Want to know the best Robert Young movies? How about the worst Robert Young movies? Curious about Robert Young box office grosses or which Robert Young movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Robert Young 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 Young (1907-1998) was an American actor who appeared in 80 movies before finding even greater fame on television. His IMDb page shows 106 acting credits from 1928-1998. This page will rank 82 Robert Young movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, uncredited roles and 4 movies from the early 1930s were not included in the rankings.
Drivel page: Joel Hirschhorn‘s Rating The Movie Stars book ranked 410 stars. The very last rated star in that book was Robert Young (it is alphabetical order). Hirschhorn’s book is one of the biggest influences on this website. This marks the 195th star in his book that now has a UMR page.
Robert Young Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Robert Young 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 Young movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Robert Young movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Robert Young movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Robert Young 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 Young movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Robert Young movie won.
- Sort Robert Young 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 Young Table
- Twenty-eight Robert Young movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 34.15% of his movies listed. The Kid From Spain (1932) was his biggest box office hit when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Robert Young movie grosses $88.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 45 Robert Young movies are rated as good movies…or 54.87% of his movies. Northwest Passage (1940) is his highest rated movie while The Bride Walks Out (1936) was his lowest rated movie.
- Eight Robert Young movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 9.75% of his movies.
- Two Robert Young movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 2.43% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 44 Robert Young movies scored higher than that average….or 53.65% of his movies. Northwest Passage (1940) got the the highest UMR Score while The Half-Breed (1952) got the lowest UMR Score.
Ten Possibly Interesting Facts About Robert Young
1. Robert George Young was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1907.
2. Robert Young first started acting at Chicago’s Pasadena Playhouse in the late 1920s. A MGM talent agents spotted him in a 1931 touring stage production of “The Ship” and signed him up.
3. Between 1931 and 1949, Robert Young made an incredible 82 motion pictures. That is almost 4 and a half movies for 19 straight years.
4. According to the buzz of 1941…..Robert Young was one of the leading contenders for a Best Actor Oscar® nomination. His performance in 1941’s H.M. Pulham failed to get him a nomination.
5. Robert Young starred in two very popular television shows. From 1954 to 1960 he starred in Father Knows Best and from 1969 to 1976 in Marcus Welby, M.D. He would never appear in another motion picture after 1954’s Secret of the Incas.
6. Robert Young was married 1 time and had 4 children. He was married to Elizabeth Louise Henderson from 1933 to her death in 1994. Not thinking too many Hollywood marriages last over 60 years. Congrats to them.
7. Robert Young did extra work in Keystone Cops movies of the 1920s.
8. Robert Young’s movies from 1930 to 1939 earned $3.94 billion in adjusted domestic gross. That puts him in 3rd place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1930’s Top Box Office Stars.
9. Robert Young’s movies from 1940 to 1949 earned $3.16 billion in adjusted domestic gross. That puts him in 20th place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1940’s Top Box Office Stars.
10. Check out Robert Young’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Check out Steve’s Robert Young You Tube Page
Want more stats? How about Robert Young Adjusted Worldwide Grosses?
- Bride For Sale (1949) $92.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Cairo (1942) $98.20 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Crossfire (1947) $204.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Goodbye My Fancy (1951) $75.30 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Hell Below (1933) $145.40 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Hell Divers (1931) $256.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Joe Smith American (1942) $54.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Journey for Margaret (1942) $112.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Lady Be Good (1941) $164.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Maisie (1939) $93.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Men Must Fight (1933) $46.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Navy Blue and Gold (1937) $134.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- New Morals For Old (1932) $36.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Northwest Passage (1940) $270.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Spitfire (1934) $64.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Strange Interlude (1932) $134.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- That Forsyte Woman (1949) $180.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Bride Walks Out (1936) $75.40 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Bride Wore Red (1937) $156.30 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Emperor’s Candlesticks (1937) $173.10 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Enchanted Cottage (1945) $195.10 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Shining Hour (1938) $170.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Those Endearing Young Charms (1945) $151.30 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Three Comrades (1938) $255.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Today We Live (1933) $107.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Tugboat Annie (1933) $268.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- West Point of The Air (1935) $131.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
1 He never reached the Legendary heights of the likes of Wayne or Grant so I always regarded Robert Young as simply another albeit very important and at times even top-billed leading man of old Hollywood with similar status to say Robert Montgomery with whom I used to confuse Young. [I’ll not press the point by emphasising RY got billed above Myrna Loy because so did everybody else!] When I first saw RY I was just 11 and it was in Crossfire with the Roberts Ryan and Mitchum and it was a while before my pre-teen mind with little knowledge of movies could work out which Robert to attach to which surname. To add to the confusion Robert Cummins [whom for years I persisted in calling CumminGs] was also highly active in movies in those days.
2 Young may not have been as big a star as Cary or the Duke but as the excellent comprehensive profile on this page amply illustrates he was certainly as prolific in output as those two were if not more so and must have made piles of money from his movie career and his TV fame. My favourite RY movie was the 1941 Western Union in which he was the tenderfoot hero with Randy Scott departing from type to play a bad guy of sorts and taking 2nd billing to Robert. As Bruce says the 1954 Secret of the Incas was Young’s final movie and STEVE should take note because the star to that one was of course CHUCK Anyway I will join Steve in greeting this new page with a “Vote up!”
COGERSON CORRECTION REQUIRED !
1 As I suggested recently to Steve even our own highly prolific busy-bee Work Horse is not immune from The Law of Diminishing Returns which is reputed to invariably come into play when one seeks to do too much.
2 In the otherwise wonderfully informative Robert Young page the usually 100%-accurate Brucie seems to confuse Western Union with Union Pacific. The latter was a 1939 film De Mille epic starring Stanwyck and McCrea whereas in the 1941 Western Union Robert Young had the lovely Virginia Gilmore as his leading lady and Randy Scott as his co-star- see my previous post.
3 WH has though correctly credited Union Pacific to McCrea/Stanwyck on their own pages
and Western Union to Randy on his page though with a very slightly-conflicting adjusted gross to the one on this Robert Young page.
4 However people in glass houses shouldn’t really throw stones and I notice that my database has Western Union wrongly down as a 1940 movie so I am grateful to WH for setting me right on that score! It’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow some good!
Hey Bob…..thanks for that …..I will fix it right now.
Fixed…both pages match now….and I have the correct co-stars now.
Hey Bob
1. Thanks for checking out our Robert Young page.
2. Not going to bite on that Loy bait….lol.
3. I can see all those Roberts in Crossfire could get a little confusing….lol.
4. I will have to check out Western Union. I have only seen two of his movies….but I liked both of them….seems I should watch some more of his movies…..my source for movies (the many local libraries in my area) do not have many of these movies….so gasp….I might have to watch some of them on television.
5. I can see getting Montgomery and Young mixed up….they could be brothers.
6. Speaking of brothers….Young’s brother was Roger Moore…..not the Bond Moore….but a bit actor that appeared in 100s of movies…..that bit of trivia almost made the “Surprising Facts” list.
7. Thanks for the feedback on Mr. Young.
Thankyou for doing a page on Robert Young, an actor whose movies interest me so much I want to see every movie he made.
So far I have seen 21 of Robert Young’s movies, not a very large total.
My favourite Robert Young movies are:
The Enchanted Cottage
Crossfire
Maisie
Slightly Dangerous
Northwest Passage
Hey Flora
1. After spending about 10 days on current stars…I figured it was time to return to some classic performers like Howard Keel and Robert Young.
2. Tally count….Lupino 29, Flora 21, Steve 4 and me an embarrasing 2.
3. Good to see that my 2 Robert Young movies that I have seen are on your Top 5.
4. Northwest Passage was one of my dad’s all-time favorite movies….so I am sure he is happy to see it listed amongst your favorites.
🙂
Wow! And another classic actor 🙂
My first introduction to Mr. Young was as a kid, watching Marcus Welby, MD on telly (co-starring with present Streisand hubby James Brolin). Shortly afterwards, I became a big fan of Hollywood classics, and thus found out the dear elderly doctor used to be a Hollywood star in his youth. I have seen at least 29 of the movies listed, my favorites are the 3 he did with Margaret Sullavan. Others include Crossfire, Sitting Pretty, HM Pulham, Esq., Claudia (Dorothy McGuire in a Star-making Performance) and the wonderfully romantic Enchanted Cottage, also costarring with Miss McGuire. The first movie I remember seeing him in is Remember Last Night?, which I really loved at the time but which would need revisiting, for I hardly remember it today. Robert Young may not have been the biggest male star of his time- but look at his list of leading ladies! Sullavan and Sidney, Colbert, Crawford, Turner, Hayward, Stanwyck, Grable, Garson, Hedy Lamarr and Luise Rainer…plus a highly successfull later career on TV. So, well done, Mr. Young, a great career for somebody who had been labled “actor without sexappeal” at the beginning of his career 😉
Thanks again Bruce for this highly interesting page!
Hey Lupino. Tally count…..You 29, Flora 21, Steve 4 and me a paltry 2. I have the same memories of Marcus Welby and James Brolin. I am not surprised that his Sullavan movies are your favorite Robert Young movies.
I know have a high interest in watching more Robert Young movies….with Sitting Pretty, H.M. Pulham and Enchanted Cottage (he and his wife named their house after that movie). I agree the man had some awesome co-stars…..and they all loved working with him. I have read that he was one of Joan Crawford’s favorite leading men.
Glad you enjoyed this statistic look at Mr. Robert Young. Thanks for the visit and the comment.
Jeezus nearly 100 films on the chart! And I’ve only seen 4, embarrassing. 🙂
When I was young I only knew Robert Young as Marcus Welby MD, later I found out he was a popular actor in Hollywood’s heyday.
I don’t think I’ve seen Secret of the Incas, maybe when I was a kid but I can’t remember it. It’s supposed to have been the inspiration for the Indiana Jones series.
I have seen Northwest Passage the chart topper on the page.
Good work as always Bruce. Plenty of movie stats here. Vote Up!
Hey Steve
1. As always….thanks for the comment, tally and nice words.
2. So your tally is 4…..not thinking that is going to win our little contest….let’s see can I top that?….counting….OUCH!…..only 2 for me.
3. Tally counts….Lupino 29, Flora 21 and a combined 6 for us……that seems almost embarrasing for us.
4. The two I have seen are Northwest Passage (one of my dad’s all-time favorite movies) and Crossfire (an excellent movie with the 3 Roberts)…..makes me wonder why I have not seen more of his movies.
5. Actually surprised that you have not seen Secret of the Incas….I vaguely remember years ago….a commentor actually attached a link to watch that movie…I think it was back in the HubPages days.
6. I like you knew grew up knowing Robert Young as Father Knows Marcus Welby MD…..in some ways he was like Fred MacMurray….as I kid I know them…..but had no idea they had been major movie stars in their youth.
Good feedback.
Really churning them out there are we. Robert Young was never on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list. Even when the first list was compiled in 2000 Bob hadn’t made a film in 46 years, giving it all up for Father Knows Best and Marcus Welby. There are only 5 people on the current list who worked with Bob and they have all passed on.
245 MICKEY ROONEY Death on the Diamond (1934)
245 MICKEY ROONEY West Point of the Air (1935)
247 CHARLTON HESTON Secret of the Incas (1954)
592 JOHN GIELGUD Secret Agent (1936)
681 ANTHONY QUINN Sworn Enemy (1936)
809 ROBERT MITCHUM Crossfire (1947)
These are the people who were on the 2000 list and have since fallen off who appeared in a film with Mr. Young.
14 JOHN CARRADINE Western Union (1941)
27 MARC LAWRENCE Death on the Diamond (1934)
100 IAN WOLFE The Emperor’s Candlesticks (1937)
100 IAN WOLFE The Searching Wind (1946)
120 ROBERT STACK The Mortal Storm (1940)
146 MIKE MAZURKI Relentless (1948)
146 MIKE MAZURKI The Canterville Ghost (1944)
147 LLOYD BRIDGES ‘Northwest Passage’ (Book I — Rogers’ Rangers) (1940)
160 ROBERT RYAN Crossfire (1947)
169 JOHN DEHNER The Searching Wind (1946)
186 AVA GARDNER H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
186 AVA GARDNER Joe Smith, American (1942)
194 LAWRENCE TIERNEY Those Endearing Young Charms (1945)
222 BESS FLOWERS Honolulu (1939)
222 BESS FLOWERS Lady Be Good (1941)
222 BESS FLOWERS Married Bachelor (1941)
222 BESS FLOWERS Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938)
222 BESS FLOWERS The Searching Wind (1946)
222 BESS FLOWERS The Second Woman (1950)
222 BESS FLOWERS The Shining Hour (1938)
234 AKIM TAMIROFF Relentless (1948)
234 AKIM TAMIROFF Whom the Gods Destroy (1934)
237 PETER LAWFORD The Canterville Ghost (1944)
256 HANK WORDEN ‘Northwest Passage’ (Book I — Rogers’ Rangers) (1940)
278 KEYE LUKE Journey for Margaret (1942)
299 FRITZ FELD I Met Him in Paris (1937)
344 JAMES STEWART Navy Blue and Gold (1937)
344 JAMES STEWART The Mortal Storm (1940)
356 PHIL BROWN H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
379 ANN DORAN Slightly Dangerous (1943)
389 LEON ASKIN Secret of the Incas (1954)
395 WALTER PIDGEON That Forsyte Woman (1949)
420 MAURICE MARSAC The Searching Wind (1946)
472 TERRY-THOMAS It’s Love Again (1936)
481 LILLI PALMER Secret Agent (1936)
507 RALPH BELLAMY Spitfire (1934)
508 ROBERT BLAKE Bridal Suite (1939)
508 ROBERT BLAKE Joe Smith, American (1942)
508 ROBERT BLAKE Slightly Dangerous (1943)
562 PAUL BRYAR Bride for Sale (1949)
571 CHARLES LANE Miracles for Sale (1939)
571 CHARLES LANE The Band Plays On (1934)
571 CHARLES LANE The Bride Walks Out (1936)
599 JOHN DOUCETTE And Baby Makes Three (1949)
606 ALBERTO MORIN Bridal Suite (1939)
606 ALBERTO MORIN Florian (1940)
606 ALBERTO MORIN Honolulu (1939)
606 ALBERTO MORIN I Met Him in Paris (1937)
606 ALBERTO MORIN The Toy Wife (1938)
611 DON ‘RED’ BARRY Navy Blue and Gold (1937)
651 MELVYN DOUGLAS I Met Him in Paris (1937)
651 MELVYN DOUGLAS The Shining Hour (1938)
651 MELVYN DOUGLAS The Toy Wife (1938)
671 EDUARDO CIANELLI Cairo (1942)
682 RAY TEAL Florian (1940)
682 RAY TEAL Lady Luck (1946)
682 RAY TEAL ‘Northwest Passage’ (Book I — Rogers’ Rangers) (1940)
682 RAY TEAL Slightly Dangerous (1943)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Adventure in Baltimore (1949)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Sweet Rosie O’Grady (1943)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Sworn Enemy (1936)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER The Shining Hour (1938)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Three Comrades (1938)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Western Union (1941)
744 DEAN JAGGER Dangerous Number (1937)
744 DEAN JAGGER Western Union (1941)
746 HERB VIGRAN And Baby Makes Three (1949)
746 HERB VIGRAN Sweet Rosie O’Grady (1943)
746 HERB VIGRAN Vagabond Lady (1935)
767 PHILIP AHN Stowaway (1936)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Dangerous Number (1937)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Florian (1940)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Married Before Breakfast (1937)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Remember Last Night? (1935)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Western Union (1941)
824 FRANK WILCOX The Half-Breed (1952)
832 DON BRODIE Death on the Diamond (1934)
832 DON BRODIE Married Bachelor (1941)
832 DON BRODIE Sweet Rosie O’Grady (1943)
832 DON BRODIE Sworn Enemy (1936)
832 DON BRODIE The Wet Parade (1932)
868 LEX BARKER Crossfire (1947)
963 FRANK FERGUSON The Searching Wind (1946)
963 FRANK FERGUSON They Won’t Believe Me (1947)
969 BYRON FOULGER Dr. Kildare’s Crisis (1940)
969 BYRON FOULGER H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
969 BYRON FOULGER Relentless (1948)
969 BYRON FOULGER Sweet Rosie O’Grady (1943)
969 BYRON FOULGER They Won’t Believe Me (1947)
975 MAUREEN O’HARA Sitting Pretty (1948)
994 ELLEN CORBY Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)
994 ELLEN CORBY They Won’t Believe Me (1947)
I count 35 Oscar winners Bob worked with.
ANTHONY QUINN Sworn Enemy (1936)
CHARLES COBURN Florian (1940)
CHARLES COBURN H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
CHARLES LAUGHTON The Canterville Ghost (1944)
CHARLTON HESTON Secret of the Incas (1954)
CLARK GABLE Hell Divers (1931)
CLARK GABLE Strange Interlude (1932)
CLAUDETTE COLBERT Bride for Sale (1949)
CLAUDETTE COLBERT I Met Him in Paris (1937)
CLAUDETTE COLBERT The Bride Comes Home (1935)
DEAN JAGGER Dangerous Number (1937)
DEAN JAGGER Western Union (1941)
DON AMECHE Josette (1938)
GARY COOPER Today We Live (1933)
GEORGE ARLISS The House of Rothschild (1934)
GEORGE BURNS Honolulu (1939)
GLORIA GRAHAME Crossfire (1947)
GREER GARSON That Forsyte Woman (1949)
HATTIE MCDANIEL THE BRIDE WALKS OUT (1936)
HATTIE MCDANIEL THE SHINING HOUR (1938)
HELEN HAYES The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)
JAMES STEWART Navy Blue and Gold (1937)
JAMES STEWART The Mortal Storm (1940)
JANE WYMAN The Kid from Spain (1932)
JANET GAYNOR Carolina (1934)
JOAN CRAWFORD Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)
JOAN CRAWFORD The Bride Wore Red (1937)
JOAN CRAWFORD The Shining Hour (1938)
JOAN CRAWFORD Today We Live (1933)
JOHN GIELGUD Secret Agent (1936)
KATHARINE HEPBURN Spitfire (1934)
LIONEL BARRYMORE Carolina (1934)
LIONEL BARRYMORE Dr. Kildare’s Crisis (1940)
LIONEL BARRYMORE Lady Be Good (1941)
LIONEL BARRYMORE Navy Blue and Gold (1937)
LORETTA YOUNG The House of Rothschild (1934)
LUISE RAINER The Toy Wife (1938)
MARIE DRESSLER Tugboat Annie (1933)
MARY ASTOR Claudia and David (1946)
MARY ASTOR Paradise for Three (1938)
MELVYN DOUGLAS I Met Him in Paris (1937)
MELVYN DOUGLAS The Shining Hour (1938)
MELVYN DOUGLAS The Toy Wife (1938)
NORMA SHEARER Strange Interlude (1932)
SPENCER TRACY Northwest Passage’ (Book I — Rogers’ Rangers) (1940)
SUSAN HAYWARD They Won’t Believe Me (1947)
THOMAS MITCHELL SECRET OF THE INCAS (1954)
VAN HEFLIN H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
WALLACE BEERY Hell Divers (1931)
WALLACE BEERY Tugboat Annie (1933)
WALLACE BEERY West Point of the Air (1935)
WALTER BRENNAN Death on the Diamond (1934)
WALTER BRENNAN ‘Northwest Passage’ (Book I — Rogers’ Rangers) (1940)
WALTER BRENNAN Slightly Dangerous (1943)
WALTER BRENNAN West Point of the Air (1935)
WALTER BRENNAN Whom the Gods Destroy (1934)
WALTER HUSTON Hell Below (1933)
WALTER HUSTON The Wet Parade (1932)
Note: Ann Sothern starred in all 10 Maisie films.
Hey Dan.
1. Whenever I look at my Rating The Movie Stars book….I would always look at Young as the last person and wonder if I would ever do an UMR page on him….well I guess the day finally came.
2. Good lists as always….so Heston was one of the last on the Bacon lists…I imagine both Bob and Steve are happy to see that.
3. I agree..it is not surprising that he did not have more names…..63 years since his last movie in theaters…..not thinking too many people are still working that were working when Incas came out.
4. It looks like Bess Flowers was his most popular fellow actor…….some legends on that list….but lots of almos unknown people.
5. Seeing Walter Brennan on the Oscar list reminds me that I need to update his page.
6. 35 Oscar winners…not too bad…especially since he spent almost all of his time at MGM
Good feedback as always.