Want to know the best Edmond O’Brien movies? How about the worst Edmond O’Brien movies? Curious about Edmond O’Brien box office grosses or which Edmond O’Brien movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Edmond O’Brien movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Edmond O’Brien (1915-1985) was an Oscar®-winning American actor. O’Brien appeared in more than 100 films from the 1940s to the 1970s, often playing character parts. He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for 1954’s The Barefoot Contessa. His IMDb page shows 121 acting credits from 1939 to 2018. This page will rank Edmond O’Brien movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings. To do well in our overall rankings a movie has to do well at the box office, get good reviews by critics, be liked by audiences and get some award recognition.
Edmond O’Brien Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Edmond O’Brien 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 Edmond O’Brien movies by his co-stars
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- Sort Edmond O’Brien movies by yearly domestic box office rank.
- Sort Edmond O’Brien movies by 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 Edmond O’Brien movie received.
- Sort Edmond O’Brien movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Best IMDb Trivia On Edmond O’Brien
1. Eamon Joseph O’Brien was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1915.
2. When Edmond O’Brien was 10, he put on magic shows for children in his neighborhood with coaching from a neighbor, Harry Houdini. He performed under the title, “Neirbo the Great” (“neirbo” being “O’Brien” spelled backwards).
3. Edmond O’Brien was originally cast as the photo-journalist Jackson Bentley (based on Lowell Thomas) in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). After O’Brien filmed several scenes, he suffered a heart attack and had to drop out of the picture. He was replaced by Arthur Kennedy.
4. Edmond O’Brien served with the US Army Air Force in World War II.
5. Edmond O’Brien appeared in two films which depicted the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944: D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) and The Longest Day (1962). D-Day veteran Richard Todd also appeared in both films.
Check out Edmond O’Brien’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Thank you, Bruce.
You are very welcome Nick. As always thanks for the suggestions.
I have seen 26 Edmond O’Brien movies, including 14 of the top 15.
The HIGHEST rated movie I have seen is The Longest Day.
The highest rated movie I have NOT seen is Winged Victory.
The LOWEST rared movie I have seen is The Rack.
Favourite Edmond O’Brien Movies:
The Killers
D.O.A.
The Barefoot Contessa
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Longest Day
White Heat
Julius Caesar
White Heat
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Seven Days in May
Birdman of Alcatraz
Peter Kelly’s Blues
711 Ocean Drive
Shield for Murder – he co-directed this
Fantastic Voyage
A Double Life
The Hitch-hiker
The Last Voyage
Up Periscope
Other Edmond O’Brien Movie I Have Seen:
The Girl Can’t Help It
The Wild Bunch
Fighter Squadron
Under Capricorn
Another Part of the Forest
A Guy, A Girl and a Gob
The Bigamist
The Rack
That should read “PETE Kelly’s Blues’ NOT Peter.
Hey Flora. Currently on my phone, so I do not have access to the edit mode. So right now I cannot fix the error in your comment.
Hey Flora. Thanks for coming and visiting our leaders page. I have seen exactly half of the ones that you have seen. You’re 26 doubles my total of 13. I have seen 10 of your favorites. Not surprised the Wild Bunch is not on your favorites list, because I remember when you saw that and was so disappointed in it. My favorites would include White Heat, Liberty Valance, DOA and The Last Voyage. I actually think he gives one of the best performances in Julius Caesar. Good feedback as always.
PART THREE This new page is highly “Voted Up” because (1) in both his early leading man days and his later ones in character parts I always found Ed a comforting actor to watch (2) as a sometimes lead/often support performer he was part of the backbone of Old Hollywood-even Mr Mumbles and Alexander Archibald Leach couldn’t be “all things to all men.” Indeed for once.
The Master and I are of the same mind because in the 1983 Book that so often missed the mark he says “Edmond O’Brien had the appearance of a character actor rather than a star but his personality was so forceful that he often stole films from their leading players.”
Ed in short is one of those Old Days actors whose range and brilliance although often beneath the radar in the bigger movies leaves a legacy which in my estimation puts to shame some of today’s more “showy” performers like the Stallones/Rock Johnsons/Stathams/and Vin Diesels and in effect illustrates how truly limited as actors those latter types of stars are. No wonder Tennessee Williams disowned Sly. Thomas Gray in his Elegy brilliantly summed up in more general terms the value of relatively ‘low key’ people such as Edmond in all walks of history.
The applause of listening senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty over a smiling land,
And read their history in a nation’s eyes,
Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind,
Hey Bob. Good way to end your comments. Glad you and Joel and you see things the same way.Got it appreciate that when those rare times it happens. Thanks for the kind words your efforts are greatly appreciated. Stay safe and healthy
PART TWO From about the mid-1950s Ed started to put on weight and concentrated on supporting/character roles. Some of them were routine such as The Cowboy of the Century’s commanding office in D Day the 6th June; and Edmond’s turn in Laddie’s Stampeded [aka The Big Land]. *
However his later performances were always solid in my opinion; in the very-later years he was in the classic 1969 Wild Bunch with his old 1952 Turning Point co-star Golden Holden; and yet other characterisations of his I thought were spell-binding.
I have previously given numerous examples to support my contention that if a thespian played a priest/nun or a drunk in Old Hollywood an Oscar was almost guaranteed before he/she even stepped onto the set.
Ed was a drunk in both Liberty Valance and 7 Days in May* and secured an Oscar nom for the latter; but HIS drunks in both films were for my money based on clever and individualistic and even witty interpretations. To this day my brother [in Australia] will often quote from Liberty Valance the line in which Ed’s alcoholic Dutton Peabody is offered a beer and snaps back “Beer ain’t drinkin. Gimme a whiskey!” And Edmond’s boozy Senator Raymond Clark in 7 Days in May in staunch support of his President was intellectually partially pivotal to the task of unmasking Burt’s General Scott whom Kirk called “Judas” in the story.
*Ed was also the town drunk in Laddie’s The Big Land/Stampeded and was nearly lynched trying to steal whiskey! The Master gives Ed’s 7 Days in May drunk 4 stars and the drunks in Liberty and Stampeded/The Big Land a respectable 3 stars each.
Hey Bob part two. Thanks for the information about your brother in the quote from Liberty V. Good to know that movie mean something to you two.It has been ages since I saw seven days in May, but I remember really enjoying it sadly he’s part is hard to remember even with an Oscar nomination to go with it. I did not realize he played a drunk so many times, apparently he had that issue off screen as well; but you know we don’t talk about the negative stuff here at UMR. More great information thank you for sharing.
I loved watching Edmond in his early years when he was a top-billed leading man in a string of late forties/early 1950s films albeit of a largely routine and/or B movie variety that always seemed to be doing the rounds in our local cinemas before TV competition closed many of the latter. Here are some of the titles
The Killers -Ed was top billed lead as Lancaster/Gardner were not stars then
Fighter Squadron
DOA
711 Ocean Drive
The Admiral was a Lady
Two of a Kind
Shield for Murder
The Hitchhiker
Man in the Dark
A Cry in the Night
China Venture co-starring Jocelyn Brando: here Ed joins Charlie Bill Stuart/ Bobby Duvall/ Richard Boone as one of the few thespians who got to work with BOTH Brando siblings- and in Ed’s case back to back as Marlon’s Julius Caesar and China Venture were made one after the other.
The Bigamist-Ed had the title and lead role and was given special 3rd billing to Joan Fontaine and Ida Lupin who both were more prestigious stars than he. The Bigamist has been cited as the first film in which the female star of a film [Lupino] directed herself.
And the westerns Warpath/Denver and Rio Grande/Cow Country and High Vermilion [aka Silver City]. I loved them all!
Ed did though also turn in some fine supporting/character performances in this period such as Cassio in Shakespeare’s1953 Julius Caesar/Cagney’s nemeses in White Heat//ED’s Oscar winning one in Barefoot Contessa for which he gave top star Bogie a lot of the credit for on-set support and advice and from which Bruce has given us a nice little miniature above.
Hey Bob. Lots of information in your three comments on him. Part one. Excellent breakdown on his roles both leading and supporting ones. Seems most the ones I’ve seen his were later in his career versus early in his career. Looks like you have seen all aspects of his career. Thanks for the additional information on his television roles. Good stuff as always.