Want to know the best Ralph Bellamy movies? How about the worst Ralph Bellamy movies? Curious about Ralph Bellamy box office grosses or which Ralph Bellamy movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Ralph Bellamy 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.
Ralph Bellamy (1904-1991) was an Oscar®-nominated American actor. Bellamy’s movie career covered 7 decades. His IMDb page shows 199 acting credits from 1931-1990. This page will rank 55 Ralph Bellamy movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television roles, uncredited roles and movies that were not released in North America were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: The good news? Every Ralph Bellamy movie from 1941 to 1990 is on the following table. The bad news? Between 1931 and 1940 Bellamy was a movie making machine. He made 67 movies or almost 7 movies a year for that time frame. We sadly were only able to find box office information on 27 of those movies. Yes were are also disappointed in our 60% fail rate. This page was requested by Cogerson Hall of Fame commenter Søren, a very very long time ago….sorry for the delay Søren.
Ralph Bellamy Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Ralph Bellamy 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 Ralph Bellamy movies by co-stars of his movies.
- SortRalph Bellamy movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Ralph Bellamy movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Ralph Bellamy movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Ralph Bellamy movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Ralph Bellamy movie won.
- Sort Ralph Bellamy 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.
Ten Possibly Interesting Facts About Ralph Bellamy
1. Ralph Rexford Bellamy was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1904.
2. Ralph Bellamy ran away from home when he was 15 and managed to get into a road show. He toured with road shows before finally landing in New York City. He began acting on stage there and by 1927 owned his own theater company.
3. Ralph Bellamy’s first screen appearance was in 1931’s The Secret Six. Newcomers Clark Gable and Jean Harlow were also part of the cast of The Secret Six.
4. Ralph Bellamy was nominated for one Academy Award®. He received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for 1937’s The Awful Truth.
5. For his “For his unique artistry and his distinguished service to the profession of acting. “, Ralph Bellamy was awarded a Honorary Oscar® in 1987.
6. Ralph Bellamy was married four times and had two children.
7. Ralph Bellamy played Franklin D. Roosevelt four times: on stage, in a movie and in two miniseries.
8. For Belfast Bob: Ralph Bellamy was regularly seen socially with a select circle of friends known as the Irish Mafia.
9. In Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday (1940), Bellamy’s character, as happened in several movies, loses his girl to Cary Grant. At one point in the movie, as the conniving newspaper editor, Grant is giving a henchman directions to help him identify Bellamy’s character, and Grant says, “He looks like Ralph Bellamy.”. Love this Cary Grant ad lib.
10. Check out Ralph Bellamy’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve’s Ralph Bellamy YouTube Video
Academy Award®, Tony® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
HI BRUCE 1 Columnists used to chide Ronnie with the taunt that he “never got the girl” in his movies and he correctly pointed out during the 1980 presidential election campaign that he often got the girl! He certainly got my Rhonda in both the 1951 The Last Outpost [aka Cavalry Charge] and the 1953 Tropic Zone
2 Movie historians claim that in pictures with important stars like Cary Grant, Bellamy was always the friend or losing rival of the guy who got the girl. Is that accurate, do you know? I am not familiar enough with Ralph’s hey-day movies to assess the situation though I do know that in Lady in A Train he never got my Deanna and it was an actor whom I’ve never heard of called David Bruce who wed M-s Durbin at the end. It seems that its not just regarding grosses on this site that someone called Bruce [whether Christian or surname] is treated as special !!!
3 Certainly playing 2nd fiddle to almost everybody else was not the best way to rise to top stardom and whilst Ralph got top billing in B movies such as the Ellery Queen series he was normally lowly billed in A picture with other top names. [I loved the EQ books]
4 It was therefore a bit incongruous that in the 1960 Sunrise at Campobello he was billed above Greer Garson who in her mega star days was usually top billed. However in that one Ralph of course played FDR and Greer was Eleanor and maybe it would have caused outrage among excitable Americans if Mr President had been mentioned AFTER the 1st Lady!
5 I like films about US politics/politicians and among my faves are Seven Days in May, All the King’s Men, Gorgeous George’s Good Night and Good Luck, A Lion is in the Streets starring the “dirty rat” , and Hope’s Beau James. However I have never been able to catch up on Sunrise at Campobello and would like to see it. Have you watched it yourself? I see you give it a respectable 73% rating though it’s box office was poor. Anyway with this page another highly deserving actor has been added to the Cogerson catalogue of profiles
Hey Bob….thanks for checking out our Ralph Bellamy page. I think Cary Grant was referencing screen persona when he said the famous line in His Girl Friday….”He looks like the actor Ralph Bellamy:. I think by the time they made Sunrise at Campobello….Garson’s prime was way past….so that made the billing issue even easier. Good to know you like films about politics. If you have not seen it yet….I would highly recommend The Contender….which stars Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Christian Slater and Gary Oldman….a great unknown movie…even though it did get some Oscar nominations. Good feedback.
HI BRUCE
1 Good Cary Grant quote.
2 I HAVE seen the Contender and agree it was a super movie and W o BOB and I would join you in highly recommending it.
3 I also liked DeNiro’s Guilty by Suspicion though it did poor box office and you give it just a 65% rating and IMDB does the same – so once again the “Big Boys” have closed ranks against me!
Glad you liked The Contender….so many twists and turns…and then an awesome ending….I wish more people knew about that movie….Gary Oldman is amazing….as is Joan Allen. As for Guilty by Suspicion……been ages since I have seen that one…..it is actually on the night stand by my bed….just waiting to be watched again. 65% is a good movie…just not a stellar movie…..thanks for the feedback….and off to work I go.
HI BRUCE
1 Glad you have an interest in Guilty by Suspicion
2 Pleased that you know the John Mahoney villain role I’m referring to
3 When I stayed for 2 weeks in Atlanta in 1999 one thing I noticed about the Americans in that area was their habit of publicly applauding what they saw as happy or deserving things.
4 For example say a group of friends took me to a restaurant to celebrate my birthday and I got up to cut the cake then many of the other diners who did not even know me would clap.
5 It’s all very nice and friendly of course but it has struck me that is possibly the reason that guys like McQueen and Mr Demi Moore got such a big head about themselves because everywhere they went everybody broke into applause. Over here we’re more reserved and would just stare respectfully at Sir Maurice if he appeared among us.
6 I visited Planet Hollywood Atlanta when I was there. Was Mr Moore connected with that? I think Arnie and Sly were.
Hi Bruce
There’s actually quite a few movies with Mr. Bellamy mentioned in the Harrison Reports.
Don’t know if you can use it in any way…
West Of Broadway Below Average
Surrender Below Average
Wild Girl Good / Fair
Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm Above Average
Young America Average
Woman In Room 13 Average
Almost Married Below Average
Ever In My Heart Fair / Poor
Before Midnight Fair / Poor
Ace Of Aces Good / Fair
Parole Girl Fair / Poor
Second Hand Wife Fair / Poor
Below The Sea Good / Fair
Destination Unknown Poor
Once To Every Woman Fair / Poor
This Man Is Mine Good
One Is Guilty Poor
Navy Wife Good / Fair
Gigolette Poor
Counterfeit Lady Fair
Straight From The Shoulder Fair / Poor
The Man Who Lived Twice Poor
Hey Søren…thanks for all of these Harrison Reports categories….I will have to go back and see which ones I can add to the page. Wow that is 22 more movies…..that is almost a full page…lol. I know I want to include Rebecca of Sunnybrook and The Man Who Lived Twice. I just sent this comment to my e-mail….so it will keep Ralph Bellamy in my eyesight….and get the page to be even bigger. Thanks again.
Hi Bruce
Wow, a very long and impressive career for Mr. Bellamy. Haven’t seen that many of his films (14-15 maybe) and somehow I always remember him as the very likeable character in Pretty Woman(his last & very small role).
And kudos to you, Bruce, for finding box office information on 55 of his movies.
As always great work, Bruce.
Hey Søren
1. Glad you found your requested Bellamy page.
2. Your 14 or 15 would finish 2nd in our tally contest….only behind Flora’s 19….and just ahead of Steve, myself and Phil.
3. I was rolling on finding Bellamy box office…..until I reached 1940….and then it got very very difficult.
4. He had a great swan song with his role in Pretty Woman…..and it was his biggest box office hit.
Thanks for the kind words.
Hi Bruce, I think I may have seen only 8 of his movies, but I’ve usually found Ralph Bellamy to be a strong presence in his films. In particular, as he aged, he seemed well-suited to play men of strong character and dominating patriarchs. From the films listed, His Girl Friday, The Professionals and Trading Places are the ones where I most remember Bellamy, but the role that stands out the most for me is his powerful portrayal of Roosevelt in the mini-series The Winds of War/War and Remembrance. I have not seen Sunrise at Campobello, where Bellamy first played FDR, but I understand that he made a strong impression there as well and that he had won a Tony for the stage version of that film, so Bellamy seems to have been the ultimate expert in portraying the war-time president!
Hey PhilHoF17
1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Mr. Ralph Bellamy.
2. Tally count…..Flora 19, Steve and myself at 13 and you at 8.
3. I agree his movies after Rosemary’s Baby were few….but made major impact. Like Ameche….he had a career rival in the 1980s….with Ameche winning an Oscar….and Bellamy getting his Honorary Oscar….on top of hits like Trading Places, Coming To America and Pretty Woman.
4. I have not seen any of his Roosevelt performances……but by all accounts….many people agree with your thinking on his performance.
5. Good feedback.
When I see Ralph Bellamy I always remember the ending of ‘The Professionals’ when an angry Bellamy calls Lee Marvin a bastard and Marvin replies “Yes sir. In my case an accident of birth. But you, you’re a self-made man.” 🙂
I’ve seen 13 of the 55 films on the chart, fewer than I thought. Favorites include – The Professionals, Rosemary’s Baby, Trading Places, Coming to America, Pretty Woman, The Awful Truth, His Girl Friday, Dive Bomber, Ghost of Frankenstein and The Wolfman.
Good to see The Wolfman doing well on the critics chart.
Rosemary’s Baby was a huge hit in 1968, Polanski hasn’t been able to top it. The success of that movie paved the way for The Exorcist and The Omen in the seventies. Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Mother!” was a sick twist on Rosemary’s Baby.
Nice work Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve.
1. Great Marvin quote from The Professionals….classic line!
2. Tally count…..19 for Flora….with you and me sitting at 13.
3. Off your favorites….seen them all with the exception of Ghost of Frankenstien.
4. I would say His Girl Friday, The Awful Truth and Trading Places would be my Top 3.
5. I agree 100%…Rosemary’s Baby is the reason The Exorcist and The Omen got made….and then they exceeded the success of Rosemary’s Baby.
6. Interesting theory on Mother….I thought it was a telling of the bible….with Lawrence being Mother Nature and Bardem being God.
Thanks for the visit and the comment.