Leslie Caron Movies

Leslie Caron

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

Leslie Caron (1931-) is a French 2-time Oscar® nominated actress, singer and dancer.  Her IMDb page shows 71 acting credits from 1951-2017. This page will rank 30 Leslie Caron movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Movies not released in North American theaters, cameos, shorts and uncredited roles were not included in the rankings. This page was a request by Dyan.  One of my all-time favorite movies is Father Goose….which of course stars Caron and the legend, Mr. Cary Grant.

Cary Grant and Leslie Caron in 1964’s Father Goose

Leslie Caron 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 Leslie Caron films by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Leslie Caron films by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Leslie Caron films by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Leslie Caron films 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 Leslie Caron film received.
  • Sort Leslie Caron films 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 Leslie Caron Table

  1. Six Leslie Caron movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 35.00% of her movies listed.  Her biggest hit was Gigi (1958).
  2. An average Leslie Caron movie grosses an average of $51.80 million in adjusted domestic gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 16 Leslie Caron movies are rated as good movies…or 53.33% of her movies.  Lili (1953) was her highest rated movie while Chandler (1971) was her lowest rated movie.
  4. Thirteen Leslie Caron movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 40.00% of her movies.
  5. Five Leslie Caron movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 16.66% of her movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 9 Leslie Caron movies scored higher than that average….or 30.00% of her movies. An American in Paris (1951) got the the highest UMR Score while Chandler (1971) got the lowest UMR Score.

Leslie Caron was the female lead in two Best Picture Oscar Winning movies in the 1950s…1951’s An American in Paris (photo on left) and 1958’s Gigi (photo on right)

Possibly Interesting Facts About Leslie Caron

  1. Leslie Claire Margaret Caron was born in Boulogne-sur-Seine, Seine in 1931.

2. Leslie Caron’s mom was a dancer and her dad was a chemist.  Caron’s brother followed their dad’s footprint and became a chemist while Caron followed her mom’s footprint and became a ballerina.

3. When Cyd Charisse became pregnant and could not be in 1951’s An American In Paris, Gene Kelly needed a new leading lady.  Kelly discovered Caron in the Roland Petit company “Ballet des Champs Elysée” and cast her in a leading role of the soon to be Oscar® winning movie.

4. Leslie Caron was one of the few actresses to have danced with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in the movies, other actresses that have also done this includes Judy Garland, Cyd Charisse, Vera-Ellen, Debbie Reynolds and Rita Hayworth.  We now have UMR pages on everybody but Vera-Ellen.

5. Leslie Caron Is one of 13 French actresses to have received an Academy Award® nomination. The others in chronological order are: Claudette Colbert, Colette Marchand, Simone Signoret, Anouk Aimée, Isabelle Adjani, Marie-Christine Barrault, Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, Bérénice Bejo, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert.

6. Leslie Caron received 2 Best Actress Oscar® nominations (1958’s Gigi and 1962’s The L-Shaped Room) and 3 Best Actress Golden Globe® nominations (1958’s Gigi, 1961’s Fanny and 1962’s The L-Shaped Room).  She won the Golden Globe® for The L-Shaped Room.

7. Leslie Caron has been married three times. She has two children.  She acted with her daughter, Jennifer Caron Hall, in two episodes of The Love Boat.

8.  Leslie Caron’s movies from 1950 to 1959 earned $945 million in adjusted domestic gross.  That puts her in 95th place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1950’s Top Box Office Stars.

9. Leslie Caron’s movies from 1960 to 1969 earned $422 million in adjusted domestic gross.  That puts her in 120th place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1960’s Top Box Office Stars.

10. Check out Leslie Caron’s movie career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

But Wait….We Have More Leslie Caron Stats….Worldwide Adjusted Box Office Grosses

  1. Gigi (1958) $421.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  2. An American in Paris (1951) $358.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  3. Chocolat (2000) $239.10 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  4. Lili (1953) $230.10 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  5. Fanny (1961) $220.20 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  6. Daddy Long Legs (1955) $187.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  7. The Glass Slipper (1955) $139.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  8. The Story of Three Loves (1953) $135.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  9. Gaby (1956) $61.10 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  10. The Man with the Cloak (1951) $36.20 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  11. Guns of Darkness (1962) $32.50 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  12. The Doctor’s Dilemma (1958) $29.30 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  13. The Subterraneans (1960) $26.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
  14. Glory Alley (1952) $26.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross

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17 thoughts on “Leslie Caron Movies

  1. Please tell what you know about Elvis n Leslie Caron. Did she meet him about being in GI Blues. I think Elvis would have been better as Father Goose since he was playful n really great at acting with children.

  2. I have only seen 11 movies starring Leslie Caron. My favorite is easily An American in Paris, but I also liked Lili and Daddy Long Legs. Judging from her box office results, she never was an actress that could carry a film by her name value alone, yet she was a charming actress with a definite european touch- and the sweetest french accent. If Ida Lupino has been called “The poor man’s Bette Davis”, then, without belitteling Mademoiselle Caron, she was perhaps the equivalent to that in relation to Audrey Hepburn, the original stage Gigi. I only recently watched Gigi, the movie, and the magic of that one is lost to me. Certainly well produced,directed and acted by most, it is, after all, the story of a little girl being educated in the “art” of prostitution, albeit presented in a very innocent manner…and thus even the more disturbing. Yet, Caron had an undeniably innocent charm, that made the proceedings watchable. I know the movie has a lot of fans that won’t share my criticism towards it and probably the original stage play, so this is only one opinion among many.
    As Caron grew older, she could no longer fall back on her innocent charms, and she is one of the few actresses whose later performances I usually don’t enjoy. Contrasting her again to Audrey Hepburn, I always liked the latter, even if her later films were quite bad at times (Bloodline), Hepburns charm was timeless. Anyway, for the youthful, european innocence Leslie Caron brought to Hollywood, she certainly deserves being remembered among the stars of yesterday, and her page here is a welcome addition to this site.

    1. Hey Lupino.
      1. Thanks for checking out our Caron page….it is greatly appreciated.
      2. Tally count….your 11 is good enough for 2nd place….as it looks Flora will take this tally competition this time.
      3. A poor man’s Audrey Hepburn….I like it….good point.
      4. I liked An American In Paris and Daddy Long Legs….but I have not seen Lili.
      5. I agree with you about Gigi…..but I can see how the movie has so many fans.
      6. Another good point about her later career…..I think about Hepburn’s last performance in Always….she still had “it”..
      7. Good feedback.

  3. 1 In my formative years as a movies fan I used to confuse Leslie with Audrey Hepburn. When they were at their peak both had gamine looks that appealed to audiences and both were associated with great screen musicals, Hepburn with My Fair Lady and Caron with An American in Paris and a few others.

    2 Also the pair of them seemed comfortable working with older leading men, and in fact as illustrated in the co-star links column they both co-starred with three Hollywood greats from other generations – Fonda, Astaire and Grant. Indeed in Daddy Long Legs she gives Astaire that nickname and when he tells a pal about it the friend replies “Sure you don’t mean Daddy Sugar?” At least that made a change from other Astaire flicks where people had the habit of addressing the 50+ Fred as “Young man.”

    3 Also the heydays of Caron and Audrey were relatively short and largely coincided, Leslie’s great years being from An American in Paris with Kelly in 1951 to Father Goose with Grant in 1964, and Audrey’s being from Roman Holiday with Greg in 1953 until Wait Until Dark with Alan Arkin in 1967. In the later stages of her career Caron made European movies.

    4 One big difference between them has been that whereas although she has continued to act Leslie’s reputation as a former important Hollywood star generally doesn’t get much too much attention these days [and thus this new page is most welcome] whereas Audrey is regarded as one of the greatest movie stars of all time and is No 3 on AFI’s screen Legends actresses list. Indeed I recall someone actually saying “Leslie Caron was for the 1950s but Audrey Hepburn is FOREVER.” However one distinction that can never be taken away from Leslie is that she danced with not just two legendary “hoofers” of the entertainment world but three: Astaire, Kelly and the great Soviet ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev. She reportedly didn’t like Hollywood ‘s habit as describing dancers as “hoofers”. However in 2009 they gave her a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

    1. 1 In my previous post I mentioned Leslie having danced with THREE legendary dancers. Those were the ones best known to m and possibly to even wider audiences.

      2 However historians cite a FOURTH, Mikhail Baryshnikov, who along with Nureyev is considered as one of the 4 greatest BALLET dancers of all time. I regret my original oversight in the matter.

    2. Hey Bob. I can easily understand getting Hepburn and Caron mixed up. Just look at the two Cary Grant movies that featured them. I could easily see either one of them in those roles. I think would have made a good widow in Charade and Hepburn would have been a good school teacher in Father Goose. I agree Hepburn has the much better legacy. Good point about Caron’s dancing partners. My next comment will not be from New Jersey.

      1. HI BRUCE

        At last we are agreed on SOMETHING this week. As Richard Nixon said when an aide called him Mr President for the first time after he won the 1968 election “Somebody should be taking a note of this.”

  4. Hey Dan. Thanks for the lists. Actually very surprised she cracked the Top 1000 in 2000. 10 Oscar winners is low….but not bad for an actresses that made so few American movies.

    I did not even know The Glass Slipper existed before doing this page. Now I want to see it with my little girls. Thanks fir sharing the Disney tv info. Good stuff to know and see how it worked back then. Thanks for sharing this information.

  5. I have seen 14 of Leslie Caron’s movies. However that number will soon change.

    TCM is airing a 24 hour marathon of her movies on this Sunday. There are three movies airing which are brand new to me which I will be watching/taping: Gaby, The L-Shaped Room, and The Doctor’s Dilemna.

    I see by your response to Steve that you are not a fan of Gigi. I love the film. I think it is a masterpiece. Unfortunately, TCM does not currently own the rights to air it on TCM Canada. I’m not bothered by Maurice Chevalier.

    These are my top 5 Leslie Caron movies:

    An American in Paris
    Gigi
    Lili
    Daddy Longlegs
    Father Goose

    The other films I have seen in no order are:

    Is Paris Burning
    The Story of Three Loves
    Fanny
    Chocolat
    The Glass Slipper
    Chandler
    Guns of Darkness
    The Man with a Cloak

    1. Hey Flora…14 tops our tally count…currently. As it actually tops Steve and my combined total of 13. I think Gigi is good…just not thinking it has not aged well. I have seen 4 of your Top 5….only Lili has escaped me. I want to see her David Niven movie Guns of Darkness. As always thanks for the feedback.

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