Robert Shaw Movies

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

Robert Shaw (1927-1978) was an Oscar®-nominated English actor.  His IMDb page shows 65 acting credits from 1947-1979. This page will rank 23 Robert Shaw movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.

Robert Shaw in 1964’s From Russia With Love

Robert Shaw 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 Robert Shaw movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Robert Shaw movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Robert Shaw movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Robert Shaw 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 Robert Shaw movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Robert Shaw movie won.
  • Sort Robert Shaw 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.

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Robert Shaw Table

  1. Six Robert Shaw movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 26.08% of his movies listed. Jaws (1975) was easily his biggest box office hit when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
  2. An average Robert Shaw movie grosses $143.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  18 Robert Shaw movies are rated as good movies…or 78.26% of his movies. Jaws (1975) is his highest rated movie while Avalanche Express (1979) was his lowest rated movie.
  4. Seven Robert Shaw movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 30.43% of his movies.
  5. Three Robert Shaw movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 13.04% of his movies.
  6. A  “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 8 Robert Shaw movies scored higher than that average….or 45.83% of his movies. A Man for All Seasons (1966) got the the highest UMR Score while Avalanche Express (1979) got the lowest UMR Score.

Robert Shaw in 1966’s A Man For All Seasons

Ten Possibly Interesting Facts About Robert Shaw

1. Robert Archibald Shaw was born in Westhoughton, Lancashire, England in 1927.

2. Robert Shaw served in the Royal Air Force before starting his acting career.

3. One of Robert Shaw’s first film appearances was in 1956’s A Hill In Korea.  That movie was also one of Michael Caine‘s first movies.

4. Robert Shaw improvised most of his famous USS Indianapolis scene in Jaws.  Speaking of Jaws…Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss had many disagreements while filming that classic movie.

5. Robert Shaw wrote and had 5 novels published.

6.  Robert Shaw appeared in two Best Picture Oscar® winners: 1966’s A Man for All Seasons and 1973’s The Sting.

7. Robert Shaw was married three times…..he had ten children

8. Check out Robert Shaw’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

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24 thoughts on “Robert Shaw Movies

    1. The October 6 post at 5.57am is NOT from me and I have no idea who sent it. Maybe Steve trying to wind me up to get his own back for some imagined wrong I’ve done him!!!

  1. shaw had four children with his first wife, four children with his second wife, and at least one with his third wife. so he was prolific in many ways. lol.

    1. Hey kim…..thanks for the headsup on that error…..it has been adjusted. My latest Wiki search shows he had 10 kids…..like you said 4 with both his first and second wives…..and two adopted children. Thanks again for stopping by and letting us know.

  2. 1 Robert Shaw with his imposing size and menacing persona was a great screen villain/unsympathetic character and for me his best roles in that respect were the murderous assassin in From Russian with Love, the tyrant Henry 8th in A Man for all Seasons and the shark hunter Quint in Jaws. Quint was not a villain in the criminal sense of the word but apparently audiences perceived his bullying attitude to be so unpleasant and unsavoury that they applauded at some previews when Jaws started to swallow him.

    2 For me despite its brevity your Shaw video is easily worth a 97% rating as many of the posters are new to me. My pick of an excellent selection is Avalanche Express, Town Called Bastard, The Swashbuckler, Figures in a Landscape, A Reflection of Fear, The Caretaker, The Taking of Pelham 123, Diamonds, and Custer.

    3 STILLS (1) the lobby card for Diamonds (2) Shaw as Custer (3) with Nick Nolte in The Deep [poor old Nick looks a sad case these days] (4) with Simon Ward in Young Winston (5) Shaw Solo in Battle of the Bulge (6) Robert in Black Sunday [one of the ones in which I think he played a hero] (7) & (8) Shaw in two of his very best portrayals, as Henry 8th and Donald Red Grant in From Russia with Love. For me these two would be collectors’ items.

    4 You and WH agree on all 5 of Robert’s best reviewed films and in the same order except that you have a Man for All Seasons as 4th and Pelham 123 as 5th whereas Bruce reverses the order of those two. For what it’s worth I agree with you and indeed would have Man for all Seasons as No 1 but then I’m my own man and am not restrained by the “Deity” of critical opinion as you guys are! I liked Bruce’s miniature of Shaw as Donald Red Grant. Your opening quote from Robert is sadly ironic for its upbeat outlook given that I think he died the following year at just 51.

    1. Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, info, trivia and comment, always appreciated.

      Glad you liked the pictures and stills.

      A year after that opening quote, Robert Shaw suffered a massive heart attack and died. He was just 51. So sad, and he had 10 children! Had he lived he almost certainly would have been knighted eventually and we would have had more memorable roles from this great actor.

      Before Jaws I knew him best as SPECTRE assassin Donald ‘Red’ Grant, one of the best and most dangerous villains in the Bond series.

      Spielberg’s original choices for shark hunter Quint was Lee Marvin and Sterling Hayden. Marvin wasn’t interested and Hayden was in trouble with the IRS.

      For some reason Shaw took a dislike to Richard Dreyfuss during filming of Jaws and would bully and intimidate the poor bugger. It helped their performances. A few months ago I came across a recent video of Dreyfuss at a chat show in tears when he came face to face with Shaw’s granddaughter.

      Five films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – The Dam Busters, A Man for All Seasons, From Russia With Love, The Sting and Jaws. One movie scored 9 – The Taking of Pelham 123.

      Highest rated at IMDB is The Sting, Jaws is tops at Rotten Tomatoes and Bruce’s critics chart but came in 3rd on the UMR chart. A Man for all Seasons is no.1 on there.

      1. HI STEVE

        Didn’t know that about Marvin and Hayden. Thanks for sharing it with me. Marvin had already made his mark but Hayden missed a great chance at belated stardom.

  3. Not only did this fine actor and novelist die too early, but he passed away as his popularity was on the rise with films like Jaws, Black Sunday and The Deep. He was indeed quite memorable as the first Bond super strong villain in From Russia with Love and as Henry VIII in a Man for all Seasons. I also thought he was great as a somewhat atypical and cultured Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin and Marian. Among the films not listed here, I think it’s important to point out The Caretaker (aka The Guest, 1963), and The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964) filmed in my hometown of Montreal, as these were really Shaw’s first starring roles. It’s likely they did not make much of an impact in the US so box office information may be difficult to find. I was fortunate to catch The Caretaker on utube before it was apparently taken down and was quite touched by Shaw’s brilliant understated performance as a victim of electronic shock treatment. I had seen the play while in London in the early 90s. Shaw was not in it, but Donald Pleasance, who is also one of the films’ three actors (the other being Alan Bates), was wonderful – as he is in the film. I believe that at the time, The Caretaker was the longest running play in Britain (or London, not sure) and Pleasance had been playing that part since 1960!

    1. Hey Phil. I have seen and also enjoyed the movies you mentioned…especially Jaws and Black Sunday. I have not see A Man For All Seasons in ages…it is probably time to revisit that one. Sorry I was not able to find box office information on The Caretaker….but your comment has me thinking I need to go back and dig a little deeper.

      So your hometown in Montreal? That is where my mom was born and raised. We go back there about every 4 or 5 years. One of the jokes in our family when we are going out to dinner….we will ask my mom where she wants to eat……she usually says the Chicken Chalet (now I think it is call Chalet B-Bbq) located on Sherbrooke Street. My little ones actually really dislike that the place because all of the chicken has bones in it.

      Sorry….went off the rails. That is cool that you got to see The Caretaker as a play….and even cooler that Pleasance was in the play. Thanks for showing me the light about the Caretaker…..especially since I so quickly dismissed it when I was researching this page.

      1. Hey Bruce, wow, great that you have a Canadian/Montreal connection through your mom! That may explain the good taste in movies 🙂 If kids are tired of Chalet BBQ, you may want to try Shwartz next time for a classic Montreal smoke meat, unless you already have. Small world!

        1. Yep….our family has a strong connection with Montreal. Heck if you run into a Peladeau in Montreal….it is a good chance they are a relative. My granddad was born, lived and died in Montreal…..he managed a grocery store in Westmount for years. Plus he was one of 11 Peladeau children….so I have countless Peladeau relatives running around Montreal. A small world indeed.

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