Want to know the best Virigina Mayo movies? How about the worst Virginia Mayo movies? Curious about Virginia Mayo box office grosses or which Virginia Mayo movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Virginia Mayo movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Virginia Mayo (1920-2005) was an American actress and dancer. In the late 1940’s she was one of one of the most popular thespians working. From 1944 to 1954 she appeared in 16 movies that crossed the $100 million (adjusted gross) mark at the box office. Her IMDb page shows 69 acting credits from 1939-1997. This page will rank 45 Virginia Mayo movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her television appearances, shorts and uncredited roles were not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request by Søren.
Virginia Mayo 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 Virginia Mayo movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Virginia Mayo movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Virginia Mayo movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Virginia Mayo movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Virginia Mayo movie received.
- Sort Virginia Mayo 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.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Virginia Mayo Table
- Sixteen Virginia Mayo movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 35.56% of her movies listed. The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Virginia Mayo movie grossed $94.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 16 Virginia Mayo movies are rated as good movies…or 35.56% of her movies. White Heat (1949) is her highest rated movie while The Silver Chalice (1954) is her lowest rated movie.
- Nine Virginia Mayo movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 20.00% of her movies.
- Two Virginia Mayo movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 4.44% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00. 16 Virginia Mayo movies scored higher that average….or 35.56% of her movies. The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946) got the the highest UMR Score while Castle of Evil (1966) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Virginia Mayo
1. Virginia Clara Jones was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1920.
2. After high school, Virginia Mayo, started dancing at the St. Louis Municipal Orchestra. Shortly after that Samuel Goldwyn (he was a movie mogul) signed her to an acting contract with his company. He cast her in her first hit….1943’s Jack London.
3. Virginia Mayo appeared in 5 Danny Kaye movies. That represents almost a third of all Kaye movies. Those 5 movies grossed over 1 Billion in adjusted domestic box office.
4. After the Sultan of Morocco saw Virginia Mayo in person he said it was….”tangible proof of the existence of God.”
5. Virginia Mayo’s favorite leading men were: Alan Ladd (Bob smiles) and Gregory Peck (Flora smiles).
6. Virginia Mayo was slightly cross-eyed and had to be carefully photographed.
7. Virginia Maya was Paul Newman‘s first on screen leading lady. That would have been in 1954’s The Silver Chalice…which is her lowest rated movie according to critics and audiences.
8. Virginia Mayo was married once. She was married to actor Michael O’Shea from 1947 until his death in 1973….they had one daughter.
9. Virginia Mayo’s career domestic adjusted box office total is $4.14 BILLION…..that currently ranks her as the 23rd most successful box office actress in my database.
10. Check out Virginia Mayo‘s career compared to current and classic actors and fact #9 at Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Due to space issues on the previous table….have to list these worldwide adjusted box office grosses here
- Along the Great Divide (1951) $94.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- The Big Land (1957) $132.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1950) $234.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Colorado Territory (1949) $146.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- The Flame and the Arrow (1950) $282.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Flaxy Martin (1949) $42.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Fort Dobbs (1958) $68.60 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- The Iron Mistress (1952) $166.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- The Kid From Brooklyn (1946) $356.80 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Painting The Clouds With Sunshine (1951) $229.90 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) $335.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- She’s Back On Broadway (1953) $81.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- She’s Working Her Way Through College (1952) $131.20 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- The Silver Chalice (1954) $233.60 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- A Song Is Born (1948) $176.60 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- South Sea Woman (1953) $100.90 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Starlift (1951) $111.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- The Story of Mankind (1957) $17.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- The West Point Story (1950) $144.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Westbound (1959) $57.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- White Heat (1949) $190.20 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) $16.90 million in adjusted worldwide b.o.
- Wonder Man (1945) $339.20 million in adjusted worldwide box office
“Hold the Mayo!” A nice tribute to one of the lesser known (these days) Hollywood beauties Bruce.
I’ve seen 16 of the 45 films here, most recently The Iron Mistress. Favorites include Wonder Man, The Princess and the Pirate, Horatio Hornblower, Kid from Brooklyn, Flame and the Arrow, Up in Arms and White Heat
Good to see White Heat “made it ma, top of the world!” topping the critics chart, it’s that film again – The Best Years of Our Lives tops the UMR chart.
Looking at the worldwide grosses – Burt Lancaster’s Flame and the Arrow was a bigger hit in 1950 than Gregory Peck’s more expensive Captain Horatio Hornblower, very interesting…. and Danny Kaye’s technicolored comedies were huge in the 40s!
Mayo was famously cross-eyed but that didn’t deter her millions of admirers who drooled over her photos in fan magazines.
Excellente mon ami. Vote Up!
Hey Steve.
1. Glad you enjoyed our Mayo tribute….next up is our Mustard and Ketchup tributes..lol.
2. 16 Mayo movies watched…..that destroys my total of 4….you might take your 4th classic title in a row if Flora can’t top that total.
3. Yep that little known blockbuster, Best Picture Oscar winning film The Best Years of Lifes tops the UMR charts.
4. You would think a movie starring Myrna “Greatest Box Office Actress of All-Time” Loy would have you interested in watching it.
5. Kaye’s movies were such huge hits in the 1940s it helped carry him all the way through his career….the man only made 17 movies…..which I find shocking.
6. Yep…good to know that her ailment did not deter fans…..thanks for the visit and the comment.
Virginia never appeared on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list. There are a few people still on who appeared with her in a film including one in the top 30 who sadly has passed away (listed below with 2016 rank).
French Quarter (1978) – 166 Bruce Davison
She’s Back on Broadway (1953) – 966 Kathleen Freeman
South Sea Woman (1953) – 912 Arthur Tovey
The Story of Mankind (1957) – 27 Dennis Hopper
Won Ton Ton: The Dog That Saved Hollywood (1976) – 198 Dean Stockwell, 274 Bruce Dern, 807 Teri Garr
Virginia appeared with 21 Oscar winners that I could find;
Backfire (1950) – Edmond O’Brien
Colorado Territory (1949) – Dorothy Malone
Flaxy Martin (1949) – Dorothy Malone
Jack London (1943) – Susan Hayward
King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) – George Sanders, Rex Harrison
Seven Days Ashore (1944) – Dorothy Malone
South Sea Woman (1953) – Burt Lancaster
Starlift (1951) – Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Jane Wyman
The Best Years of our Lives (1946) – Fredric March, Harold Russell, Teresa Wright
The Big Land (1957) – Edmond O’Brien
The Flame and the Arrow (1950) – Burt Lancaster
The Princess and the Pirate (1944) – Bing Crosby, Victor McLaglen, Walter Brennan
The Proud Ones (1956) – Walter Brennan
The Silver Chalice (1954) – Paul Newman, Jack Palance
The Story of Mankind (1957) – Charles Coburn, Ronald Colman
The West Point Story (1950) – James Cagney
White Heat (1949) – James Cagney, Edmond O’Brien
Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) – Broderick Crawford, Art Carney
Not too many people can say they worked with Oscar winner Harold Russell.
Both King Richard and the Crusaders and the Story of Mankind made the 50 worst films of all time book.
I remember having 8 out of 16 of some record set which was like acting with the stars. You would listen to dialogue spoken by the star of the film and respond back from the script and you could tape yourself. They must have been made maybe in the 50’s and some record store in Chicago had them back in 1978 or 79 when I went there. Anyway I purchased 4 actors and 4 actresses. One was Virginia with The Girl From Jones Beach and another was Vincent Price with who knows what. The rest I don’t remember because I don’t have any of them anymore.
Michael O’Shea, her husband is actually top billed in Jack London (1943) with Susan Hayward and which she appears in, maybe they met while making it.
When I was younger I thought Virginia was sort of like Jean Arthur. Both played cynical women say Jean as reporters to James Stewart or Gary Cooper who fall for the somewhat backwards or innocent hero or Virginia as an entertainer or gun moll or just all round good looking woman who ends up with the cowardly hero, Danny Kaye or Bob Hope.
Hey Dan…..thanks for the two lists. I could not find much on her later part of her career….I think French Quarter might have played a film festival in Cleveland….but did not get many other dates in theaters. Won Ton Ton….provided almost half of the actors on the current list.
21 Oscar winners is about less than average for a performer that had such a long career. You are right….Harold Russell might have the worst Oracle score for any Oscar winner….heck he got two Oscars for The Best Years Of Our Lives.
I knew Story of Mankind got horrible reviews….did not realize that about King Richard….amazing it did some well at the box office with such bad reviews. That is cool about the record sets. I just bought my mom some audio cds that were stars like James Cagney doing there movies on the radio….she loves them…..I think younger people do not understand the power that radio had back in the day.
Jack London is indeed where they met and fell in love…..and it turned out to be one of the few Hollywood marriages that had a happy ending…as their marriage lasted until his passing.
I can see Mayo and Arthur as being alike. The Kaye/Mayo screen team was pretty impressive. I appreciated the lists and the comments…thanks for sharing your Mayo movie thoughts.
From June 1, 1936 to January 22, 1945 he hosted Lux Radio Theater which were half hour radio versions of movies/ The book The Films of Cecil B. DeMille lists all episodes and the cast. Usually they had the star players of the movie but occasionally there are subs like the Ex Mrs. Bradford with Claudette Colbert instead of Jean Arthur, Here Comes Mr. Jordan with Cary Grant instead of Robert Montgomery, That Certain Woman with Carole Lombard instead of Bette Davis and numerous others. Usually when that happened they had 1 of the co-stars.
I remember having a few old radio shows on vinyl including a James Cagney double header of Yankee Doodle Dandy and The Strawberry Blonde. It was him, don’t remember from what show (there were other shows like Lux’s) and maybe different actors.
Write too fast, jumping ahead of what I’m going to write and leaving something out. That should have read Cecil B. DeMille host Luv Theater and was also the director. They unfortunately weren’t the program the Cagney shows I had aired on.
Thanks for the clarification Dan.
Hey Dan…..I can imagine movie fans being very excited to listen to those radio broadcasts. Reading your comment reminded me of Woody Allen’s Radio Days….how radio was so important in everybody’s every day life. That Cagney recording is probably worth something….especially if you can find a huge Cagney fan.
Almost perfect timing, her birthday was only a few days ago. Good look at her career.
Hey Hermie….well that was a happy accident. Thanks for sharing that information.
Victor who? I see Victor Mayo is listed as one of her costars. Not sure who he is. But I know that Victor Mature was in that dog movie.
Thanks Anonymous..I will fix that right away. And thanks for the visit.
This is the 100th actress to get a UMR movie page. There was some collateral damage while doing this page….about to go and fix my Alan Ladd, Danny Kaye and Burt Lancaster pages so the stats will be the same on all the pages.