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.
Just thought I would mention that I listened to WANDERING STAR once again. GREAT VIDEO.
Hey BERN1960…I am very glad you are getting a kick out of the singing voice of Lee Marvin.
Hey BERN1960…well it will be here for a very long time….any time you want to hear the song…just stop on by….we are open 24/7….lol.
Hi
Lee Marvin had a terrific career. I liked the way he started off as a plumber’s mate and ended up in acting and then went to Hollywood. He had 10 great years as supporting roles and then Cat Ballou and the Oscar. I remember Wandering Star being number 1 in the hit parade in the UK. It’s still a very popular song.
Hey Chris….he seems that he was a tough guy in real life too. Lots and lots of memorable supporting roles. His time as a lead actor was pretty short…Cat Ballou was in 1965…by 1972 he had lost his box office power. I have been humming that song…every since I attached the song to this page. Thanks for stopping by.
Love him in Car Ballou… Love the movie the Dirty Dozen. I would have thought Liberty Valance would have been higher
Hey Winnie H……well if you look at the three main categories….(1) Box Office Results….Liberty Valance comes in 10th place (2) Critic Audience Rating….Liberty Valance comes in 1st. (3) Award recognition….Liberty Valance only got one Oscar nomination and was ignored by the Golden Globe people……when you combine the three categories….it still ends up in the Top 10…..if Marvin would have gotten a deserved Best Supporting Actor Nomination….it would have challenged The Dirty Dozen, The Caine Mutiny and Cat Ballou for the top spot.
Weren’t he and Kevin Kline the only actors to win an Oscar for best a comedy role
Does It Happened One Night count as a comedy?
Hey Sally….I don’t think so….but it is close…..in my book it was more drama than comedy….but I could easily see somebody arguing the other way.
Dramady ?
A dramady it is.
Hey Winnie….I think that is right…..although some like to say As Good As It Gets was a comedy….and Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt won Oscars for that.
Hands down, Paint Your Wagon, Cat Ballou, the best of Lee.
Hey Marie….Glad to know I am not the only one that enjoys Paint Your Wagon so much. Musicals are not my favorite movies….maybe the key is action stars who can’t sing in Amusical…..they could reboot this one…..Stallone could play the Marvin role…..and Jason Statham could take over the Clint role…thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Paint Your Wagon is one of my all time favorite movies. I Was Born Under a Wondering Star was played at Joe Strummer’s (The Clash) funeral.
Hey Gordon S…..that is cool and interesting that the song was played at Strummer’s funeral. Thanks for stopping by.
Released as a single in England, it topped their charts and prevented The Beatles Let it Be from reaching the #1 spot.
A Lee Marvin song holding off a Beatles classic song from the number one spot….that sounds like one great trivia question….if if was on Jeopardy it might a million dollar question and answer.
I didn’t even know that Strummer had died. That sucks. I loved “The Clash”.
Sad but true…he passed in 2002….13 years ago.