Want to know the best Howard Keel movies? How about the worst Howard Keel movies? Curious about Howard Keel box office grosses or which Howard Keel movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Howard Keel movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Howard Keel (1919-2004) was an American actor who had great success in 1950s MGM musicals. His IMDb page shows 47 acting credits from 1948-2002. This page will rank 26 Howard Keel movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances and his last movie (2002’s My Father’s House) which was not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Howard Keel 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 Howard Keel movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Howard Keel movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Howard Keel movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Howard Keel 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 Howard Keel movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Howard Keel movie won.
- Sort Howard Keel 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 Howard Keel Table
- Eleven Howard Keel movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 42.30% of his movies listed. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) was his biggest box office hit when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Howard Keel movie grosses $88.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 13 of Howard Keel movies are rated as good movies…or 50.00% of his movies. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) is his highest rated movie while Arizona Buschwhackers (1968) was his lowest rated movie.
- Six Howard Keel movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 23.07% of his movies.
- Three Howard Keel movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 11.53% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 14 Howard Keel movies scored higher than that average….or 53.84% of his movies. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) got the the highest UMR Score while Arizona Buschwhackers (1968) got the lowest UMR Score.
Ten Possibly Interesting Facts About Howard Keel
1. Harry Clifford Keel was born in Gillespie, Illinois in 1919.
2. Howard Keel first gained famed for his role in 1947’s Oklahoma. Oklahoma was the first postwar traveling show. He would sign a movie contract with MGM in 1950.
3. Howard Keel broke his leg when his horse fell on him during the filming of 1950’s Annie Get Your Gun. He could not continue filming for six weeks.
4. Due to his Howard Keel’s size, many of his petite leading ladies had to stand on boxes to be in the same frame.
5. Howard Keel is known to many for his role as Clayton Farlow on television’s Dallas. He appeared on 262 episodes from 1981 to 1991.
6. Howard Keel was married 3 times and had 4 children.
7. Howard Keel’s son-in-law was actor Edward James Olmos.
8. Esther Williams gave his daughter, Kaija Keel, swimming lessons.
9. Howard Keel’s movies from 1950 to 1959 earned $2.13 billion in adjusted domestic gross. That puts him in 29th place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1950’s Top Box Office Stars.
10. Check out Howard Keel’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.
Hello Bruce,
I Have Never Heard of him even I saw some films he was not the top.
And that what I lové in your web site I am always learning.
Have a good Time
Pierre
Hey Pierre…..glad we were able to give Mr. Keel a moment in the sun. Thanks for the nice words about the website. 🙂
You’ve never seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, TCM seems to run it all the time. Howard was never on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list. These are the only people on the 2016 list who appeared with him. Arthur Tovey is gone but I was surprised at #247 who apparently had a cameo in a film I never heard of.
96 BURT REYNOLDS Armored Command (1961)
247 CAMERON DIAZ My Father’s House (2002)
274 BRUCE DERN The War Wagon (1967)
478 JOHN SAXON The Big Fisherman (1959)
681 ANTHONY QUINN Ride, Vaquero! (1953)
912 ARTHUR TOVEY Calamity Jane (1953)
937 ROBERT EASTON Deep in My Heart (1954)
The following actors were on the original list in 2000 who have since fallen off but appeared in a film with Howie.
32 KIRK DOUGLAS The War Wagon (1967)
43 KEENAN WYNN Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
43 KEENAN WYNN Desperate Search (1952)
43 KEENAN WYNN Kiss Me Kate (1953)
43 KEENAN WYNN Texas Carnival (1951)
43 KEENAN WYNN The War Wagon (1967)
77 JOSE FERRER Deep in My Heart (1954)
90 JOHN IRELAND Arizona Bushwhackers (1968)
98 HERBERT LOM The Big Fisherman (1959)
100 IAN WOLFE Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
146 MIKE MAZURKI Kismet (1955)
177 MARCEL DALIO Lovely to Look at (1952)
179 JOHN WAYNE The War Wagon (1967)
186 AVA GARDNER Ride, Vaquero! (1953)
186 AVA GARDNER Show Boat (1951)
192 YVONNE DE CARLO Arizona Bushwhackers (1968)
221 JOHN CRAWFORD Floods of Fear (1958)
221 JOHN CRAWFORD Show Boat (1951)
222 BESS FLOWERS Calamity Jane (1953)
222 BESS FLOWERS Show Boat (1951)
222 BESS FLOWERS Texas Carnival (1951)
232 ROY JENSON Red Tomahawk (1967)
241 BRODERICK CRAWFORD Red Tomahawk (1967)
302 RICHARD ANDERSON Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
323 GEORGE SANDERS Jupiter’s Darling (1955)
354 CYRIL CUSACK Floods of Fear (1958)
361 JAMES WHITMORE Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
361 JAMES WHITMORE Kiss Me Kate (1953)
362 BARRY SULLIVAN Three Guys Named Mike (1951)
395 WALTER PIDGEON Deep in My Heart (1954)
404 JACK ELAM Kismet (1955)
404 JACK ELAM Ride, Vaquero! (1953)
420 MAURICE MARSAC Armored Command (1961)
421 MICHAEL ANSARA Jupiter’s Darling (1955)
424 ZSA ZSA GABOR Lovely to Look at (1952)
428 JOHN PHILLIP LAW Show Boat (1951)
459 DABBS GREER Rose Marie (1954)
467 VAN JOHNSON Three Guys Named Mike (1951)
506 DOUGLAS FOWLEY Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
506 DOUGLAS FOWLEY Callaway Went Thataway (1951)
506 DOUGLAS FOWLEY Deep in My Heart (1954)
532 JIM BACKUS Deep in My Heart (1954)
562 PAUL BRYAR Callaway Went Thataway (1951)
583 PAUL STEWART Deep in My Heart (1954)
606 ALBERTO MORIN Jupiter’s Darling (1955)
611 DON ‘RED’ BARRY Red Tomahawk (1967)
623 RUSS TAMBLYN Deep in My Heart (1954)
623 RUSS TAMBLYN Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
690 PARLEY BAER Three Guys Named Mike (1951)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
742 RICARDO MONTALBAN Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
746 HERB VIGRAN Three Guys Named Mike (1951)
800 MARTHA HYER The Big Fisherman (1959)
806 NINA FOCH Fast Company (1953)
816 CARLETON YOUNG Armored Command (1961)
824 FRANK WILCOX Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
824 FRANK WILCOX Show Boat (1951)
894 PHILIP VAN ZANDT Ride, Vaquero! (1953)
Despite a few all star musicals and westerns Howard only appeared with 9 Oscar winners.
ANTHONY QUINN Ride, Vaquero! (1953)
BRODERICK CRAWFORD Red Tomahawk (1967)
CLARK GABLE Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
GEORGE SANDERS Jupiter’s Darling (1955)
JAMES CAGNEY Arizona Bushwhackers (1968) (He narrated)
JANE WYMAN Three Guys Named Mike (1951)
JOHN WAYNE The War Wagon (1967)
JOSE FERRER Deep in My Heart (1954)
RITA MORENO Pagan Love Song (1950)
903 JACK KRUSCHEN Fast Company (1953)
905 RON RANDELL Kiss Me Kate (1953)
989 BRUCE CABOT The War Wagon (1967)
Day of the Triffids was the first video my wife’s family bought back in the 80’s for a $1.99 and I used to have, maybe still do Jupiter’s Darling (taped off local TV some 30 years ago or more).
Hey Dan
1. Thanks for the lists of information on Howard Keel.
2. I rarely watch movies on television…..must of my movies I watch are on DVD…..so I have never picked up Seven Brides for Seven Brothers to watch…..but like many of these UMR subjects…I tend to watch their movies after writing a page on them….I am sure that is a movie that I will be seeing soon.
3. You are right about it being surprising that Cameron Diaz and Howard Keel appeared in the same movie….that movie looks like it was a straight to home entertainment movie.
4. Not a lot of legends (I see you John Wayne) on the second list….but seeing names like Jack Elam and Keenan Wynn is cool….gotta love those character actors.
5. Only 9 Oscar winning co-stars….all of those musicals hurt his tally there.
6. Day of the Triffids…..interesting story….it is always amazing how a movie can trigger a memory…..good stuff.
Hello!
I’ve seen 11 of the above listed films, and my favs are Show Boat, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers and Deep in my Heart. On a smaller scale, I enjoyed Day of the Triffids, Callaway went Thataway and Calamity Jane as well as Annie get your Gun. Needless to say, I’ve seen Mr. Keel on numerous episodes of Dallas, too 😉 He had a fine voice, and if musicals hadn’t lost their mass appeal by the mid-50’s, I think Mr. Keel would have remained a much in demand actor for much longer. As it was, his career was virtually over by the end of the 50’s- though he was an attractive man and a pretty good actor, too. Thanks to Dallas, he found fame again in the 80’s. Thank you for doing this page on Mr. Howard Keel, a name not as famous as others nowadays, but someone who brought a lot of joy to people who love classic musicals.
Hello Lupino
Just glad to read you again
I hope you vacation were good me it Will be in August
See you and bye
Pierre
Bonsoir Pierre,
yes, the holidays were great…VERY hot but lovely. Nice to hear from you again, too 🙂
Hey Lupino….I agree with Pierre’s comment…glad you had a good vacation and glad you to see a new comment from you. My oldest son and his family (my daughter-in-law and two grandkids) arrived from Alaska for a surprise Father’s Day present…they have been here for two weeks now….and we have pretty much been having one really long family vacation. Lots of golf and amusement parks these last 13 days…..it has been a blast…but UMR has had to take a back seat for sure.
Hi Bruce,
glad to see you had a sort of unexpected vacation yourself- and a highly enjoyable too, so it seems!
Hey Lupino…..11 is the leader in the club house. Tally counts so far….you 11, Flora 6 and me and Laurent at 2. I am not a huge musical fan so that is my reasoning for not having a better tally count.
I figured when Steve did his recent Keel video…maybe it was time to release the stats I had on this actor. You are correct it was pretty over for him by the end of the 1950s…..but he became famous for his role on Dallas. I had no idea he was a singer when I was a kid watching that show.
You learn something new everyday. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Hello Bruce,
Howard who ? That’s what a Frenchman would call you when you hear the name of Howard Keel. It has never been known. Yet some of his films have been small successes in France, such as War Wagon, Ride Vaquero (the only two movies I’ve seen on the list), Annie Get Your Gun.
I did not know he had played in Dallas, interesting. Thank you for this new table.
Hey Laurent. Funny stuff about Howard who? I am not too aware of him either….and my tally count is tied with you. Glad you enjoyed this table of information.
I have been enjoying reading your 1920 box office pages….good stuff for sure.
Hi Bruce,
Glad you like it. Thanks for your kind words about it.
🙂
Thanks for doing a page on Howard Keel.
I have seen 12 of his movies. The highest ranking movie I’ve seen is number 1: Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.
The highest ranking film I have not seen is Deep in My Heart.
The lowest ranking film I have seen is Callaway Went Thataway.
My favourite Howard Keel films are:
Seven Brides For Seven Brothers
Calamity Jane
Kiss Me Kate
Show Boat
Annie Get Your Gun
Hey Flora….thanks for checking out our Howard Keel page. My tally is very very small…..only 2….Calamity Jane and the War Wagon. So your total has me beat times over. I do however want to see Kiss Me Kate and 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. Thanks for the tally and the comment…both are greatly appreciated.