Arthur Kennedy Movies

Want to know the best Arthur Kennedy movies?  How about the worst Arthur Kennedy movies?  Curious about Arthur Kennedy box office grosses or which Arthur Kennedy movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Arthur Kennedy 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.  This page was requested by Mike.

Arthur Kennedy (1914-1990) was a 5-time Oscar®-nominated American actor.   Kennedy was one of the premier character actors in American film from the 1940s through the early 1960s.  His IMDb page shows 103 acting credits between 1940 and 1990.  This page will rank Arthur Kennedy movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos, uncredited roles, and movies that were not released in North American were not included in the rankings.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

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

Champion (1949)

Arthur Kennedy 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 Arthur Kennedy movies by his co-stars
  • Sort Arthur Kennedy movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort Arthur Kennedy movies by domestic yearly box office rank
  • Sort Arthur Kennedy 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 Arthur Kennedy movie received.
  • Sort Arthur Kennedy 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.
Bright Victory (1951)

Possibly Interesting Fact About Arthur Kennedy

1. John Arthur Kennedy was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1914.

2.  Arthur Kennedy was discovered by James Cagney.  Kennedy’s role was playing Cagney’s younger brother in 1940’s City For Conquest.

3. Arthur Kennedy achieved fame in the role of Biff in Elia Kazan’s historic production of Arthur Miller’s Pultizer-Prize winning play “Death of a Salesman.”  He was not selected to recreate the role on screen.

4.  Four of Arthur Kennedy’s five Oscar®-nominated performances were directed by Mark Robson: Champion (1949), Bright Victory (1951), Trial (1955) and Peyton Place (1957). His fifth nod, for Some Came Running (1958), was directed by Vincente Minnelli.

5.  Edmond O’Brien was originally cast as Jackson Bentley in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). After O’Brien filmed several scenes, he suffered a heart attack and had to be replaced.  Arthur Kennedy was recommended to director David Lean by Anthony Quinn, whom Kennedy had replaced on Broadway in the role of King Henry II in the play “Beckett” (1960).

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

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16 thoughts on “Arthur Kennedy Movies”

  1. Hello everybody on the line,
    Arthur Kennedy is in Rancho Notorious, in French ‘l’ange des Maudits ‘ because Dietrich is so famous in France, she is very often call ‘the Blue Angel ‘and to day it is always considered like a great classic western in the same way that Johnny Guitar , first of all by the director German Fritz Lang who is very famous too and then by Dietrich with something new for her, in her part the time which is passing and her glorious time , there is a scene with Arthur Kennedy who is speaking of these glorious days …. a long time ago….and Fritz Lang said that Dietrich does not like the films for one of these raisons.
    That was a big succes for a western in France and is very often on the classic movies place in Paris , but not to day of course because all the cinema are closed…..
    Prenez bien soins de vous,
    Take care of yourself
    Bye
    Pierre

    Reply

  2. I saw 12 including top 7. 10s not favorites : Elmer gantry, Lawrence of Arabia. 9s and favorites: Peyton place, they died with their boots on( de Havilland is great). 9s not favorites: some came running( Shirley MacLaine is great), high sierra, the man from Laramie.

    Reply

  3. HI STEVE

    Good post. “HAVE SEENS”: Queen Flora 28/Me 21/You 19/Work Horse 11. Good to see the Big Guy awarded the wooden spoon for a change as that is usually my fate!

    As it is Gold for Flora; Silver for me; Bronze for you; and WH goes away empty handed. There is justice somewhere in this world!

    Reply

    1. Thanks Bob. Good to see you adding your tally to some of these UMR pages. Bruce and I haven’t a chance against you and Flora when it comes to classic movies. But in classic sci-fi cinema I am king and always will be, he proudly boasted. 🙂

      I’ll hopefully be back with some videos next week.

      Reply

      1. HI STEVE: Thanks for the kind words. I am well enough VERSED and READ about classic era movies but far less so in relation to modern ones as I am more interested in television than in today’s movies with a few exceptions such as Sir Maurice’s Youth/Helen Mirren’s Eye in the Sky/ and the latest Kenneth Branagh Hercule Poirot outing. However even in relation to classic era films I would say that on most occasions you/WH/Flora/Dan would beat me hands down in being able to quote actual “have seen” films and totals.

        That’s because I was always dogmatically selective about the movies I watched. I don’t mean that in a highbrow artistic sense and indeed the Work Horse for one would probably have a greater grasp of the artistic quality of most movies than I would often have. However I have always had hard and fast very strong likes and dislikes in relation to film genres and even plots within genres.

        For example I was a big fan of John Payne’s westerns and action movies in the fifties and whilst I saw droves of those and was very conversant with his complete film career two thirds of his overall total didn’t interest me so I avoided them and they were the block that probably contained most of his A movies and /or classics. I have never watched Miracle on 34th Street for example as though I am a big fan of Xmas movies the storyline of that particular one didn’t appeal to me.

        However a current popular cliché is that often “Less is More” and an example of what that means is the possibility that viewers of this site might have experienced it as MORE beneficial if Joel had seen/commented upon LESS films!

        Also my brother is a fanatical film buff and he has about a dozen fave actors [Lancaster/Cagney/Bogie/The Duke/James Woods for example] every one of whose movies are a “must see” for him so he incessantly records them on TV reruns when he is at work and/or buys the DVDs; on top of which he has a massive video collection dating from the early 1990s. He confessed to me once that he was in torment at times trying to find time to keep up with them all. Anyway nice hearing from you and keep safe. I look forward to your full-time return next week.

        Reply

  4. ooh Arthur Kennedy, good actor, good subject for UMR-ness.

    I’ve seen 19 of the 63 films on the chart, probably more watched in the past can’t remember the titles.

    Favorites include- Florence of Arabia, They Died With Their Loafers On, Fantastic Journey, Desperate Voyage, Low Sierra, Idaho Smith and Where the River Bends.

    Top rated movies I have not seen – Elmer Fudd Gantry and Raunchy Notorious.

    Looking at the trivia, I just can’t imagine Kennedy as Henry II in ‘Becket’ on Broadway, obsessing over Thomas Becket the way Peter O’ Toole did in the movie version. Maybe because he’s too American and that accent might get in the way.

    Might be fascinating to see some youtube clips from those performances and the various actors who played that role, including Anthony Quinn. I know O’Toole and Richard Burton alternated playing those roles on the stage before making the movie.

    Nice work Bruce. Vote Up!

    Reply

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