Woody Harrelson Movies

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

My oldest son has been requesting a Woody Harrelson (1961-) movie page for awhile now. Since one of his previous requests (Pixar vs DreamWorks) turned out to be one of my most popular pages…I figured I would finally do a page on Woody Harrelson.  Woody Harrelson is an Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, Emmy® nominated actor.  He has now been a star for over thirty years.  Harrelson seems at home in any type of movie genre.  My personal Top 5 Woody Harrelson performances would be his comedy Kingpin, his drama The Messenger, his sports movie White Men Can’t Jump, his role in The Hunger Games and his bad guy role in Out of the Furnace (this was an Oscar® worthy supporting role that got no love at all).

His IMDb page shows over 90 acting credits since 1978. This page will rank Woody Harrelson movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.

Woody Harrelson in 2009's Zombieland
Woody Harrelson in 2009’s Zombieland

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

Woody Harrelson 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 Woody Harrelson movies by co-stars of his movies
  • Sort Woody Harrelson movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Woody Harrelson movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Woody Harrelson 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 Woody Harrelson movie received.
  • Sort Woody Harrelson 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.
Woody Harrelson and Christian Bale in 2013's Out of the Furnace...a Woody role that did not get enough attention!
Woody Harrelson and Christian Bale in 2013’s Out of the Furnace…a Woody role that did not get enough attention!

Possibly Interesting Facts About Woody Harrelson

1. Woodrow Tracy “Woody” Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas.

2. Two of  Woody Harrelson’s brothers are also actors…..Brett and Jordan.  His father Charles was a hit man who died in prison.

3.  Woody Harrelson’s path to stardom…Cliff Notes style.  In 1983 he graduated from Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana with a degree in theater.  In 1985 he auditioned and won the role of Woody Boyd in the hit television series, Cheers.  From 1985-1993 he appeared in 200 episodes of the show.  During breaks from the show he started making feature films.

4.  Woody Harrelson’s first movie to reach theaters was 1986’s Wildcats. In that movie, Goldie Hawn played a football coach.  Two of her players were Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.  Harrelson and Snipes would later star in two more movies….White Men Can’t Jump (1992) and Money Train (1995).

5.  To date Woody Harrelson has been in 6 sports themed movies.  White Men Can’t Jump (1992) basketball, Kingpin (1996) bowling, Play It To The Bone (1999) boxing, The Grand (2008) poker, Semi-Pro (2008) basketball,  and Surfer, Dude (2008) surfing.

6. Woody Harrelson has been nominated for two acing Oscars®.  His first Oscar® nomination was for 1996’s The People vs Larry Flynt. His second Oscar® nomination was for 2009’s The Messenger.

7. Woody Harrelson has been married two times.  His first marriage was to Neil Simon’s daughter Nancy, from 1985 to 1986.  His second marriage is to Laura Louie (2008-)…they have 3 daughters…which he refers to as his “Goddess trilogy”.  Very cool as I have my own “Goddess trilogy”.

8. Roles Woody Harrelson turned down or was seriously considered for:  American Beauty (Kevin Spacey role), A Time To Kill  (Matthew McConaughey role), Assassins (Antonio Bandaras role).

9.  From IMDb trivia:  He climbed the Golden Gate Bridge and put up a sign that read, “Hurwitz. Aren’t ancient redwoods more precious than gold?” in protest of MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber CEO Charles Hurwitz, who once stated, “He who has the gold, makes the rules”.

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

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24 thoughts on “Woody Harrelson Movies

  1. Well, I have not seen too many of his movies – very few in fact!. Not one of my favorite actors. Good job though.

    Thanks.

  2. How about Lee Marvin, he worked with about 65 different Oscar winners, win AA for Cat Ballou and was the # 1 Box office star in 1967. How about Burt Reynolds or Jackie Chan.

    1. Hey Dan….Lee Marvin…would be a good one. 65 different Oscar winners? I like that stat. I tried to figure out how many Oscar winners Michael Caine had worked with a few weeks ago. Burt Reynolds is another good choice…..as for Jackie Chan….it would have to be his American films only….as many of his other movies barely if at all got released in North America….and I need box office grosses to do my rankings. I will add them to my ever growing request list

  3. Lots of facts about the other less ‘animated’ Woody, nice work Bruce. Panning down your list to see which was the last film Woody topped the bill and I think it was Natural Born Killers 20 years ago! I might be wrong. Jesse Eisenberg was the lead in Zombieland. Anyhoo I’ve seen… 20 of the 48 films you’ve listed. Including the top 10 box office and top 10 moviescore, and 7 from the critics top 10. I haven’t seen the Messenger. I will recommend Out of the Furnace which is low on the charts here but well worth a look.

    1. Hey Steve…..thanks for the visit. 20 Woody movies watched…I almost double you as I am at 39. I am actually shocked that I have seen that many Woody movies. It might be 40….but I am not 100% sure that I saw Palmetto…I think I did….but not sure. I agree Woody has slipped into a supporting character….but I always get a kick out of whenever he pops up. Wag the Dog is a great example….a small part….but hard not to think of that part when I think of Wag the Dog.

      Glad we agree on Out of the Furnace. When I was watching that movie I was really impressed with his performance. In some ways it reminded me of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight….you never knew what his character was going to do next….so every time his character popped up I would get edgy. That rarely happens to me when I watch a movie…..as always thanks for the visit.

  4. I think it’s interesting that Woody Harrelson’s top movies are all the Hunger Games series, which he has a supporting role in. Are there any movies that he starred in that do as well as his supporting roles, or is he more of a background/comedic relief actor? Great page!

    1. Hey Katelyn…..well I think Woody has become more of a supporting character over the years….he had a nice run in the 1990s and early 2000s as a leading man…but like so many actors as they get older they seem to fall into supporting roles. I actually think he is getting in the same class as Christopher Walken and Bill Murray….that no matter how small the role….he makes the movie better. Thanks for the visit and the comment.

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