Want to know the best Daniel Day-Lewis movies? How about the worst Daniel Day-Lewis movies? Curious about Daniel Day-Lewis’ box office grosses or curious which Daniel Day-Lewis movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations and Oscar® wins? Need to know which Daniel Day-Lewis movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have ranked all of his movies Best to Worst in 4 different categories.
Daniel Day-Lewis (1957-) seems to be the polar opposite of Adam Sandler. Sandler’s movies are generally hated by critics but pull in the masses when they open in theaters. Meanwhile Day-Lewis’ movies are loved…and I mean a deep love….by critics and by Oscar voters®….. but generally fail to put much of a dent at the box office. If you could merge Sandler’s box office with Day-Lewis critical approval you would have the greatest movie star ever. Coming to theaters near you Daniel Day-Sandler in Gangs of Waterboys.
Daniel Day-Lewis is the only actor to ever win 3 Best Actor Oscars®. Even more amazing than his record breaking Oscar® glory is the fact that he has only acted in 16 theatrical movies since 1982. His IMDb page shows 28 acting credits since 1971. After taking away his television appearances and straight to DVD movies we are left with 16 movies to rank. In the table below, Ultimate Movie Rankings ranks those 16 movies in 6 different sortable columns.
Daniel Day-Lewis Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Daniel Day-Lewis 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 Daniel Day-Lewis movies by his co-stars of the movie
- Sort Daniel Day-Lewis movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Daniel Day-Lewis movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Daniel Day-Lewis 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 Daniel Day-Lewis movie received.
- Sort Daniel Day-Lewis 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 things about Daniel Day-Lewis
1. Daniel Day-Lewis was born in London, England on April 29, 1957.
2. Daniel Day-Lewis’s track to stardom. Day-Lewis studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic School. He got his first screen appearance in 1971’s Sunday Bloody Sunday. Eleven years later he appeared in a brief scene in Gandhi. From there he got a supporting role in 1984’s The Bounty. His role in The Bounty lead to critical received acting roles in two 1986 movies…My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room With A View. Since then it has been one award winning performance after another.
3. Daniel Day-Lewis has married one time…to Rebecca Miller (1996-). They got married in 1996 and have two children. That made writer Arthur Miller his father-in-law.
4. Daniel Day-Lewis has been nominated for 5 Best Actor Oscars®. He won for 1989’s My Left Foot, 2007’s There Will Be Blood, and 2012’s Lincoln. His other two nominations were for 1993’s In The Name Of The Father and 2002’s Gangs of New York.
5. Daniel Day-Lewis is tied with Walter Brennan, Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman, Meryl Streep for 2nd place with 3 acting Oscars®. Katharine Hepburn is the leader with 4 acting Oscars®.
6. Daniel Day-Lewis is a legend when it comes to how he prepares for a role.
- Killed all his own food for Last Of The Mohicans
- Learned an entirely new language for The Unbearable Lightness Of Being
- Broke his own ribs for My Left Foot
- Lived as an 1870s gentleman for The Age of Innocence
- Went to prison for In The Name Of The Father
- Didn’t wash for The Crucible
- Became a professional-standard boxer for The Boxer
- Left his wife for The Ballad Of Jack And Rose
- For more detailed information on these points check out this link.
7. Some quotes: “He is widely acclaimed for his meticulous acting, which he worked on like a mad scientist who works on an invention” and “His total attention to externals, makeup, hair, clothing, manner of walking, gesturing and speech are mind boggling”. Sound like these quotes would accurately describe Daniel Day-Lewis….but they are actually quotes about Oscar® winning actor Paul Muni. Muni was a movie star in the 1930s and 1940s who was probably the first method actor. Seems that Day-Lewis is following in the footsteps of Muni when it comes preparing for a movie role.
8. Roles Daniel Day-Lewis turned down or was seriously considered for: Batman Begins (Christian Bale part), The English Patient (Ralph Fiennes part), Interview With A Vampire (Tom Cruise part), Philadelphia (Tom Hanks part), Sleepy Hollow (Johnny Depp part), Pulp Fiction (John Travolta part) and Lord of the Rings trilogy (Viggo Mortensen part).
9. Is one of 8 actors to have won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics’ Choice Award, Golden Globe Award and SAG Award for the same performance.
10. Currently Daniel Day-Lewis does not have a new movie listed on IMDb.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
Check out Steve’s Daniel Day-Lewis You Tube Video
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Hmm Daniel Day-Lewis, very good actor. Hasn’t done many movies though. Plenty of facts here. Surprised to see In the Name of the Father at the top of the critics list. The Last of the Mohicans and The Bounty are the only films of his I’ve watched a bunch of times over the years. I was not that crazy about Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, I’m not a DiCaprio or Cameron Diaz fan, Day-Lewis was the best thing about that film. Looking at the trivia I can’t see him as Batman and I’m glad he turned down Lord of the Rings, Viggo was perfect as Aragorn. I’ve seen 8 of the 16 films you’ve listed. Nice work as usual Bruce.
Hey Steve….well I am at 15 of the 16 Day-Lewis movies. Only The Boxer has escaped me. I was surprised when In The Name of The Father beat out Lincoln and Gandhi(I know he was barely in that one). So you don’t think he would make a good Batman? How about a Joker? I bet he would have played the Joker pretty intense. I feel I need to watch The Bounty again….I bet Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson are hard not to notice now that they are such big stars. Thanks as always for the visit and the comment.
I really liked The Last of the Mohicans – great story and good acting. I must admit that I have not seen him in many films. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. SUCH KNOWLEDGE SHOULD BE SPREAD AROUND…
Thanks for stopping by BERN1960. I actually did not like Mohicans that much….maybe I will like it more…now that so much time has passed since it was released.
I like the new site. I like this DDL page. You have come a long way since your HubePage days. I have actually not seen many of his movies. I did like Lincoln though.
Gandhi at number 2? I have seen that movie a few times. Have to admit I do not remember his part.
@D. Zanuchi. Yes his part in Gandhi is very small. But since he does not have many movies I included it. It is still a pretty cool piece of trivia. Maybe Day-Lewis’ small part held the entire picture together….and without that small scene the whole movie would have fallen apart and Ben Kingsley would not have won the Oscar for the movie…..lol. I do imagine back then…Gandhi was a bragging point for Day-Lewis. Thanks for the comment.
A very informative look at his career. The man is talented but he might be crazy.
@Rodney….thanks. He seems to take acting very very serious.