Want to know the best Lee Marvin movies? How about the worst Lee Marvin movies? Curious about Lee Marvin’s box office grosses or which Lee Marvin movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Lee Marvin 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.
Seems that we have been receiving requests to do a Lee Marvin (1924-1987) movie page for a very long time. Recently we have gotten three more requests for a Marvin page. So Dan O., Wayne S., Jules and all the other people that wanted a Marvin page….the time is finally here…..as Mr. Lee Marvin now has an UltimateMovieRankings page.
Rugged, white-haired, gritty, lanky and with a low voice…..those are words used to describe a major movie star? When it comes to describing Lee Marvin….they perfectly describe one of the most original movie stars of all-time. Marvin was an Oscar® winning actor who starred in movies for over 35 years. During those 35 years he appeared in many classic movies: The Big Heat, The Caine Mutiny, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Cat Ballou, The Dirty Dozen and Point Blank….just to name a few.
His IMDb page shows 107 acting credits from 1950-1986. This page will rank 48 Lee Marvin movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, cameos, bit parts and some of his movies never released in North America were not included in the rankings.
Lee Marvin Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Lee Marvin 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 Lee Marvin movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Lee Marvin movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Lee Marvin movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Lee Marvin 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 Lee Marvin movie received.
- Sort Lee Marvin 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 Facts About Lee Marvin
1. Lee Marvin was born in New York City in 1924. He was named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee….who was a relative. Marvin was also related to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
2. Lee Marvin served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater of World War II. He was wounded in action during the Battle of Saipan. He was awarded four medals….including a Purple Heart. Marvin said “I learned to “act” in the Marines….as I was trying to act unafraid during combat”.
3. Lee Marvin’s rise to stardom….Cliff Notes style. After the war he was working as a plumber’s assistant when he decided to take a chance as an actor. This led to acting jobs first in off-Broadway plays and then Broadway plays. In 1950 he headed to Hollywood. From 1950-1957 he appeared in many supporting roles…usually either as a cop or a thug. In 1957 he gained his first fame….as he landed a role in the hit television show M Squad. In the early 1960s he appeared in 3 John Wayne movies….with his part getting bigger and bigger with each passing movie. This would lead to starring roles….with his role in Cat Ballou (1965) winning him a Best Actor Oscar®. He was a star for the rest of his life.
4. Lee Marvin was married twice in his life. He married Betty Ebeling from 1951-1967. They had 4 children…..1 son and 3 daughters. His second marriage was to Pamela Feely from 1970 until his death.
5. Lee Marvin received one Oscar® nomination for acting in his career. He was nominated and won Best Actor for 1965’s Cat Ballou. His Oscar® win was unusual for two reasons. One….it is the only Oscar® winning performance to be a dual role…..as Marvin played the hero and the villain in Cat Ballou. Two…..it is one of the few times that the Oscar® voters have given an Oscar® to a comedic role. He was nominated for two Golden Globes®. He won for Cat Ballou and picked up a Best Actor nomination for 1969’s Paint Your Wagon.
6. Roles Lee Marvin turned down or was seriously considered for: For A Few Dollars More (Lee Van Cleef role),The Wild Bunch (William Holden role), Deliverance (Jon Voight role), Death Wish (Charles Bronson role), Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood role), First Blood (Richard Crenna role) and Jaws (Robert Shaw role).
7. Lee Marvin best selling singer? Yes it is true….even though Marvin’s co-star in Paint Your Wagon, Jean Seberg, described his voice as “rain gurgling down a rusty pipe”. Lee Marvin’s song Wandering Star from 1969’s was a surprise hit. Selling over one million copies and earning a Gold Record. Wandering Star was even a number hit on United Kingdom charts.
8. Lee Marvin only kept 4 movie souvenirs from his movies. (1) His Oscar® from Cat Ballou. (2) His National Cowboy Hall of Fame citation for his role in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (3) His Gold Record from the single “Wandering Star” from Paint Your Wagon. and (4) The high heel shoe Vivien Leigh hit him with in their movie Ship of Fools.
9. Lee Marvin’s Point Blank (1967) was the first of two movies to be based on the Richard Stark novel The Hunter. The second was the Mel Gibson movie Payback (1999). There is one theory that Lee Marvin dies at the beginning of Point Blank and he is a ghost or spirit for the rest of the movie…..or basically Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense.
10. This Lee Marvin Movie Poster Page by Steve Lensman is a wonderful companion piece to this page….see almost all of Lee Marvin’s movie posters in one place….highly recommend checking out this page.
11. Another great source into the life and movie career of Lee Marvin is the book Lee Marvin: Point Blank by Dwayne Epstein.
12. Two movies not in the rankings. We could not find any box office information on Lee Marvin’s 1955 movie Shack Out on 101. 1954’s Gorilla At Large was not included because his part was so small in that movie…..just in case you want to know why these movies are not in the rankings.
Check out Lee Marvin‘ career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
I really like this page on Lee Marvin and I especially like the fact that there are so many Randolph Scott films that Marvin played in. I knew that Scott was in the top ten box office list quite a bit in the early 1950’s but I never Knew how much these films made at the box office. Thanks Bruce this is a very nice tribute page to Lee Marvin whose villains quite often stole scenes from the leading actor, as in “Seven Men from Now” and “The Comancheros.” My favorite film starring Lee Marvin is 1966’s “The Professionals” which is also one of my favorite Burt Lancaster film. Thanks again Bruce. A nice job.
Hey Lyle…..yep Marvin made 3 movies with John Wayne and 3 movies with Randolph Scott. I just recently watched and really enjoyed Seven Men From Now. Marvin is great as the helping bad guy….or at least helping until the end of the movie. I have seen The Comancheros…but it has been so long ago…that I am having a hard time remembering Marvin’s role in that one. I am glad your favorite Marvin movie made the Top 5 in my rankings. Thanks for the visit and the nice words about my Marvin page.
Hey – Hey – Hey – I really enjoyed seeing this site for Lee Marvin. I have seen quite a few of his movies and think he was a very good actor. I especially enjoyed listening to him sing “The Wandering Star”. THANKS SO MUCH AS THE SONG ADDED SO MUCH TO THIS SITE AND BROUGHT BACK MEMORIES OF THE MOVIE. GREAT GREAT JOB! I also like your request page too……..
Hey BERN1960…glad you enjoyed the site…and glad you liked the video….that video is coming up on 3 million views…..so I thinking the vocal talents of Lee Marvin are being appreciated throughout the world. Thanks for the nice compliment…..3 pages in 3 days….I am on a roll.
Wow! I did not realize he made so many movies before The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. It looks like he was very busy in the mid 1950s. Glad to see one of my favorite Marvin movies is ranked so high Cat Ballou, but my other favorite did not do as well The Delta Force. My memory as a teenager is that this was a big hit that everybody loved. Seems maybe that is what me and my teenage buddies thought and nobody else. As always great job. P.S. I like the new Request page.
Hey Timlin33….thanks for the visit….yep he made 27 movies from 1952 to 1956….the early ones were uncredited parts….but he got off to a good start once he arrived in Hollywood. Cat Ballou had it all….box office glory….good reviews….and an Oscar for Marvin….it can’t get much better than that. Delta Force did decent at the box office….the reviews were generally pretty terrible for that one though. Don’t worry about it too much….when I was growing up…I thought Gus ….you know the Disney football playing mule movie was the best one. Glad you like my new request page…and glad you stopped by and commented.
Plumber at a community college? No, he wasn’t. Read thid and get the documented facts…..
http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Marvin-Point-Dwayne-Epstein/dp/1936182408/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336851662&sr=1-4
Hey Dwayne….thanks for the heads up on that error. The error has been fixed as well as a link to your awesome Lee Marvin book.
My granddad was a huge LM fan. I used to watch The Dirty Dozen, The Professionals and his hobo movie all the time. He hated and I mean hated Paint Your Wagon. Seeing the link to the attached video puts my granddad in my head. I find that very nice.
I meant to say I watched those movies with my granddad.
I understood.
Hey Maj. John Reisman…..thanks for sharing the stories about you and him watching Lee Marvin movies. Is the hobo movie called Emperor of the North? That one is about Marvin and Ernest Borgnine going head to head about hobos jumping trains. Borgnine is the nasty villain and Marvin is the hero. Sorry your granddad did not like Paint Your Wagon…..that is one of my guilty pleasures….as I always get a kick out of watching that movie. Thanks for stopping by,
Yep that was the 3rd movie we watched together. I have to admit I found that one pretty slowed compared to the other two. He apparently was around some of the things shown in the movie.
Hey Maj. John Reisman…..it is a little slow….but Marvin and Borgnine make up for that. I imagine if your granddad was around during the Great Depression that he would have some pretty sad memories.