Fred MacMurray Movies

fred 11111Want to know the best Fred MacMurray movies?  How about the worst Fred MacMurray movies?  Curious about Fred MacMurray’s box office grosses or which Fred MacMurray movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Fred MacMurray movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Fred MacMurray (1908-1991) was an American actor who appeared in more than 80 movies.  MacMurray also gained famed for playing Steve Douglas on the popular television show, My Three Sons, from 1960 to 1972.  His IMDb page shows 98 acting credits from 1929-1978. This page will rank 76 MacMurray movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Cameos, shorts and television appearances were not included in the rankings.

Drivel part of the page:  Seems I have been aware of Fred MacMurray most of my life.  Growing up it seemed that he was always on television.  During the week…  I would watch My Three Sons reruns three or four times a week.  Back then the highlight of the week (we only had 5 channels back then kids) was the Disney Movie Of The Week on Sunday nights.  Often one of MacMurray’s Disney movies would be the movie shown.   It took many years for me to realize that MacMurray actually had a massive movie career that had nothing to do with Disney or My Three Sons. Well this page (requested by Flora) is going to look at his entire movie career.

Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray in 1944's Double Indemnity
Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray in 1944’s Double Indemnity

Fred MacMurray 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 Fred MacMurray movies by co-stars of his movies
  • Sort Fred MacMurray movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Fred MacMurray movies by yearly domestic box office rank or trivia
  • Sort Fred MacMurray 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 Fred MacMurray movie received.
  • Sort Fred MacMurray 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 Fred MacMurray Table

  1. Twenty-five Fred MacMurray movie crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 32.89% of his movies listed. The Caine Mutiny (1954) is his biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Fred MacMurray movie grosses $105.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  43 of Fred MacMurray’s movies are rated as good movies…or 56.57% of her movies.  Double Indemnity (1944) is his highest rated movie while The Swarm (1978) is his lowest rated movie.
  4. Twenty Fred MacMurray movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 26.31% of his movies.
  5. One Fred MacMurray movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 1.31% of her movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00.  42 Fred MacMurray movie scored higher that average….or 55.26% of his movies. Double Indemnity (1944) got the the highest UMR Score while An Innocent Affair (1948) got the lowest UMR Score.
Fred MacMurray in 1961's The Absent Minded Professor
Fred MacMurray in 1961’s The Absent Minded Professor

Possibly Interesting Facts About Fred MacMurray

1. Frederick Martin MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Illinois.

2. Fred MacMurray was a very talented musician.  Before acting he was in numerous bands….his specialty was playing the saxophone.

3. Fred MacMurray was the first person to be named a Disney Legend…this occurred in 1987.

4. Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert starred in 7 movies together.  Their movie partnership was one of the most successful in the history of movies.  Their seven movies grossed over $948 million in adjusted box office gross.

5.  Fred MacMurray was married twice. He and Lillian Lamont were married from 1936 to 1953…they had two children.  From 1954 until his death in 1991 he was married to actress, June Haver…..they also had two children.  John Wayne is the person that introduced MacMurray and Haver.

6. Fred MacMurray most famous role is in 1944’s Double Indemnity.  He Initially turned down his most the role because he didn’t think his fans would want to see him playing a darker character.

7. Fred MacMurray starred in 4 movies that received a Best Picture Oscar® nomination: 1935’s Alice Adams, 1944’s Double Indemnity, 1954’s The Caine Mutiny and 1960’s The Apartment.  The Apartment won.

8. Fred MacMurray never received an Oscar® nomination…but did receive a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for 1961’s The Absent Minded Professor.

9.  Fred MacMurray’s movies grossed over $7.59 billion in adjusted domestic box office.  His movies earned 48 Oscar® nominations….winning 5 times.

10.  Check out Fred MacMurray‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. 

If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.

Final notes:  Two things to cover.  (1) There are a few MacMurray movies not ranked.  They were  from his very very early Paramount days.  (2) Some of the box office numbers on the MacMurray massive table are from an internet source that no longer exists.  Not sure how accurate the numbers are…but it was a choice between using these numbers or to exclude the movies from the table.  I discovered the website about 3 or 4 years ago…and wrote down all of the box office numbers they had.  Sadly that website has gone to internet heaven….and I never found out where they were getting their numbers.  A blown opportunity.

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40 thoughts on “Fred MacMurray Movies”

  2. Jeffrey Sayre was in 11 films with Fred.

    Chester Clute and Irving Bacon were both in 10 films with Fred.

    Reply

  3. On a revisit to this excellent page I’ve just noticed that Fred has been listed as his own co-star along with Irene Dunne in Never a Dull Moment.

    Reply

  4. My younger brother and I remember a movie we saw on TV in the 1950s or early 1960s I believe Fred Mcmurray was in. It has a “secret message” song something like:
    On hers fly sits in come bees is, on chest locker is chest key is.
    Does anyone know what movie this was? Thanks

    Reply

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