Want to know the best Loretta Young movies? How about the worst Loretta Young movies? Curious about Loretta Young box office grosses or which Loretta Young movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Loretta Young movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information. This page comes from a request from SteinHoF16 and Chris.
Loretta Young (1913-2000) was an Oscar®-winning American actress. Young started her career acting in silent movies in uncredited roles when she was only 4 years old. By the time she was 20 she was already a movie star with over 40 IMDb acting credits. Loretta Young’s IMDb page shows 107 acting credits from 1917-1989. This page will rank 70 Loretta Young movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television roles, shorts, documentaries and numerous movies before 1933 were not included in the rankings. But every movie movie she made from 1934 to 1953 is included.
Loretta Young 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 Loretta Young movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Loretta Young movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Loretta Young movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Loretta Young 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 Loretta Young movie received.
- Sort Loretta Young movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Loretta Young Table
- Twenty-six Loretta Young movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 37.14% of her movies listed. Suez (1938) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Loretta Young movie grosses $93.20 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 48 Loretta Young movies are rated as good movies…or 68.57% of her movies. The Stranger (1946) is her highest rated movie while Born To Be Bad (1934) is her lowest rated movie.
- Twelve Loretta Young movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 17.14% of her movies.
- Three Loretta Young movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 4.28% of her movies.
- An average “good movie” Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 60.00. 50 Loretta Young movie scored higher that average….or 71.42% of her movies. The Bishop’s Wife (1947) got the the highest UMR Score while Born To Be Bad (1934) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Loretta Young
- Gretchen Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1913.
2. At the age of 3, Loretta Young’s family moved to Hollywood. She and her two sisters quickly became child thespians.
3. During Loretta Young’s high-school years, she was educated at Ramona Convent Secondary School. She was signed to a contract by John McCormick, the husband and manager of the actress Colleen Moore, who saw the young girl’s potential. The forename Loretta was given to her by Moore, who later explained it was the name of her favorite doll.
4. Loretta Young was voted America’s Sweetheart of the 1930s.
5. Loretta Young Had an illegitimate daughter by Clark Gable. For years, this was covered up in Hollywood, and was presented as an adoption. The daughter’s resemblance to both parents is uncanny. The daughter Judy Lewis later dabbled in acting before becoming a psychologist. Judy Lewis wrote a book “Uncommon Knowledge” with the truth of her parentage.
6. Country singer Loretta Lynn was named after Loretta Young.
7. Loretta Young was married three times. She had three children.
8. Loretta Young was close friends with: Rosalind Russell, Irene Dunne, Jane Wyman, Eddie Albert, James Stewart, David Niven, Danny Thomas, John Wayne, and Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Reagan. Bet those were some fun game nights!
9. Loretta Young had a low tolerance for foul language, so much in fact that whenever she went to set she brought with her a “swear box”. Her swear box was used to hold money from cast and crew members who swore within her presence who in return would put money in the box. Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Mitchum put large sums of money in the swear box on a regular basis telling Young that the amount deposited would cover them for the day.
10. After her film career slowed down….Loretta Young turned her attention to television. The Loretta Young Show was very successful….staying on air from 1953 to 1961.
Check out Loretta Young‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Adjusted Worldwide Grosses on a few Loretta Young Movies
| Hatchet Man (1932) | $143,636,484.00 |
| Eternally Yours (1939) | $134,293,718.00 |
| Ladies Courageous (1944) | $101,183,789.00 |
| Taxi (1932) | $66,750,740.00 |
| Kismet (1930) | $63,756,024.00 |
| Shanghai (1935) | $54,591,536.00 |
| The Man from Blankley’s (1930) | $49,679,987.00 |
| Loose Ankles (1930) | $49,128,017.00 |
| Employees’ Entrance (1933) | $48,582,847.00 |
| Born To Be Bad (1934) | $46,674,732.00 |
| Play Girl (1932) | $40,772,731.00 |
| I Like Your Nerve (1931) | $39,428,568.00 |
| Cause for Alarm! (1951) | $39,365,491.00 |
| The Truth About Youth (1930) | $38,777,983.00 |
| The Forward Pass (1929) | $36,518,664.00 |
| The Careless Age (1929) | $33,652,848.00 |
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globe® is a registered trademark.
Hi
I haven’t seen many of Loretta Young’s movies. With the exception of a couple, they are rarely shown on T.V. Of the ones I’ve seen, The Stranger, The Farmer’s Daughter, Kentucky and The Bishop’s Wife. It’s quite a few years since I’ve seen The Stranger but I remember really enjoying it.
One I absolutely love is The Bishop’s Wife. Next to It’s A Wonderful Life as one of my favourite Christmas movies. Loretta looked fantastic in it.
As for her Oscar winning, Farmer’s Daughter, I thought the movie was okay. Her performance was good but hardly one of the all time greats. I think that the industry were quite surprised at her win at the time.
It’s incredible that she had a love child to Clarke Gable and they were able to keep it quiet for so long. Later in life she made a television Christmas movie, she looked fantastic and apparently she done a lot for charity. But I think of all the big stars, she is probably one of the least known to today’s generation.
Hey Chris. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Loretta Young. Based on your commen…thinking a different Chris made the Loretta Young request. I need to re-watch The Bishop’s Wife. I am a huge Cary Grant fan…yet for some reason…I have only seen that one …one time…and that was years ago….hell it was decades ago. I think The Farmer’s Daughter was ok…but like Pacino and Newman….I think her Oscar win was a career one…versus saying it was her greatest performance. I want to see The Stranger.
As for Gable and Young’s child….there are lots of rumors out there….including some that Gable look like a complete heel…..not thinking a star could get away with something like this today…..just way to many smart phones just itching to take a photo.
Great feedback….good to hear from you.
Love the The Bishop’s Wife trailer. Good fine.
Hey SteinHoF16…. I liked it too….it was like watching an added Cary Grant mini-movie. Rarely do stars make trailers like this anymore.
Thanks for doing this page. I barely remember making it. My grandparents were huge Loretta fans. They talked about her television show on a regular basis. Her career is getting done much deserved attention.
Glad you found and liked your requested Loretta Young. Maybe it was a different Stein….granted it was a long time ago….before you achieved your HOF status. Not aware of tv show…but it sounds like it was very very popular.
1
“Beauty and elegance were Loretta Young’s trademarks on film and television. Sometimes, her wardrobe was more dramatic that her roles, but she contributed strong portrayals when given the right material.” [Joel Hirschhorn wannabe critic- quotation from his Disciple]
2
“Even we in the entertainment business have our own idols but we also have the guys we love to hate. I knew I’d found mine when I saw the nasty things that big phony was saying about people I respected so the nice things he said about others just to curry favor with people who don’t know any better never cut it with me.” [Radio scriptwriter interviewed by biographer Jose Ferrer in the 1956 The Great Man]
3
“EVERYBODY LOVED THE GREAT MAN EXCEPT TOSE WHO HATED HIS GUTS” [Tagline on posters for The Great Man]
4
“Forget about Fake News! What about Fake Views?” [Stand-up comic on Independent TV UK holding up an unflattering review of himself to gales of laughter from his audience.]
5
“We’re really a mixed bunch in this business and you react to different people in different ways. When I was new I found myself accidently sitting beside John Wayne who I didn’t know at a function and I became tongue-tied. When I was told Mr Gable was in the audience for my Streetcar play I took temporary stage fright and didn’t really want to go on stage that night. Mr Grant, Bogie and Henry Fonda are so good YOU almost want to be THEM. Frankie [Sinatra] is so full of himself that if he gets to Heaven he’ll scold God for making him bald. Bob Hope is an applause junky who if he saw 3 people queuing outside a phone booth would be over cracking funnies to them instead of spending more time with his grandchildren.
As for the critics. Look, I’ll admit before Godfather I was going down the tubes and the critics were probably entitled to a field day –it’s in the nature of a vulture to circle – though the less moronic ones did seem to have some faith that I would be back some day, the Variety critic continuing to insist I was still “THE Amercian actor” Even before Francis [Coppola] and Bernie [Bernardo Bertolucci] happened I could point to a dozen films that I had made that were liked and had made good money so if my career had ended during that dry spell I would still have considered myself a success. Ask a critic to list some of the successful things he has actually DONE in our business and he’ll quickly dry up!” [Quotation lifted from Great Icons of the 20th Century in Movies]
“I loathe the lot of you!” [Richard Burton to a group of critics at a press reception in the Ritz Hotel London]
PRESS REPORT IN LONDON EVENING STANDARD 29 JULY 1959
At a post-premier press reception in London last night volatile Irish producer, screenwriter and director Kevin McClory went for the throat of and tried to throttle a critic who had written a damning review of his British drama film The Boy and the Bridge which was otherwise almost universally praised. This reporter understands that the Metropolitan police have not yet decided about whether to press criminal charges
ADDITIONAL TRIVIA
McClory was well- thought-of within the movie business of his day. A lover of Liz Taylor and they planned to marry. Ironically though when Kevin co-produced Around the World in 80 Days [1956] Liz left him for Mike Todd. Kevin turned down the production assignment for the first Bond film Dr Nobut later produced and wrote Thunderball and Never Say Never Again.
Hey Bob…..I like this……good idea…..thanks for sharing….and starting it off with a Joel quote…..hope that did not cause too much pain for you.
HI BRUCE
I felt you deserved some reward for having the loyalty and persistence to keep dragging Joel’s tired old bones onto this site!
Hey Bob….well the thought is appreciated.
Hello Bruce.
I’ve been waiting for this one. Thank You!
I’ve seen quite a few of her movies but my favorites are The Father’s Daughter, The Stranger, and the The Call of the Wild. Thanks again Bruce. Great Page.
Hey Lyle….glad you liked this page. I have only seen The Farmer’s Daughter of your favorites…but I want to see The Stranger looked interesting. Thanks for the visit and the nice words….both are greatly appreciated.