Walter Pidgeon Movies

pidgeon 111111Want to know the best Walter Pidgeon movies?  How about the worst Walter Pidgeon movies?  Curious about Walter Pidgeon box office grosses or which Walter Pidgeon movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Walter Pidgeon 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 Pidgeon (1897-1984)  was a Canadian American Oscar®-nominated actor.  His movie career spanned an incredible 52 years. His IMDb page shows 138 acting credits from 1926-1978. This page ranks 76 Walter Pidgeon movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, documentaries, shorts and his silent films were not included in the rankings.

Drivel part of the page:  This page comes from a subtle hint from Marcel.  Marcel recently commented on our Greer Garson page. He asked the question….”Why is Walter Pidgeon’s name not blue in the Co-Star column?”   Well the answer to that question…and an answer he knew….was we did not have a Walter Pidgeon page…..well we do now.  Thankfully, Pidgeon, spent many years working at MGM….so we were able to find lots of great box office information on his movies.

Walter Pidgeon in 1956's Forbidden Planet...maybe having a picture of movie will ease Steve's pain when he looks at rankings.
Walter Pidgeon in 1956’s Forbidden Planet…maybe having a picture of this movie will ease Steve’s pain when he looks at the overall rankings.

Walter Pidgeon 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 Pidgeon movies by co-stars of his movies
  • Sort Walter Pidgeon movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Walter Pidgeon movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Walter Pidgeon 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 Walter Pidgeon movie received.
  • Sort Walter Pidgeon 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.
  • *** If worldwide box office is the same as domestic box office then it means we could not find the worldwide box office gross

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Walter Pidgeon Table

  1. Twenty-six Walter Pidgeon movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 34.21% of his movies listed. Mrs. Miniver (1942) was his biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Walter Pidgeon movie grosses $94.20 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. That translates to a career adjusted box office of $7.15 billion.
  4. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  40 Walter Pidgeon movies are rated as good movies…or 52.63% of his movies.  The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) is his highest rated movie while Sextette (1978) is his lowest rated movie.
  5. Fifteen Walter Pidgeon movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 19.73% of his movies.
  6. Five Walter Pidgeon movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 6.57% of his movies.
  7. An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 32 Walter Pidgeon movies scored higher that average….or 42.10% of his movies.  Mrs. Miniver (1942) got the the highest UMR Score while Sextette (1978) got the lowest UMR Score.
Walter Pidgeon in 1961's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Walter Pidgeon in 1961’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Possibly Interesting Facts About Walter Pidgeon

1. Walter Davis Pidgeon was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in 1897.

2. Fred Astaire heard Walter Pidgeon singing at a party while appearing with an amateur company in Boston and got him an agent.  Pidgeon would first gain fame for his singing voice in some of the first sound musicals ever made.

3. Greer Garson played the wife of Walter Pidgeon a total of eight times; in 1941’s Blossoms in the Dust,1942’s Mrs. Miniver,1943’s Madame Curie, 1944’s Mrs. Parkington, 1948’s Julia Misbehaves , 1950’s The Miniver Story, 1949’s That Forsyte Woman and 1953’s  Scandal at Scourie.  They also both appeared in 1943’s The Youngest Profession.

4.  The Greer Garson/Walter Pidgeon duo was one of the most successful screen teams ever.  Their 9 movies earned $1.47 BILLION when looking at adjusted North America grosses.

5.  Walter Pidgeon was nominated for two Best Actor Oscars®:  1942’s Mrs. Miniver and 1943’s Madame Curie.

6. Walter Pidgen and Ryan Gosling are the only two Canadians to be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar®. Pidgeon held the distinction alone for 64 years.

7. Walter Pidgeon starred in back to back Best Picture Oscar® winners. 1941’s How Green Was My Valley and 1942’s Mrs. Miniver.

8. Walter Pidgeon was married two times and had one child.  His first wife Edna died in 1926 while giving birth to their daughter, Edna.  His second wife, Ruth, was his secretary before they got married.  They were married from 1931 till his death in 1984.

9. Walter Pidgeon had a notoriously poor memory for names, referring to anyone whose name he could not remember as “Joe.” This became such a habit that, for his birthday one year, the cast and crew of the picture he was working on bought him a present: A director’s chair enscribed “Joe Pidgeon.”

10. Check out Walter Pidgeon ‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Collateral Damage Section:  While researching this page we discovered better box office information on the following movies: (1) Julia Misbehaves (1948) box office moved up….Elizabeth Taylor page updated.  (2) Executive Suite (1954) box office moved down….William Holden & Shelley Winters pages updated. (3) The Secret Heart (1946) box office moved down….Claudette Colbert & Lionel Barrymore pages updated. (4) That Forsyte Woman (1949) box office moved down….Errol Flynn page updated. (5) Funny Girl (1968) box office moved down….Barbra Streisand page updated.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

(Visited 6,446 times)

73 thoughts on “Walter Pidgeon Movies”

  1. Walter Pidgeon… about a year ago Hubpages introduced an auto-correction program on their website which went thru everyone’s hubs correcting all the spelling and grammar mistakes without the author’s permission. I was livid because it made a mess of some of my beautifully rendered hubs correcting names which didn’t need correcting. Pidgeon was renamed Pigeon on a number of hubs, I had to go thru each one re-correcting all the names.

    I’ve seen 11 of the 76 films listed, less than I expected. As a huge sci-fi fan you can guess which Walter Pidgeon movie is my favorite.

    “Monsters John. Monsters from the Id!” I’ve watched Forbidden Planet many many times over the past few decades. Bought it on video, DVD and Blu-ray. It was one of the first SF movies I wrote about at Hubpages a few years ago.

    Movies I’ve missed include [groans] here we go again. Mrs. Miniver and How Green Was My Valley.

    Greer Garson was his wife in 8 films? Whoa I did not know that Bruce. Any of them worth watching? Do I have to be awake while they’re on? 😉

    Another top movie page Bruce. Voted Up!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve.
      1. Hey hey hey now…don’t be dissin’ Hub Pages….just because they want to spell Walter Pidgeon the correct way….you can not hold that against them…..lol.
      2. Tally count….current results
      Flora from Canada 38
      Larry from USA 20
      Steve from United Kingdom 11
      Cogerson from USA 10
      Laurent from France 7
      You might get the bronze….though BERN1960 is currently counting.
      3. I figured if I included a Forbidden Planet picture….that might ease the blow of UMR ranking it 18th…..but it is all the way up to 3rd when looking at critic and audience ratings.
      4. Mrs. Miniver is coming for you…..she is mad at you…..a movie that was instrumental in winning World War 2 for England….and you have not watched it…..she is coming….when you hear your house creak….it might be her…..Mrs. Miniver….think The Ring…though the way you get rid of Mrs. Miniver is to watch the movie…..lol.
      5. One of those Garson/Pidgeon movies is Mrs. Miniver….and yes the Best Picture Oscar Winner of 1942 is worth watching. I have not seen any of the other ones.
      Thanks for sharing your Pidgeon thoughts….they are always greatly appreciated.

      Reply

    1. Yes indeed. He was great in all of them.
      I love that you live in Australia.

      That must be gorgeous.

      We have on this website something called the Viewing Olympics.

      It is actually bragging rights only.

      But:

      The more movies you have seen of an artist the higher your score.

      And there is Gold, Silver and Bronze.
      LOL.

      I get a lot of gold, but sometimes I get only silver.

      I am from Canada.

      I “play” for CAnada.

      Reply

      1. Hey Flora….yep it would be cool to get Australia in the Movie Olympics…..we will see if Rendon makes it back. I fixed your bragging tights comment….just in case you are looking for it.

        Reply

    2. Hey Rendon….I agree with your comment 100%. Though I must admit I have not seen Mrs. Parkington yet. Thanks for your comment and your visit to our website.

      Reply

  3. Hi

    I’ve always had a soft spot for How Green Was My Valley, as it was one of my grandmother’s favourite movies. I always liked the scene where the two guys went down to the school to sort out the bullying teacher. But Pidgeon as the minister was brilliant. I could never understand why he never married Maureen O’Hara in the film. The excuse was that he didn’t have much money. As much as I respect clergy, I’ve never heard of any poor ones.
    Pidgeon had a great career, I think films with Greer Garson were terrific. They had superb chemistry. Apparently in real life they became really close friends.
    One of his best films was The Bad and The Beautiful. Although a supporting role, he was like the calm among the storm. He had a very easy going type of personality, yet had that sort of authority figure. I didn’t realise his career lasted so long, but I’ll always remember him in high regard. Thanks again

    Reply

    1. An excellent summing up of the Pidgeon persona which illustrates he he was so comforting during wartime.

      Reply

    2. Hey Chris…..good to know that How Green Was My Valley was one of your grandmother’s favorite movie. My grandmother loved two movies The Wizard of Oz and The African Queen when she passed that was her entire VHS collection. Pidgeon and O’Hara not winding up together was not one of my favorite parts of that movie…..it would be like The Quiet Man ending and Wayne and O’Hara going their separate ways.

      Pidgeon said he never any a single cross word with Garson….that is amazing considering they made so many movies together. I agree with you about his role in The Bad and the Beautiful. 76 movies on this page yet there are still some I want to include…especially his first musical talkies. As always…your movie thoughts are greatly appreciated.

      Reply

    3. Yes, he was held in high regard for good reason.
      As for How Green Was My Valley:

      There are a multitude of reasons why they did not get married.

      When you live in a place where people are miners and that is the only job you have – well:

      you do not actually have a lot of options.

      Ultimately, Walter’s character loved her and wanted her to marry money and therfore have a better life.

      Reply

  5. I am a huge fan of Walter and he is NOT a forgotten film star- nobody is on TCM.

    after all, Robert Ryan who is not a member of an acting dynasty is one of my favourite actors of all time and just look at Ryan’s page to see I love Robert Ryan.

    The highest ranked film I have seen is Number 1: Mrs. Miniver

    The highest ranked film I have NOT seen is Number 7: Girls of the Golden West.

    The lowest ranked film I have seen is second last: Calling Bulldog Drummand.

    Therefore:

    Viewings by rankings:

    I have seen all of the top 5 films:100%
    9 of the top 10 films: 90%
    16 of the top 20
    23 of the top 30
    28 of the top 40
    30 of the top 50: 60% of his top movies
    33 of 60: still over 50%
    36 of 70: still sort of on guessed target
    38 movies

    I HAVE SEEN 38 MOVIES OF 71:

    I HAVE SEEN 54% OF WALTER’S FILMS. As I suspected,

    Favourite film of his that do NOT star Greer: FORBIDDEN PLANET – based upon the Shakespeare play The TEmpest.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora….thanks for the comment, thoughts and tally count on Mr. Walter Pidgeon. First things first the current tally count:
      Flora from Canada 38
      Larry from USA 20
      Cogerson from USA 10
      Laurent from France 7

      Your % 90%, 80% 76.66%, 70% and only 27% of his bottom 36 movies….seems the UMR score succeeded in getting the better movies towards the top.

      I am sure Steve will be happy to hear your high marks for Forbidden Planet…speaking of Steve…I think you will really enjoy his latest video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9E2J2_W_NA

      Of my 10 Pidgeon movies watched one was Sextette….that was a hard movie to finish…pretty much everybody in the movie looked like they could not believe they were in such a bad movie….thanks for checking out our latest classic movie star page. 🙂

      Reply

      1. Hey Bob and Flora…moving your Glenn Ford comments to the Glenn Ford page….as it seems to make more sense to have these comments there…than here.

        Reply

      2. I will love this video and will watch it tomorrow as I will have a lot to say about it.

        Reply

      3. The latest video is on Vincent Minelli films, but I’ll answer it here on this page so the comment and the link is on the same page.

        Reply

      4. Hey, you know I love to see these great posters on a huge screen.

        They are fabulous.

        I noticed the next video up was Frank Z. but as it starts with Greg in Beyond the Pale Horse and there is a page on him I’ll do that later.

        Of course I have seen all 20 movies.

        And being that there is a poster of DESIGNING WOMAN that is a big favourite.

        But there are fabulous movie posters here – all of them.

        My favourites are the ones from Lust For Life.

        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.