Walter Brennan Movies

Want to know the best Walter Brennan movies?  How about the worst Walter Brennan movies?  Curious about Walter Brennan’s box office grosses or which Walter Brennan movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Walter Brennan 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.

Walter Brennan (1894-1974) is the only person in the history of people to win 3 Best Supporting Actor Oscars®.  Brennan specialized in playing cantankerous old men.  He appeared in some of the greatest westerns ever made: 1940’s The Westerner, 1946’s My Darling Clementine, 1948’s Red River and 1959’s Rio Bravo.  Not to say all of Brennan’s movies were westerns….as he also appeared in many other non-western classics:  1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, 1941’s Meet John Doe, 1941’s Sergeant York, 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees, 1946’s To Have And Have Not and 1969’s Support Your Local Sheriff.

His IMDb page shows 244 acting credits from 1925-1975. This page ranks Walter Brennan movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, cameos and movies not released in North America were not included in the rankings.

Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper appeared in many movies together.
Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper appeared in many movies together.

Walter Brennan Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Walter Brennan 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 Walter Brennan movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Walter Brennan movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Walter Brennan movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Walter Brennan movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Walter Brennan movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Walter Brennan movie won.
  • Sort Walter Brennan 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.
  • Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
 
Walter Brennan in 1959's Rio Bravo
Walter Brennan in 1959’s Rio Bravo

Check Out Steve’s Walter Brennan You Tube Video

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.  Golden Globes® are the registered trademark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.

(Visited 1 times)

45 thoughts on “Walter Brennan Movies”

  1. Hey Bruce,
    Rio Bravo one of my favorit western and in that film he got a very important part…and he Was very good with the Duke and Dean Martin , Ricky Nelson and Angie ..and he Was fun too.
    One of my favorite moment of this film Is the scène where they are in the jail and Martin start to sing “my rifle, my pony and me” and Nelson follow with the guitare and Brennan with the Harmonica…and then they finish with Cindy…outside Is the danger but inside
    they are so cool…
    And that s truth he stole most of his scenes.
    Bye
    Pierre

    Reply

    1. Hey Pierre….thanks for checking out my Walter Brennan updated page I agree with you 100%….Rio Bravo is a great movie…and that scene you mention is indeed classic. I agree with you even more that he stole almost every scene he was in. I recently saw him in These Three….his role as cab driver has nothing to do with the plot of the movie….yet….his scenes stick in my memory. 🙂

      Reply

  2. HI BRUCE

    1 I have always regarded Walter’s Judge Roy Bean [with Cooper in The Westerner in your miniature above I think] as one of the great classic supporting performances in the movies.

    2 Also excellent in my opinion was John McIntyre’s Judge Bean-type villain in Jimmy Stewart’s 1954 The Far Country. McIntyre’s ‘Bean’ used humour at times to mask his viciousness “I like you Jeff [Stewart] but I’m gonna hang you when you come through this way again!”

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob…..I agree with you on all of your thoughts in this comment….wow that does not happen too often…..I guess Hell is freezing over. ….lol.

      Reply

    2. 1 ACTUALLY BRUCE You and I don’t really disagree on much. We have really only had two serious bones of contention:

      (1) MYRNA But here it is degree rather than substance itself that separates us. Whilst I enjoy a bit of spoofing around I am well on record on this site as acknowledging that Loy was a talented, popular individual who brought a lot to the movies that she appeared in and I have never disputed that her box office figures exceed those of any other female. My problem was with the tag “most successful actress of all time” because I don’t think that can be said unequivocally in view of the number of other great stars in her movies. However as you point out many of the other important legends are also in that boat. I have also expressed my admiration of Loy as a great human being because of her war effort and social causes and to my mind those were more important than even the stardom which she undeniably achieved. Also she was a very good friend as witness her support for Crawford when the latter was subjected to public criticism. Conversely away from the screen – and I love watching him act – who could admire a bad-tempered, contrary, rude and argumentative person like Tracy?

      (2) HIRSCH. His views as you have conveyed them to me are I can’t deny irritating especially in relation to Mumbles and the Duke but YOUR box office tables, UMR scores and comments etc about those two fairly and reasonably reflect their achievements and your site is balanced and impartial in its attitude to, and treatment of, ALL performers.

      2 Actually via your ratings and rankings you and Steve are probably more in disagreement than you and I and we two are as one regarding the fascination of stats whereas he can take them or leave them.

      Reply

      1. Hey Bob….I know we don’t disagree that much…but it was fun anyway to write. As for Steve and my ranking differences….if we were using the same exact sources it would be strange if they were not the same….but depending on how many sources I use my % changes with every single movie. Sometimes it turns out to be a 50% Rotten Tomatoes/50% IMDb ratio…..other times those two barely reach 50% of the equation…it just depends. You will be happy to know…Joel actually is not in the equation at all….Roger Ebert, Leonard Maltin and Jeremy Jahns have spots…but not little Joel.

        Reply

        1. HI BRUCE

          1 Yes, often you can’t win. I’ve mentioned before that when John’s pals the opinion pollsters all predict virtually the same figures for say a general election they are accused of “herding” – ie getting together to ensure their figures are similar so that no one pollster is discredited when the actual results come out. Conversely any pollster who provides a forecast that differs widely from the consensus is accused of being an “outlier” and everybody ignores his/her forecasts.

          2 “You will be happy to know Joel actually is not in the equation at all,” If you had told me the opposite, well in my thoughts about you and this site. “Never glad confident morning again.” [Robert Browning – The Lost Leader]

          Reply

    1. Why “rank” them at all? He was a delight in anything he did, no matter HOW big or small the role.

      And anyway Cody….

      He was FAR more villainous in THE WESTERNER

      Reply

      1. Hey Sepiatone…well when you rank them the way we do….it unearth’s some very hard to find stats…..and it really shows how awesome his career was…..and this 60 is just the ones I could find box office information on.

        I agree with you about him being more evil in The Westerner…..in that one….he seem to realize how bad his actions were.

        Reply

      2. Can’t agree with you, Sepia.

        Old Man Clanton was a more ruthless character, in my opinion.

        As Bean Brennan was allowed to sketch a more ambiguous portrayal, with little bits of humour mixed into the characterization. There was also his admiration/longing for Lillie Lantry, that idolatry eventually leading to his downfall. In the end the audience feels sorry for Bean. That is not the case with Clanton at all.

        Reply

        1. Hey Tom…..good point about Old Man Clanton….but I have to side with Sepiatone about The Westerner. Both are excellent roles from Brennan….surprised he did not play more of these types of roles…..versus so many comic sidekick roles. He was pretty evil in HTWWW too.

          Reply

          1. You got it right,TomJH. Totally despicable in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. No humor in that characterization.

          2. Well we have a stalemate…..two to two. Great minds can’t always think the same things….lol.

    2. Hey Cody….your top two did very well in my rankings.

      Red River – his 5th biggest box office hit, his 8th best reviewed movie critics and audiences, tied for 8th when looking at Oscar nominations & wins and finally ranked 7th when you jam all three categories.

      My Darling Clementing – his 12th biggest box office hit, his 4th best reviewed movie critics and audiences, shut out when looking at Oscar nominations & wins and finally ranked 9th when you jam all three categories.

      Reply

  4. Mr. Brennan is surely a western movie icon Under rated and he stole the show in all his scenes. Just his voice is all ya need, I reckon.

    Reply

    1. Hey Daniel….glad to see a Walter Brennan fan finding this page…..this page is due for an update for sure. Looking at my database…I am now close to 60 movies completed…so it will be a pretty massive update. I agree with you…his voice is indeed all ya need. 🙂

      Reply

  5. You didn’t mention three pretty good TV series
    The Real McCoys
    Guns of Will Sonnet
    The Tycoon

    What was his total number of Oscar Nominations ?

    Reply

    1. Hey Roger ….one day Mr. Brennan will get a full UMR page. Since doing this page I have found a lot more box office grosses on his movies…..so an update is coming soon.

      When he gets his full page I will mention his tv career in the interesting facts part of the page. As for Oscar nominations I think he was a perfect 3 for 3. 3 nominations 3 wins.

      Thanks for checking out our Brennan page and commenting …..it is greatly appreciated.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.