Want to know the best Robert Wagner movies? How about the worst Robert Wagner movies? Curious about Robert Wagner box office grosses or which Robert Wagner movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Robert Wagner movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place.
When your acting career is almost 70 years old you will be remembered for different roles by different generations. That is exactly what has happened with Robert Wagner (1930-). Many people might remember when Wagner was the up and coming movie star of the 1950s. My dad loved him in his first two television series successes in the 1960s and 1970s….It Takes A Thief and Switch. My mom and WoC loved him in 1980s Hart to Hart. To my older children he will be forever Number Two in the 1990s Austin Powers movies. To my middle children he is known for his recurring role on 2010s NCIS. This page has been requested by BERN1960 for years and recently requested by Vandross in the last few days….so we figured we would finally give Mr. Wagner his very own UMR page.
His IMDb page shows over 147 acting credits since 1950. In the table below, Ultimate Movie Rankings ranks his movies in 6 different sortable columns. Television roles, cameos, shorts and movies not released in North America movies were not included in the rankings.
Robert Wagner Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.
Robert Wagner 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 Wagner movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Robert Wagner movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Robert Wagner movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Robert Wagner 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 Wagner movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Robert Wagner movie won.
- Sort Robert Wagner 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.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Robert Wagner
1. Robert John Wagner Jr. was born in Detroit Michigan in 1930.
2. Robert Wagner was signed to a 20th Century Fox contract when he was 20 years old. His agent was Albert R. Broccoli….Broccoli would become the producer of the James Bond movies.
3. Robert Wagner’s first starring role was in 1953′ Beneath the 12-Mile Reef. Movie got horrible reviews but was a box office hit….mainly due to the fact that is was the 3rd CinemaScope movie ever made.
4. Robert Wagner has been married four times….twice to Natalie Wood. He has two children.
5. In Robert Wagner’s memoirs, he revealed he had affairs with Yvonne De Carlo, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Anita Ekberg, Shirley Anne Field, Lori Nelson, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Collins.
6. Robert Wagner’s television career has been very impressive. Highlights of that career would be the shows….It Takes A Thief (1968-1970), Switch (1975-1978) and Hart to Hart (1979 -1984).
7. Robert Wagner has made 9 Hart to Hart television movies.
8. Roles Robert Wagner was strongly considered for or turned down: Robert Redford’s role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Dustin Hoffman role in The Graduate, Elvis Presley role in Love Me Tender, John Cassavetes role in Rosemary’s Baby, James Dean role in Rebel Without A Cause and Yul Brynner’s role in Westworld.
9. After being submerged at one point in an industrial strength foaming agent during the bathtub scene in 1963’s The Pink Panther, went blind for four weeks. The studio wanted Wagner replaced, but director Blake Edwards stuck by him and he finished the picture.
10. Check out Robert Wagner‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
For the first time ever Steve Lensman and myself did a page/video on the same subject on the same day. Check out his Wagner video here.
I have seen 14 Robert Wagner movies.
My favourite Wagner films are:
The Pink Panther
The Halls of Montezuma
Broken Lance
A Kiss Before Dying
The Towering Inferno
I answered Steve’s video on his Youtube page as I always do. I listed all the films I have seen in the video. One that was not included in the video because it was a bit part uncredited is With a Song in My Heart. I have also seen that one. He is not on screen long, but it was an important storyline.
Hey Flora…..Tally count…..me at 21, Steve at 17 and you at 14. You are the third person to mention A Kiss Before Dying…..I will have to track that movie down and watch it. You could have copied your You Tube comment and pasted here…..Steve and I are just trying to make it easier on you….lol. I agree with you about With A Song In My Heart….it is a small part…..but an important part. Good comment….thanks for stopping by.
Video and page only a few hours apart Bruce, first time ever. Synchronicity! 🙂
I’ve seen 17 of the 46 films listed, favorites include – Midway, The Longest Day, Titanic, Broken Lance, The Pink Panther, Austin Powers (its been a while since I watched any of them), The Towering Inferno and Dragon The Bruce Lee Story.
We agree on the number 1 – The Longest Day is no.1 on my video too. It doesn’t seem quite right though does it? Wagner was only it for about 3 minutes out of 3 hours, but what else can we do, not include their most popular and most watched movies?
So looking at Wagner’s ‘starring’ roles – no.1 on both our critics charts is A Kiss Before Dying, no.1 ‘Wagner’ movie on the UMR is Beneath the 12 Mile Reef. That’s an interesting way at looking at an actors filmography, ranking their top-billed movies. [cue Bob smiling]
Concorde was a guilty pleasure favorite decades ago, so bad it was fun (to be fair the other three Airport films weren’t exacly high art either) but it’s been ages since I last saw it.
Nice work Bruce and thanks for the share. Vote Up!
Hey Steve
1. Very cool that we did these pages/videos so close together. A Barbara Stanwyck conversation at work got me motivated to do this page. I am guessing the fact that Robert Wagner was in so many Jeffrey Hunter movies…that it got you thinking about doing a Wagner video.
2. I have 21 of the 46 movies. I have seen all of your favorites with the exception of Dragon: The Bruce Lee…..I would say Titanic, Midway and The Towering Inferno would make up my Top Three….with Harper just on the outside of a medal spot.
3. I agree The Longest Day seems strange to have listed number one….since it was basically a cameo…..but…..he made the poster….granted it is a very small photo….but he was used to see the movie.
4. Interesting way to look at his movie…..his top billed movies….his cameo movies and his supporting movies.
5. Beneath The 12 Mile Reef looks interesting….they don’t make them like that anymore.
6. I might have seen parts of your guilty pleasure….but I do not remember enough of Concord 79 to include it in my tally count.
Thanks for the votes up, the tally count and the comment.
Bruce, looking at your video reply I beat your Robert Wagner tally 17 to 16 but you’ve thrashed me on the UMR tally 21 to 17. Not bad.
Hey Steve…..I guess that means I have watched more bad Robert Wagner movies than you have….proud day…..lol.
HI STEVE 1 This is the first occasion that I can remember when you and WH simultaneously released a presentation on the same move star. WH of course was able to launch his page with a pontification from his Guru but whether that is a plus or minus depends on your viewpoint. I’m still going to keep you in the dark about my own!
2 In my post today to WH I highlighted A Kiss before Dying and I will always remember that Wagner vehicle as it showed that “pretty boy” Robert could handle a mature leading role if he got the right one. Oddly enough “baby faced” actors have won some of their best notices when they’ve played baddies with for example Audie Murphy being praised by critics for his bad guys in Night Passage [ with Jimmy Stewart the goodie] and No Name on the Bullet. Some critics also think that Laddie’s grim-faced hitman Philip Raven in the 1942 This Gun for Hire was Alan’s best performance despite his fine features on which he largely traded in the 1940s
3 I liked most of the posters and my pick of the very best is probably Airport 79, Stopover Tokyo, Beneath the 12 Mile Reef, Between Heaven and Hell, Broken Lance and Dragon though excelling even that collection were I thought the stunning ones for White Feather, Halls of Montezuma [my Richard in great iconic form visually] and the 2nd one from 1957’s Jesse James. I liked the song that accompanied the latter at the time: “That dirty little coward, Called Robert Ford, Shot Mr Howard***, And laid poor Jesse in his grave”.
*** that was Jesse’s alias when he went incognito to escape capture.
4 Excellent stills were those from All the Fine Young Cannibals, Prince Valiant, the War Lover, Harper and the one with that rather flat-chested girl! However taking pride of place in my estimation was the stirring black and white one of Robert throwing his pregnant girlfriend off the roof in A Kiss Before Dying a scene that I have highlighted in my post to Bruce today. You and Joel Junior agree on 3 of Wagner’s 5 best movies [Harper, Longest Day and Pink Panther] and for me your video deserved a 97.5 rating. Great to be able to comment on BOTH a Cogerson page and a Lensman video when both were fresh in my mind.
Hey Bob….very strange….gotta be the first time Steve and I have ever done that….just got through sharing his video on this page. All I can say is….Great minds thinking alike. Wagner made my radar screen this week at work….a friend was looking at our Stanwyck page and could not believe Wagner and Stanwyck were an item….later he was shaking his head in disbelief that we did not have a Wagner page too…..well now we do….plus Steve’s excellent….it must be Robert Wagner Weekend…lol. I will comment more when the yard work is complete. WoC has stepped away from the computer this weekend after 5 straight now stop UMR computer programming weekends.
Good stuff Bruce and thanks again for the share.
No problem Steve….your video page crossed 1000 views the other day…..figure it helps out both of us.
Hey Bob….I think Steve got his video done before I got my page posted. So I guess Steve could claim I stole his idea….lol. Good review on Steve’s video….which I just commented on myself.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, comment, infor and trivia, always appreciated.
Glad you liked the visual presentation.
Eventually Robert Wagner became more famous for his TV work than his movies, my parents were fans of It Takes a Thief and Hart to Hart (and on about the same level – McMillan and Wife). They weren’t my cup of Earl Grey. It wasn’t Star Trek. 😉
Only one 10 out of 10 scoring Wagner film from my sources – The Longest Day, and three scoring 9 – Broken Lance, The Pink Panther and Harper.
The lowest scorer on my chart is Curse of the Pink Panther with 4.17.
Some acting heavyweights coming up this week, and the next. On a different level from the ‘Girlie Men’ (as Arnold would have called them) videos I’ve been uploading recently.
HI STEVE
1 Thanks for the feedback and the mystery “coming attractions”.I look forward to them.
2 I liked Hart to Hart and MacMillan and Wife. Indeed both are nostalgic parts of my early years of marriage as I tended to be indoor more often than in my single days, and TV shows like those two and other such as Columbo were very easy to watch
Hey Steve….Curse of the Pink Panther was the 4th worse in my rankings….losing out to Concorde 79, Play It To The Bone and Stopover Tokyo.
HI Bruce: 1 I had to comment on this new page because (1) I have always liked Wagner (2) I find myself in unusual agreement with your Guru. I too didn’t think much of the very young Wagner but that changed when I saw him in the 1956 A Kiss before Dying in which he gave a chilling performance as a murderer. I will never forget the scene in that movie where Robert throws his girlfriend [the future Mrs Paul Newman] off a roof because she’s pregnant
2 I’ve said before that Spencer Tracy became Wagner’s mentor though initially on the set of the 1954 Broken Lance they had a row when Tracy accused Wagner of trying to “underplay” him in a scene for that movie. However according to Robert ultimately Tracy became his mentor and a father figure to him and helped Wagner’s career by for example insisting that Paramount give Robert equal above the title billing in the 1956 The Mountain, during the shooting of which film the cantankerous Tracy allegedly told the future Mrs Mumbles, Anna Kashfi, that her fiancé was “an idiot”. However it would appear that American “fatherhood” didn’t extend to allowing Wagner first billing in The Mountain in the way that Brit Sir John Mills permitted his teenage daughter Hayley billing over him in the 1964 The Chalk Garden.
3 Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter were among the foremost of Fox’s new young contract players in the early 1950s and as your table above illustrates made many movies together. Steve stole a march on you by profiling Hunter recently but the in-tandem appearance of your Wagner page and Steve’s Wagner video have forced a draw this time round. Certainly I find it a most welcome page and among the many things that pleased me was the miniature ensemble still from Broken Lance with my Richard perhaps illustrating that if you stand back from the pack you become more noticeable. Broken Lance was a western remake of the 1948 film noir House of Strangers with Eddie Robinson in the Tracy role and I think Richard Conte in the Wagner one. Anyway good stuff from both you and Steve.
CORRECTION TO MY PREVIOUS POST
House of Strangers was 1949 and not 1948. It was remade again after Tracy’s Broken Lance as The Big Show [1961] starring Esther Williams and Cliff Robertson. Susan Hayward and Jean Peters respectively were the female leads in the Robinson/Tracy versions.
Hey Bob….thanks for the correction notice. I guess that story has some Shakespearan themes that match lots of time lines.
Hey Bob.
1. Glad you and Joel see the young Wagner the same way. I tell ya…..one day you will be buying his book….maybe I will send you my duct taped copy for Christmas….lol.
2. I have not seen A Kiss Before Dying…but reading what he does to poor Joanne is very much against type….I will have to check that one out.
3. Interesting about Spencer and Wagner. I have seen both of their movies…with Broken Lance being the better of the two….can say I bought them being brothers in The Mountain.
4. I got a kick out of the fact that Jeffrey Hunter kept popping up in the Wagner movies….so that means I have 4 of Hunter’s movies already researched and ready to go.
5. I did not realize Broken Lance was a remake of that EGR movie…good stuff to know.
Thanks for the feedback.
Robert Wagner looked a little too perfect in his youth, gleaming teeth, wide ingratiating grin. The years melted off some of this rich-boy glitter, and he matured into a capable actor.
No 4 star performances in my book….but 9 3 star performances
1952 Stars and Stripes Forever
1954 Prince Valiant
1956 A Kiss Before Dying
1957 The True Story of Jesse James
1958 The Hunters
1962 The War Lover
1962 The Condemned of Altona
1964 The Pink Panther
1969 Winning
Hey Joel….always good to see your views seeing the light of day.