johnson was married 1 times and had 3 children….one daughter and 2 stepsons…..the father of his stepsons was actor Keenan Wynn.
8. Van Johnson starred in 4 movies that earned Best Picture Oscar® nominations: 1943’s Madame Curie, 1943’s The Human Comedy, 1949’s Battleground and 1954’s The Caine Mutiny.
9. Van Johnson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6600 Hollywood Blvd.
10. Check out Van Johnson ‘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.
Excellent. Thanks for ranking his films..!
Hey Top Billed From TCM….you are welcome…I was very pleased when I was able to finish his page so quickly.
Some of the most successful films he was in were ensemble pictures. Like THE CAINE MUTINY; BATTLEGROUND; TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY and WEEK-END AT THE WALDORF. So how much of this do we attribute to his star power at the time, or to the box office draw of his costars?
Hey TopBilled. Good point. I would say he was excellent supporting actor and a good lead actor….I would give him credit for Battleground’s success….at the time he was the only star in that one…and I do not think James Whitmore became a star after the movie. Still….for 12 years at MGM he had an awesome run.
Amazing and what hard work you have put in
Thank you Mary as my data base has gotten bigger….it has become easier to do pages like this….but it has taken 6 years to get the database this big
I always seem to equate Van Johnson with war films. Did he appear in any westerns?
Not just war films he appeared in musicals too! Okay I’ve seen just… 10 of the 63 films listed, probably more I can’t remember. I’ve seen Van most recently in The Michael Caine Mutiny, which tops the UMR and critics chart, you know the film where Captain Queeg loses it with “strawberry’s… ah yes the strawberry’s… that’s where I had them!”
Was A Guy Named Joe his most famous role? It’s been years since I last saw the film but I think he played the part Richard Dreyfuss played in the Steven Spielberg remake – Always.
An interesting page on an actor I knew little about Bruce. Voted Up!
Note to self – stop adding apostrophes to words that don’t need them. Jeez I alway’s seem to be doing that. 🙂
Hey Steve….if I can use….. all …..the……time……then …..I …..feel…..you….can…..use…..apostrophes…..whenever…..you…..want….lol.
HI STEVE
Bruce is far better than I at researching the answers to your question but my own knowledge is that –
(1) Van made one cinematic western The Siege at Red River (1954) and appeared as well in episodes of TV western series Zane Grey Theatre and The Virginian.
(2) He had just a supporting role in A Guy Named Joe (1943) and received very small billing in it below the title with Tracy and Dunne being billed above the title in massive letters. At a guess he was probably most popular with audiences in his heyday for the 4 musical/comedy/romance films in which he was teamed with Esther Williams.
(3) They were both also in a Guy Named Joe but not as a team and she like him had a small part and minor billing. They both spoke very clearly in it however !!
(4) In the 1989 remake Dreyfuss played the original Tracy role and and an actor called Brad Johnson (no relation) played the earlier Van Johnson role.
(5) Caine Mutiny (1954) could be said to be one of his high profile dramatic roles but Bogie was really the star of that though Van’s part was large.
Thanks for the reply and info Robert. Only one cinematic western? Interesting.
I haven’t seen A Guy Named Joe in ages. It’s time to give it another look. I’m familiar with Spielberg’s film though it’s not one of my favorites.
Who was more popular Van Johnson or Van Heflin?
STEVE
1 Van Johnson was the more popular star by miles and most of his roles in his heyday were starring roles. Bruce explains above Johnson’s fine record in Quigley and my first post today tells how MGM thought so highly of him that they arranged a marriage to promote his romantic appeal.
2 Van Heflin was largely a character actor who never made Quigley and who was always billed second to the more major stars when he appeared with them, but was regarded as a much better actor that Johnson. My generation would remember Heflin mostly for Shane (1953) but again in that movie he was in a supporting role and this time the star was Alan Ladd.
Thanks for replying. Apart from Shane I also remember Van Heflin as the man with the bomb in Airport. Now Van Damme was quite popular too in his time he[Stop it Steve!]
Hey Steve….gotta agree with Bob….Van Johnson was a much bigger star than Heflin…though Heflin got an Oscar win…and Johnson never even got nominated.
In a fight Van Damme would destroy Heflin and Johnson for sure….but if the fight was about quality movies they were in…..things would not go so well for JCVD…lol
Hey Bob.
1. The Siege At Red River was the only western I saw when researching this page….which was made at 20th Century versus MGM….maybe the MGM people did not want Van in westerns.
2. He was Irene Dunne’s new love in A Guy Named Joe….which I have not seen….though I did recently rewatch Always.
3. The screen team of Esther Willams and Van Johnson was very underrated for sure…but counting A Guy Named Joe their five movies grossed….$1.12 BILLION in North America alone….that is good enough to go on my https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/top-15-screen-duos-of-all-time/ page
4. Yep a Johnson played the second lead in both the original and the remake of A Guy Named Joe.
5. As for Michael Caine Mutiny…..in a movie filled with great performances….Johnson’s role is one of the best in the movie.
🙂
Hey Steve.
1. I think playing Van Johnson playing soldiers was like Meryl Streep using an accent….required in most of his movies.
2. Your tally is 10…..I am at…..counting….drumroll….8…..actually more than I thought I would be at.
3. Great scene from The Caine Mutiny….Johnson has one of the best roles in that classic movie…..which is good as the movie is…..in my world…the movie is the reason we have Michael Caine…because that was the movie that saw on a marquee when he had to come up with a new last name.
4. Spencer Tracy had the Dreyfuss role…Johnson was the young pilot…..he and Tracy got along great while making that movie.
As always…thanks for your input and thoughts.
1 When prominent stars of the Classic Era are discussed Van’s name rarely comes up and yet as illustrated above he made an enormous number of films, has an adjusted domestic career box office of over $7 billion and had a fine run in Quigley in his heyday. I have therefore been seeking reliable Johnson stats for some years and accordingly this new page which also gives us adjusted worldwide grosses to mull over is most welcome.
2 Van’s wife Eve was originally married to MGM supporting actor and close friend of Van Keenan Wynn. According to Van’s biographers he was such a hot commercial property in the mid 40s and MGM were so keen to promote Van’s image as a romantic leading man that the studio bribed Keenan and Eve to divorce so that she could marry Van. Henceforth Keenan’s MGM contract guaranteed him a salary that exceed that of many of the major stars whom he continued to support. Before marriage to Van Eve was officially registered as Eve Lynn Abbott Wynn ‘
3 Van would not equate with the likes of the Duke or Jimmy Stewart in my personal affections but I found him very likeable and my favourite Johnson films are The Last Time I saw Paris, The Caine Mutiny and 23 Paces to Baker Street. Some of his very popular films listed above made little or no money because of high production costs; but ironically according to Wikipedia the low-grossing Action of the Tiger (1957) earned a small profit due to a modest budget and as Bruce’s stats faithfully reflect an overseas gross that greatly exceed its domestic one. It was made by Van’s own production company and distributed by MGM.
4 His career spanned 57 years and in its final phase he got in on the Godpop act by starring in a little know Italian film called From Corleone to Brooklyn (1979). After retirement he lived alone and kept to himself but passers-by often spotted him taking his afternoon constitutional in his locality
BOB
Hey Bob.
1. I was very surprised that almost every single movie he made from 1942 to 1954 was a hit….the MGM machine really put him in some good movies.
2. His box office totals are staggering…actually he jumped to 16th place in career earnings for actors and actresses…..just a tiny bit better than Tyrone Power…..and his worldwide grosses look amazing too.
3. I read that his wedding was more for the studio than for him……it is amazing how much power the studios had back then.
4. Our your favorites the only one that I have seen is The Caine Mutiny…though 23 Paces To Baker Street looked interesting.
5. I was reading somewhere….that when he appeared in Woody Allen’s Purple Rose of Cairo….that not many people realized just how big a star he was in his heyday…..I think if he has stayed making Hollywood movies his following would be bigger….but he only had two movies in North American theaters during the last 40 years of his life.
🙂
Nice tribute. Thanks for sharing. Happy 100th to Van and his fans.
Hey R.I. fan….yep…Happy 100th Birthday to Mr. Johnson….thanks for the visit and the comment.