Burgess Meredith (1907-1997) was an Oscar®-nominated American actor, director, producer, and writer. Meredith appeared in movies in 7 different decades. From his leading man days in the 1930s and 1940s to his stellar supporting roles in second half of his career. His IMDb page shows 183 acting credits from 1935 to 1996. This page ranks 58 Burgess Meredith movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, some of his early British movies and his movies not released in North America theaters are not included in the rankings.
From Joel Hirschhorn’s Rating The Movie Stars Book…..”Short, slight, and nondescriptive-looking, Burgess Meredith still manages to fill the screen with power. Part of the reason is his intensity: another is his raspy distinctive voice.”
Burgess Meredith Movies Ranked By Combination of Box Office, Reviews and Awards (UMR Score) *Classic UMR Table (the one with all the stats is the second table)
Burgess Meredith 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 Burgess Meredith movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Burgess Meredith movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Burgess Meredith movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Burgess Meredith 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 Burgess Meredith movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Burgess Meredith movie won.
- Sort Burgess Meredith 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.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
THE THIN WOMAN – EXTRACT FROM 1988 INTERVIEW [AT AGE OF 83] – REPRODUCED
“ ‘I worked with Clark on Test Pilot. Great fun and enormously popular but he was a terrible actor, who couldn’t have acted his way out of a paper bag.’
We turned to other topics and we spoke of Gary Cooper, a fellow Montanan of Myrna’s who had been a skillful practitioner of the screwball comedy in her best years. Again not one for over-statement, all she would say was that she didn’t find Cooper good at comedy.
Today, sadly Montanans have to live with the fact that for all their popularity during their careers, Loy and Cooper aren’t among the handful of classic film stars who are still household names — think John Wayne or Marilyn Monroe.
Ed Noonan, who teaches film classes at Carroll College in Helena and is the former director of the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts in Helena, and Andrew Patrick Nelson, a film professor at Montana State University in Bozeman, say they are typically greeted with blank stares from their students when they bring up the Cooper/Loy names.”
Good thoughts on Loy, Burgess, Steve’s video and Noonan. Hope you enjoy your vacation Bob…have fun and stay safe.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and trivia, always appreciated.
Looking at the posters Burgess Meredith was lead actor in 5 of the 40 films on my video, not bad considering he was primarily a supporting actor.
How many of Walter Brennan’s 40 films on my video was he lead actor? let me quickly check… 3 films. And Walter Huston’s 30? 9 films topping the credits.
Before Rocky I knew Burgess best as the Penguin in the 60’s Batman series. Cesar Romero was the Joker for an entire generation until Jack Nicholson played the role in 1989. Romero might be a good subject for a future video, should turn up some interesting poster art.
Two films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Rocky Uno & Of Myrna and Men.
Three more scored 9 out of 10 – Advise and Consent, Story of GI Joe and The Day of the Locust.
Rocky topped both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes charts, but I enjoyed Rocky II more.
“I did Batman for two reasons, one of which was the salary. The other was that, after the first few episodes, Batman became the in-thing to do. Everybody… would either play a villain or appear as himself in that cameo showcase where a celebrity would poke his head through the window of a building that Batman and Robin were climbing. Actually, we didn’t get as much money from the show as you might think, although we were paid decent money for the feature film version. The main impetus to continue appearing on Batman – beyond the desire to get some TV work – was that it was fashionable.”
HI STEVE:
Thanks for the feedback. Walter Brennan the lead actor in just 3 of the 40 movies un your video, you say. Yet because of WH’s current practice of not ranking supporting actors separate from the Greats and other lead actors, Walter is the 4th highest box office star in The Work Horse’s Top table of the stars of the 1940s; and Walt is above the likes of Wayne, Cooper, Tracy and Bogie. “Check it out!” as Bill Murray kept insisting in Scrooged.
However WH is religiously honest in giving you all the hard statistical facts, which you can interpret as you will and which you will not get to the same extent anywhere else, especially relating to the older movies. I may interpret The Thin Woman’s status differently than he does; but without the information that he has given us on this site I would not be able to form any serious conclusions at all in the matter. Also, I think that Bruce’s BOOK does a good job in separating the wheat from the chaff over so many decades, stars and movies. Obviously a lot of thought as well as much hard work went into the material in the book.
That’s a very well-measured quote that you have provided from Burgess. Anyway, have a good break and keep safe
Hi Bob, it’s good to see you saying some nice things about dear Myrna ‘and’ Joel’s book in recent posts, it should cheer Bruce up quite a bit. 🙂
Have a great holiday, I’ll be taking a break from youtube activities for a week or so.
Take care,
Steve.
HI STEVE: It’s good to see you giving Joel his due credit for the book that went out under WH’s name. I didn’t have the nerve to do that! However has it ever occurred to you that possibly we’ve got it the wrong way round now that possibly WH has shown us his skills as an author: ie was it really the very young Bruce who wrote all that nonsense in the 1983 book? If so, certainly The Work Horse has improved his writing skills and knowledge of films over the years!***
I’ve reproduced in Part 3 of this post the final paragraph of the Myrna 1988 interview. Myrna and Coop are far from the only former Greats [there, Work Horse, I’ve acknowledged her as a Great!] who may have been unknown to more modern generations. I have mentioned a number of times on this site that even quarter a century ago hordes of university students were oblivious to who Gable was – though Myrna might have found that understandable as she apparently considered him a terrible actor!!
But let’s not forget it’s young students we’ve been talking about. WH was a young student once but grew up and wised up after studying at the feet of Hirsch. Perhaps those other young students in the examples also have gotten a bit of learning and sense and today many of them worship Thins in the way that WH does. Indeed HIS students could be benefiting from posters of The Thin Woman, McClane, Archie, Sir Maurice etc on their classroom walls and in their school rest-rooms; though I’m sure the school Darts Club aren’t allowed near pictures of Joel!
***PS: Whoever wrote what between Hirsch/WH I am beginning to feel almost a kindred spirit of their literary set. My son has had published two legal text books on making Personal Medical Injury claims and he dedicates the 2nd one to W o Bob and me. I would have preferred him to dedicate it to Alan Ladd, but I didn’t dare mention that!
Further to my Part One [and Part 3 to follow} the issues DO remind me of a scene from the TV sitcom Frasier [1993-2004]. Martin tells off Frasier and Niles for embarrassing him in public and says:
“As I’ve said to you boys before Lorne Greene wouldn’t have tolerated that from his sons, The Cartwright Boys*** would he?”
Frasier and Niles [in unison and meekly] “No dad, he wouldn’t.”
Martin leaves the room and Frasier whispers to Niles “One of these days we’re gonna have to get up the nerve to ask him who the heck The Cartwright Boys were!” ***Bonanza TV western series 1958-1973, massive 430 episodes.
Keep safe and thank you for kind holiday wishes. I leave at noon today and return in the wee small hours of Sun1 March.
“There’s a ship lies rigged and ready in the harbour
Tomorrow for old England she sails
Far away from this land of endless sunshine
To my land full of rainy skies and gales
And I shall be aboard that ship tomorrow
Though my heart is full of tears at this farewell
For here is beautiful and I have loved it dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell.” [The Last Farewell – sung by Roger Whittaker]
Hey Bob….though I know you are away on vacation….just know I appreciate these kinds words.
TOP 12 STILLS/LOBBY CARDS [IN MY OPINION]
1/Youthful Burgess in opening one
2/On Our Merry Men
3/The Hindenburg
4/Street of Chance
5/Rocky 3
6/The Penguin
7/Foul Play
8/Tom, Dick and Harry
9/Raunchy That Uncertain Feeling – Merle was Josephine to Brando’s Nappy in Desiree
10/Rocky 2
11/In Harm’s Way
12/Castle on the Hudson “Before Brando, Before Clift, Before Dean there was John Garfield – quote from Bruce Cogerson on this site!
Disappointment: No still/photo of The Work Horse on the Rocky Steps
However overall a 98% rating for my personal satisfaction. “Vote Up!”
TOP 20 MEREDITH POSTER SETS IN STEVE’s VIDEO [MY CHOICE]
1/FL for Magnificent Doll
2/Santa the Movie
3/both Grumpy Old Bigots movies
4/Man in the Eiffel Tower
5/Hard Contact
6/all for Winterset
7/FL for Torture Garden
8/two for Joe Butterfly
9/Street of Chance
10/Twilight Zone
11/first one for Batman
12/all for Clash of Titans
13/two saucy ones for Diary of Chambermaid
14/Rocky 2
15/State of Grace
16/FL for In Harm’s way
17/Day of Locust
18/two for GI Joe
19/FL for Of Mice and Men
20/Rocky [1976]
NOTE: I was about 11 year old when I saw a rerun of GI Joe and didn’t know any of the actors in it. Although Burgess had the lead and title role and Mitch a supporting part it was Big Bob who registered with me and I didn’t remember Burgess after the movie ended. Guess that’s what they call “star presence”
The phases of Burgess, career that drew attention to him were varied. For example-
1/In the late 30s he won accolades for his performance in Of Mice and Men; and in the mid-1940s he was war correspondent Ernie Pyle in The Story of GI Joe aka War Correspondent over here, with Mitchum in a supporting role.
2/In the 1950s he was in the 1957 Joe Butterfly, which starred Audie Murphy in his only outright comedy role about American servicemen in Tokyo after the surrender of Japan. The film suffered from comparison with Teahouse of the August Moon released around the same time; but Burgess got the reflected glory of his character being seen as a “poor man’s” Sakini, the similar-type role occupied by the then red hot Brando in Teahouse.
3/In the 1960s Burgess was of course The Penguin in 19 episodes the cult TV series Batman [1966-68]
4/And of course the 1970s and beyond brought him the role of Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky franchise.
Other mediums in which he was successful were (1) from the 1930s thru the seventies, theatre as both actor and director, playing for example Hamlet and being profiled for his work in connection with the stage in the influential New Yorker magazine (2) TV- Wikipedia lists 48 presentation from 1950-83 (3) Radio: 6 productions from 1941-53