Want to know the best Paul Muni movies? How about the worst Paul Muni movies? Curious about Paul Muni box office grosses or which Paul Muni movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Paul Muni 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.
Paul Muni (1895-1967) was an Austria-Hungarian born American Oscar® winning actor. His IMDb page shows 29 acting credits from 1929-1962. This page ranks 22 Paul Muni movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His six television appearances and his one cameo were not included in the rankings.
Drivel Part: Recent I did a “Who Is The Next Marlon Brando?” page….and in that page I suggested that Daniel Day-Lewis was the New Paul Muni. Well after writting that page…it occurred to me that maybe we should do a Paul Muni page….plus it is a requested page….so now we have a Paul Muni page.
Paul Muni Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Paul Muni 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 Paul Muni movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Paul Muni movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Paul Muni movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions) *** If domestic and worldwide totals are the same then worldwide is unknown.
- Sort Paul Muni 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 Paul Muni movie received.
- Sort Paul Muni 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 Paul Muni
1. Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund was born in Lemberg…which is now known as Lviv, Ukraine. He immigrated to the United States when he was 7.
2. Frederich Weisenfruend was highly skilled in using makeup techniques. At the age of 12 he played an 80-year old on stage….he did the makeup!
3. Growing up, Frederich’s nickname was “Moony”. When he signed a movie contract with Fox in 1929, his name was simplified and anglicized to Paul Muni
4. Paul Muni received an Best Actor Oscar® nomination for his very first movie (1929’s The Valiant) and his very last movie (1959’s The Last Angry Man). Only Muni and James Dean can make that claim!
5. Paul Muni is one of only six actors to receive an Oscar® nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance. The other five actors are: Orson Welles, Lawrence Tibbett, Alan Arkin, James Dean and Montgomery Clift.
6. Paul Muni received 6 Best Actor Oscar® nominations…or 1 for every 3.66 movies he made. For comparison: Meryl Streep has one acting Oscar® nominations for every 2.84 movies made. Bruce Willis is 0 for 60 movies.
7. Paul Muni won the Best Actor Oscar® for 1937’s The Life of Emile Zola.
8. Paul Muni was only married once and did not have any children. Off screen he was a very shy person.
9. Paul Muni on acting: “A writer can write in an attic, or on top of a bus. Or with a sharp stick in some wet cement. To act, an actor has to have words. A stage. a camera turning. I can’t go into the middle of Times Square, stop traffic and start acting.”
10. Check out Paul Muni‘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.
good stuff!
Thank you Simpson
The Robert De Niro of the 1930s finally gets his page… what was that? The Daniel Day Lewis of the 30s? Yeah I can see that too… but surely De Niro was the Muni of modern cinema, no? Day-Lewis the modern Muni?
Day-Lewis is no doubt a great actor but he is a little too measured and precise in his technique while De Niro displays more than a hint of madness and unpredictability in his performances, Brandoesque if you like. In the few films I’ve seen Muni he had that same crazy look in his eyes. Now Al Pacino of course is on another level, he(Stop it Steve!)
I’ve seen 6 of the 22 films you’ve listed, just 22? Wow. John Wayne had appeared in nearly 80 movies by the late 30s!
Favorites are Scarface, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang and The Good Earth.
I haven’t seen Angel on my Shoulder or Louis Pasteur.
Scarface not a worldwide hit, I’m shocked. Zola was a huge hit.
Paul ‘Moony’ – he should have stuck with that, or replaced the M with an L. 🙂
A nice tribute to a nearly forgotten Hollywood legend Bruce. Voted Up.
Hey Steve…yeah people were banging on the front door demanding a Paul Muni page….lol. I can see the comparison between DeNiro of the 1970s and Muni….just DeNiro has spent the last 35 years of trying to make people forget what a great actor he was.
Your issues with DDL are almost the same issues I read about Muni. Which makes my “match” of them seem even better. You have me beat….I am at 5….just one movie behind you. Scarface dealt with censorship problems which hurt its box office here and overseas.
So you think Paul Loony would have been a better name….lol. Thanks for the movie thoughts.
Hey Laurent. Good comment. Scarface did for you what Bringing Up Baby did for me….made me a Howard Hawks fan. I have seen only a few more Muni movies…..as my tally is 5 of his movies….but it is my My Top 5 rated movies…so I feel I have seen the right ones. Thanks for the comment.
Like Laurent I have not seen many of his movies. But I know he was considered one of the greats of his time. Your comparison of Muni/Day Lewis seems like a good one to me. I wonder if Daniel Day-Lewis will be remembered in 50 years. Not thinking many of his movies are ones that people will be dying to watch. Good page, as usual.
Hey Stein…..good point about DDL…will he be remembered? Maybe Lincoln will be his classic movie future generations will talk about. Glad you like my DDL/Muni match…..greatly appreciate the visit and the comment.
Hi Bruce,
I’ve seen only one movie of this page, Scarface. But it is one of my favorites movie of all-time. In my opinion, it was the greatest gangster’s movie of the 1930’s, but not only. It is with this film I discovered Howard Hawks, who became my favorite classic director with John Ford.