Want to know the best Morgan Freeman movies? How about the worst Morgan Freeman movies? Curious about Morgan Freeman’s box office grosses or which Morgan Freeman movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Morgan Freeman movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Before doing this page, I would have told you the actor that I became first aware of as a kid ….. was John Wayne. Turns out the answer has to be Morgan Freeman. Freeman appeared on PBS’s The Electric Company from 1971 to 1977. I was in kindergarten in 1972, and The Electric Company was required viewing. I remember seeing Freeman in the trailer for 1980’s Brubaker, and telling my brother…”Hey its that guy from the Electric Company”….ok enough about me.
In 1987 Freeman played Fast Eddie, a very brutal pimp, in Smart Street. He received his first Oscar® and Golden Globe® nomination for that role, and his movie career has never looked back. Since those early days, he has become one of the most respected actors working today. His IMDb page shows over 130 acting credits since 1964. This page will rank Morgan Freeman movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings. This page was from a request by Sunshine.
Morgan Freeman Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Morgan Freeman 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 Morgan Freeman movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Morgan Freeman movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Morgan Freeman movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Morgan Freeman 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 Morgan Freeman movie received.
- Sort Morgan Freeman 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.
- Use the sort and search buttons to make this a very interactive table.
Check out Morgan Freeman’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve Lensman’s You Tube Morgan Freeman Video
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Steve’s Freeman video has been added to the page. Our thoughts on his video.
“Only #26 Bopha has escaped me. Seen 39 of these movies. Favorites include #20 Lucky Number Slevin, #5 Glory, #3 Unforgiven, #2 The Dark Knight and #9 The LEGO Movie. Our Freeman page has 68 movies and some of those movies are not listed. Shocked..shocked I tell ya’……that Ben-Hur did not make your Top 40 video. That is a classic…I tear up everytime the chariot race starts and Heston messing up Boyd….lol. I did our Freeman page year ago…as a request by Sunshine. I will send her a link of this video….as well as voting up and sharing on my website. P.S. Overall I have seen 61 of his movies.”
Hi Bruce, I knew you’d beat my tally, 39 out of 40 is impressive, Morgan Freeman wasn’t in the one you missed but he did direct it. I’ve seen 33 of these, so I’m not that far behind.
Unnecessary Ben-Hur remake was low rated and I was happy to leave it out.
You’ve seen 61 Morgan films in total, whoa, you have to be a fan, or was he just making the type of films you like?
Thanks again for commenting, appreciate the vote and share!
HI STEVE
Those viewers who have been closely following my posts [and the exact number of such people would not I am sure be unlike the 16 million views that Bruce has just chalked up!] will be aware that Morgan Freeman is one of my 5 top favourite actors of all time, alongside Widmark, Peck, Stewart and Laddie.
Good company indeed and you will observe that Morg therefore is above even The Duke, Mumbles, Glenn and Chuck in my personal pecking order of male idols. Accordingly I welcome this video of yours as a fine companion piece to Bruce’s page.
Best POSTERS in entries 40-21 for me are – Chain Reaction, Sum of all Fears, Lucy, Along Came Joel, Las Vegas, Going in Style [with another idol of mine albeit down the top 20 Sir Maurice (Michael Caine) Micklewhite] Kiss the Girls, BOPHA, Lean on Me and Now You See me [again with the great Sir Maurice]
Entries 1-20 posters and ALL stills are covered in Part 2.
Morgan has had one of the most prolific careers ever in movies, with Bruce’s chart above showing almost 70 credits for him and an adjusted overall domestic gross of over $6.5 billion. Bruce ranks Morg a fine 18th in the Cogerson Top 25 Greatest Male Legends 1950-2010. IMDB lists Morg as 18th in what it describes as the “Ultimate List of the 100 Greatest Actors of All Time.”
My faves among the Morg films that I have seen are the 2 Alex Cross ones, Wanted, Seven, The Bucket list, Driving Miss Myrna, as God In Bruce Almighty and above all The Shawshank Redemption
Clint Eastwood has had great words to say about Morg being a deserving star and of course the pair have collaborated on several occasions with Clint for example directing Morg to further Oscar/Golden Globe nominated glory as Nelson Mandela in 2009’s Invictus.
Best POSTERS entries 1-20 for me are Lucky Number Slevin, the 2nd one for Wanted, Oblivion, Deep Impact, Armistad, Gone Baby Gone, The Dark Knight Rises, the entire set for The Dark Knight and the final one for The Shawshank Redemption.
STILLS [entire 40 entries]. My faves are Morg with Nicholson, Freeman with Willis in Red, Morg with Angelina Jolie, him with “Robin Hood” [I also loved THAT film with Kevin in his great heyday] Morg with the alter ego of another great superhero [Bruce Wayne] Morgan and Brad Pitt in the creepy Seven, and two iconic ones of Morg and Clint which should be collectors’ items.
As Morg is my all time 5th fave actor I was rooting for my scores for your video to add up to a high 98% bracket rating and they did. You and the REAL Bruce Almighty agree on 4 of Freeman’s Top 6 best reviewed with the Almighty one going for Lego Movie [Vote Down] and Million Dollar Baby [Vote Up] in his six and you choosing instead Seven and Glory.
POSTSCRIPT Personal Dan-like Idols link. 80 year old Jessica Tandy starred with Morg in the title role in Driving Miss Myrna and the 38 year old Jessica also played Blanche Du Bois in the Broadway stage production of Streetcar opposite Brando’s Stanley. Unfortunately she wasn’t considered a big enough movie star for the film adaptation.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info trivia and comparison, always appreciated. Glad you liked the posters and stills.
Surprised you’re such a big fan of Morg’s, bigger than Brando, Wayne and Chuck? Hard to believe. Well, you know considering he has made so many ‘nasty’ ‘violent’ ‘profane’ ‘modern’ movies. 😉 I thought you generally avoided movies made after 1979? Flora’s cut-off date for movies is a bit earlier than yours.
Like you say he has been a busy actor so I had to chop away until I had a reasonable amount of movies to show how varied his filmography is. I toyed with making it a top 50 but I think 40 was enough. I mean we’re not talking John Wayne here. [smirks]
Surprised to see Bruce hasn’t got Shawshank at no.1, Bruce is a huge fan. I like it too but I’m not crazy about it. I would rather have Seven at the top spot.
Morg has 6 films scoring 10 out of 10 from my sources – Million Dollar Baby, Glory, Seven, Unforgiven, The Dark Knight and The Shawshank Redemption.
There are no 9s but 8 more have scored 8 out of 10.
Tops at IMDB is The Shawshank Redemption with 9.3, it was their highest scoring film for a while not sure if it’s still tops. At Rotten Tomatoes Shawshank ties with The Dark Knight for no.1
Morg on Unforgiven – “I was in Africa when I got the call for Unforgiven. Clint called my agency and made an offer for a western. I was like “He called for me?” It was jaw-dropping.”
Morg on Glory – “I don’t know what my favorite film of mine is… But I think the most important film I was in was Glory. So if you ever ask, any time down the line, that’s always the film I’ll be most proud of.”
Morg on Shawshank – “It took a long time for word of mouth to kick in because no one could say it. It was “The Shimshunk Reduction”, “The Hudsucker Redemption”; I mean people just couldn’t say it, which really made me angry because I knew that at the time! The movie we made was called “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”. Isn’t that a great title? But they were like “That won’t fit on the marquee”. So it took a year or two for people to say it. Some people still can’t say it.”
HI STEVE Thanks for great feedback, chat and quotes. I have said many times on this site that my 5 fave actresses of all time are Doris, Deanna, Joan, Julia Roberts and Babs Streisand, and that my top 5 male heroes are Widmark Peck, Stewart, Ladd and FREEMAN.
Further down my pecking order are Wayne, Brando, Glenn, Chuck, Sir Dirk, Sir Maurice and Denzel. The 4 classic era stars in this 7 pack are the ones I write about most because there are more anecdotes about them in circulation within my own sources, such as all the Charlie Bill Stuart stuff. Brando and Wayne are attacked mor so I feel I have to defend them more.Get it?
I am sure that many of my 16 million regular viewers on this site are aware of all that !!! As to why I like Morg in particular among modern actors the clue is in the following praise for him on IMBD “With an authoritative voice and CALM demeanour this ever popular actor has become one of the greatest figures in today’s movies.” In short no noisy bawling and yelling or “hellraising” there!
Not everyone has the itch that Bruce Almighty, Box office Mojo and I have to convert actual grosses into adjusted dollars and indeed apparently movie producers and moneymen are said to be interested in only the actual cash that goes into their bank accounts so they heed just actual grosses. According to Wikipedia Morg is that 5th highest grossing actor of all time in terms of actual grosses with $4.5 billion in unadjusted domestic grosses and nearly $10 billion worldwide actual grosses.
As to why Bruce didn’t make Shawshank top among his best reviewed Freeman flicks, it may well have something to do with what the shrinks call ”over-compensating” Every now and again he has the compulsion to swim against the tide to show us all that he is not the slave of Joel or anyone else
HI STEVE
As evidence of my statement in my last post that The Duke and Mumbles are attacked more on this site than others among my idols consider the following examples-
1/Bruce let loose the Cogerson Kraken on those two [ie Joel]
2/You mocked my Great Orator’s speaking voice.
3/Flora has stated that she dislikes The Duke and Mr M though that is of course just her honest opinion free from any malice towards Brando/Wayne fans.
Contrariness is strong in the Northern Irish DNA and my contrary streak compels me often to try to tear down those who are put on pedestals I think they don’t deserve[such as Joe and Myrna] and go to bat for my idols and even “underdogs” who are not my idols.
After all in the 1972 Sleuth when Sir Maurice found out that detective fiction playwright/author Sir Laurence was trying to kill him the young Micklewhite assumed it was because he was having an affair with Larry’s wife in the movie until Olivier explained to him ” I don’t care about HER but you sneered at my Great Detective, Sinjin Lord Merridew.”
Good posts Bob, cheers. Well I might mock Brando’s mumbling now and then but I’m a big fan too, probably more than you since I can’t think of a single modern actor I like more than Brando, no not even Jason Statham.
The Godfather is one of my all time favorite movies, in my top 10 for sure and the only reason I don’t like Godfather II as much is that Brando wasn’t in it! Plus my favorite Bounty movie is the Brando movie, I even like his English accent in that!
Morgan Freeman is a good actor, always watchable, but doesn’t he nearly always play himself? One exception comes to mind, the Stephen King film Dreamcatcher in which he played an evil general with thick white eyebrows, scary! 😉
great share. Steve I apologize again that I cannot see your videos at work when I have time to comment. I do watch them when I can and greatly enjoy them . from bruce’s list I saw 30 of top 40 and 20 of top 21. saw 10 more not in top 40. my tens and favorites: unforgiven, million dollar baby, shawshank redemption, dark knight, batman begins, driving miss daisy, bucket list. 10 :Amistad. 9s and favorites : invictus, robin hood, prince of thieves. 9s:dark night rises, se7en(too weird to ever recommend), glory, red, lean on me .lots of 8s, hidden gems all 8s: magic of belle isle by rob reiner and eyewitness with William hurt, London has fallen, deep impact, magic of belle isle. I love the way he selects his roles (26/30 top movies are supporting), the only one better is Hackman 25/30 top movies are supporting. not in my top25 actors but wonderful.
,
Hi the Other Bob, thanks for watching the videos when you find the time, it is most appreciated. If I had to slap a parental rating on my videos I think a PG should suffice for most, though occasionally I veered towards a 15 rating, thanks to some naughty poster art. I did have a poster for Caligula recently which would have gotten my Malcolm McDowell video an 18 certificate if I had included it, and probably a warning too. 🙂
I have said before that Morgan Freeman is one of my Top 5 all-time favourite actors alongside Widmark, Peck, Stewart and Ladd. It was therefore a shock to see Morgan accused of inappropriate behaviour towards females off screen.
I have no idea how valid the accusations are but generally I have always tried to disallow a performer’s alleged or perceived personal defects of which I may not approve to prejudice me against his or her gifts as an artist.
So it is that accusations of loutish behavior on the part of Russell Crowe do not spoil my enjoyment of his films [though I wouldn’t like to meet him in an alleyway on a dark night!]
Also even if Tippi Hendren’s claims of sexual harassment by Hitchcock are true whilst I would not condone such conduct that would not diminish my admiration of Hitch’s great on-screen work.
If too Johnny Depp did as accused subject Amber Heard to domestic violence I would heartily disapprove of that, but would it be fair for me to stop my grandson from enjoying the Caribbean adventures of Capt Jack Sparrow that my grandson so loves?
Anyway where celebrities and other famous people are concerned we are invariably getting information just second or third hand and in such situations it is better to heed the Biblical advice that we should “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” [Matthew 7]
HI STEVE
Well we’ve both been on a learning curve today – you learned that Morg is in my Top 5 and I now find that you like The Great Orator, mumbles and all. It makes me feel actually that I’ve been on a wild goose chase for some time as I thought I was continually defending him against you! What a waste of the last two years !!
You will see from my post of 29 July recently on this site that I defended Morg against some current unpleasant allegations. Bruce never responded so I guess HE didn’t want to defend Morgan. But there it is as the Emperor kept saying in 1984s Amadeus.
Regarding Morg’s acting style, you may recall that The Work Horse thought that he was the modern day Spencer Tracy
Hey Bob and Steve….interesting comments between the two of you. Good to know Bob is a serious Morgan fan. You should avoid Just Getting Started….it is simply HORRIBLE.
Steve is a Brando fan? Say it ain’t so Joe……maybe Bob will forget you wrote that….lol.
I still like that comparison of Freeman and Tracy
Good feedback from both of you.
HI GUYS
Thanks to both of you for your interest in my comments about my very favourite black actor. Morg apparently is very concerned about the honeybee and in 2014 converted his 124 acre ranch into a bee sanctuary with an initial provision of 26 hives.
Why couldn’t Joel have spent his energies on POSITIVE charitable activities like that instead of wasting it on for example getting all worked up about the money Brando was earning? The revelation that Steve actually liked The Great Mumbler is the 2nd time in a few months that my perceptions have gone into total reverse.
The previous time was when I found out that Miriam Hopkins was regarded as “left” in US politics whereas I had hitherto put 2 and 2 together and made 5 in thinking Miriam was a strong Republican.I openly on this site apologised to her memory for my incorrect presumptions though the child in me disinclines me to apologise to Steve simply because he never apologises to me!!
However when I learn now that I had been haranguing Steve for years over somebody we both actually liked I am reminded of the scene in 1992’s A Few Good Men when Nicholson’s paranoiac and bullying Colonel Jessep who has been condescending to Cruise’s Lieutenant Kaffee suddenly finds out that Caffey’s father had been a great military hero and says “Boy am’t I the one who is the ******* a** ****!”
Anyway great getting the 3 of us in a three-way exchange loop! Take care.
HI AGAIN GUYS
The correct spelling of Cruise’s character is Kaffee. You will note in my previous post i spelled it in two different ways. Apologies.
I was quoting from memory initially and the old memory is not what it used to be. However the up-side of that is that probably in a short while I’ll forget that Steve mentioned The Great Orator and Jason Statham in the same breath!
The best I could come up, he trails Michael Caine by at least 17. 43 Oscar winners that Morgan has appeared with.
5 Flights Up (2015) – Diane Keaton
Amistad (1997) – Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey
Batman Begins (2005) – Michael Caine, Christian Bale
Deep Impact (1998) – Robert Duvall, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell
Driving Miss Daisy (1989) – Jessica Tandy
Edison (2005) – Kevin Spacey
Eyewitness (1981) – William Hurt, Christopher Plummer
Glory (1989) – Denzel Washington
Harry & Son (1984) – Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward
Johnny Handsome (1989) – Forest Whitaker
Last Vegas (2013) – Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen
London Has Fallen (2016) – Melissa Leo
Lucky Number Slevin (2006) – Ben Kingsley
Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (2005) – Tom Hanks, Matthew McConaughey, Paul Newman
Marie (1985) – Sissy Spacek
Million Dollar Baby (2004) – Hillary Swank
Now You See Me (2013) – Michael Caine
Now You See Me 2 (2016) – Michael Caine
Nurse Betty (2000) – Renee Zellweger
Outbreak (1995) – Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey, Cuba Gooding Jr.
Red (2010) – Helen Mirren
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) – Sean Connery
Se7en (1995) – Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey
Teachers (1984) – Lee Grant
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) – F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hanks
The Bucket List (2007) – Jack Nicholson
The Dark Knight (2008) – Michael Caine, Christian Bale
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – Michael Caine, Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard
The Maiden Heist (2009) – Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden
The Pawnbroker (1965) – Rod Steiger
The Power of One (1992) – John Gielgud
Under Suspicion (2000) – Gene Hackman
Unforgiven (1992) – Gene Hackman
Wanted (2008) – Angelina Jolie
Hey Dan….Morgan would be a good one. Seems the low 40s is a number many people are reaching. I think Morgan…and Sir Michael’s has a great chance to keep rising…as in their later years they are both appearing in many many movies. As always…thanks for the information.
I hope Mr. Freeman has a wonderful birthday. He is one of my favourite human beings.
I hope he has a great day as well. Good to know that he is one of your favorites.