Want to know the best Danny Kaye movies? How about the worst Danny Kaye movies? Curious about Danny Kaye’s box office grosses or which Danny Kaye movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Danny Kaye movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
It seems that Danny Kaye (1911-1987) movies were always on television when I was growing up. I have fond memories of watching movies like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Anderson (1952), White Christmas (1954) and The Court Jester (1956) when I was younger. So when I got a request to do a Danny Kaye Ultimate Movie Rankings page I was shocked that he actually did not make many movies in his career.
His IMDb page only 33 acting credits from 1937-1986. This page will rank 17 Danny Kaye movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Shorts, television appearances and movies not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Danny Kaye 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 by Danny Kaye movies by his co-stars
- Sort Danny Kaye movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Danny Kaye movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Danny Kaye 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 Danny Kaye movie received.
- Sort Danny Kaye 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 Danny Kaye Table
- Eleven Danny Kaye movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 64.70% of his movies listed. White Christmas (1954) was his biggest hit.
- An average Danny Kaye movie earned $161.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 14 of Danny Kaye’s movies are rated as good movies…or 82.35% of his movies. The Court Jester (1956) was his highest rated movie while The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) was his lowest rated movie.
- Eleven Danny Kaye movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 41.17% of his movies.
- Two Danny Kaye movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 11.76% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 14 Danny Kaye movies scored higher that average….or 82.35% of his movies. Hans Christian Anderson (1952) got the the highest UMR Score while The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Danny Kaye
1. Danny Kaye 1913-1987) was born David Daniel Kaminsky in Brooklyn.
2. Danny Kaye left school at the age 13, to work and perform at resorts in the Catskills Mountains.
3. Danny Kaye made his Broadway debut in 1939. In 1941 while performing in the musical, Lady in the Dark, he was noticed by agents and production companies. After a two year courtship, Danny Kaye signed with Samuel Goldwyn and started his movie career.
4. Danny Kaye’s first movie was 1944’s Up in Arms. Up in Arms was a very successful movie and started a nice 15 year run that would produce some major hits for Kaye. Some of these hits were 1946’s The Kid From Brooklyn, 1947’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, 1952’s Hans Christian Andersen and 1954’s White Christmas.
5. Danny Kaye was never nominated for an Oscar®. He did however receive 4 Golden Globe® nominations during his movie career. He won the Golden Globe® for Best Actor twice in his career…for 1951’s On the Riviera and 1958’s Me and the Colonel. In 1982 he received an Honorary Oscar®.
6. Danny Kaye was the first ambassador-at-large for UNICEF. Kaye worked tirelessly for UNICEF.
7. Danny Kaye was married one time in his life. He married Sylvia Fine in 1940. They would later become estranged but never filed for divorce. In 1946, their daughter Dena was born. Dena is Danny Kaye’s only child.
8. Danny Kaye was one of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners baseball team. Danny Kaye was an accomplished pilot. He was rated to fly multi-engine planes including the big 747 jets.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
What Danny Kaye movies are available on DVDs. I have court jester, white Christmas Hans Christian Anderson and five pennies. I an in South Africa so getting DVDs from USA is a problem.
Danny Kaye starred in a film as a milk delivery man, who later became
a boxer…. but for the life of me I am unable to recall the title of that movie – saw if many years ago. Please help. Thank you ever so much.
Hey Jan…..pretty sure that was his The Kid From Brooklyn….which is one of his biggest hits. Thanks for the visit, the question and the comment.
Didn’t know he was a pilot. My favorite movies of his were court jester, and inspector general. Will watch a few more soon.
Hey Jason. Your favorite Kaye movies are both classics. Flying was one of his passions in life. The man had a charmed life. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
How about a Tony Curtis page?
Hey Dan…..I will add Tony Curtis of my people to write pages on
Danny Kaye is my top favorite T.C.M actor and will always be. He is also the funniest actor ever. My 5 favorite Danny Kaye movies are…
1.WONDER MAN
2.SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY
3.UP IN ARMS
4.COURT JESTER
5.WHITE CHRISTMAS
Hey Jonathan…..very cool…thanks for sharing your favorite Danny Kaye movies.