Rhonda Fleming (1923-2020) was an American film/television actress and singer. She acted in more than forty films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamorous actresses of her day. She was nicknamed the “Queen of Technicolor” because her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well. This page ranks 36 Rhonda Fleming movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, bit parts and her movies not released in North America theaters are not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request by Mike.
Bruce Willis Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Rhonda Fleming 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.
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- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Rhonda Fleming movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Rhonda Fleming movie won.
- Sort Rhonda Fleming 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.
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Another one who’s passing I found out through this site. I saw her in Out of the Past in the Regency revival theater in Manhattan. I couldn’t believe that was her in the film because she usually played glamorous roles.
Rhonda was never on the Oracle of Bacon list. These are the actors on the 2020 list she appeared with.
16 DENNIS HOPPER Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
38 CHARLTON HESTON Pony Express (1953)
68 JOHN CARRADINE Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
76 DEAN STOCKWELL Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
81 ROBERT MITCHUM Out of the Past (1947)
81 ROBERT MITCHUM Waiting for the Wind (1990)
81 ROBERT MITCHUM When Strangers Marry (1944)
84 BRUCE DERN Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
131 BURT LANCASTER Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
180 FERNANDO REY Revolt of the Slaves (1961)
193 KIRK DOUGLAS Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
193 KIRK DOUGLAS Out of the Past (1947)
262 KEENAN WYNN Since You Went Away (1944)
262 KEENAN WYNN The Crowded Sky (1960)
290 GREGORY PECK Spellbound (1945)
344 JOHN WAYNE In Old Oklahoma (1943)
377 GLENN FORD The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)
413 JOSEPH COTTEN Since You Went Away (1944)
413 JOSEPH COTTEN The Killer Is Loose (1956)
441 TERI GARR Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
458 VITTORIO GASSMAN The Nude Bomb (1980)
510 JOHN IRELAND Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
532 DUB TAYLOR Those Redheads from Seattle (1953)
549 VINCENT PRICE The Big Circus (1959)
549 VINCENT PRICE While the City Sleeps (1956)
592 ANGIE DICKINSON Tennessee’s Partner (1955)
597 PAUL FIX In Old Oklahoma (1943)
628 GEORGE SANDERS While the City Sleeps (1956)
660 LEE MARVIN Hong Kong (1952)
667 PETER LAWFORD Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
703 ROLAND CULVER The Great Lover (1949)
727 ROBERT RYAN Inferno (1953)
749 KATHLEEN FREEMAN Cry Danger (1951)
760 LEE VAN CLEEF Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
805 KEYE LUKE Hong Kong (1952)
805 KEYE LUKE Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
828 JACK ELAM Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
837 BRODERICK CRAWFORD Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
851 ALDO RAY Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
860 MIKE MAZURKI Alias Jesse James (1959)
860 MIKE MAZURKI Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
887 MADELINE KAHN Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
895 JOHN CRAWFORD Serpent of the Nile (1953)
907 WALTER PIDGEON Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
915 STERLING HAYDEN The Golden Hawk (1952)
934 RICHARD ANDERSON The Buster Keaton Story (1957)
952 BRIAN KEITH Jivaro (1954)
974 EDMOND O’BRIEN The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)
Rhonda appeared with 22 Oscar winners.
ART CARNEY Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
BING CROSBY A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949)
BING CROSBY Alias Jesse James (1959)
BRODERICK CRAWFORD Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
BURT LANCASTER Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
CHARLTON HESTON Pony Express (1953)
CLAUDETTE COLBERT Since You Went Away (1944)
DEAN JAGGER When Strangers Marry (1944)
EDMOND O’BRIEN The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)
ETHEL BARRYMORE The Spiral Staircase (1945)
GARY COOPER Alias Jesse James (1959)
GEORGE SANDERS While the City Sleeps (1956)
GREGORY PECK Spellbound (1945)
HATTIE MCDANIEL SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (1944)
INGRID BERGMAN Spellbound (1945)
JENNIFER JONES Since You Went Away (1944)
JOHN WAYNE In Old Oklahoma (1943)
KIM HUNTER When Strangers Marry (1944)
LEE MARVIN Hong Kong (1952)
LIONEL BARRYMORE Since You Went Away (1944)
RED BUTTONS The Big Circus (1959)
RITA MORENO Jivaro (1954)
THOMAS MITCHELL WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS (1956)
Hey Dan….I was so tired last night I fell asleep before doing the daily updates on the page….so this morning before doing a training workshop I noticed she passed away. She actually passed away on Wednesday but the news broke early this morning or late last night. Good lists on Rhonda Fleming….Robert Mitchum her most frequent Oracle co-star. Rita Moreno is the only Oscar winning co-star that is still around. Rest in peace Rhonda Fleming.
Como me hubiera gustado vivir en esa epoca
Hola Jose. Me gustaría visitar ese tiempo, pero solo por un corto período de tiempo. Me encantan los beneficios de la tecnología moderna para querer vivir durante la cima de la carrera cinematográfica de Rhonda Fleming. Gracias por pasar.
Muy buena epoca
Thanks for the visit Jose.
Hello Bob,
thank you for your detailed comments on my comment. Rhonda Fleming is one actress I do not know a lot about- too many westerns and action films in her filmography to make her that interesting for me. But I did like her in other genres…like her own favorite Home before Dark and the one you mention, While the City sleeps. Thus, I wasn’t aware of her charity work, her strong christian beliefs and her billing status in the movies you mention. Thank you for enlightening me on those aspects of her career and private life. Actresses like Rhonda Fleming were vital to the success of classic Hollywood studios, but were neither then nor today appreciated for their contribution. I vividly remember the roar of disapproval among fans when the Academy failed to include Yvonne de Carlo, an actress with a long career in mostly light escapist fare or matinee movies, in their yearly In Memoriam.
HI LUPINO
Great to have exchanged posts with you about Rhonda.
I agree with your conclusions about lack of appreciation of actresses like Rhonda
She said that the reason she preferred her supporting role in Home before Dark to her female lead roles in most of her heyday programmers was that it “stretched” her acting abilities more that the lighter fare.
Take good care.
As our friend from Paris, Pierre, so charmingly says, I first met Rhonda Fleming in the living room of our neighbours when I was a little boy…her album “Rhonda Fleming Sings Just For You” was part of their music collection. Neither did I know that here was an actress from Hollywood trying to make a buck in another entertainment field, nor did I EVER hear this album played…that is until a big online shop had a promotion going a few years ago, where they sold every album outside of the current charts for 5 Euros per download. I must admit that I listened to it a few times, but it was overshadowed by some others, two of them by another Redhead once known as the “Queen of Technicolor”, the more famous Maureen O’Hara, who almost suffered the same fate as Rhonda- but just almost, as she had starring parts in some real A pictures coming her way throughout her career.
Back to the point of this page. I have seen 15 movies starring or featuring Miss Fleming, and I really liked her performance in rather small parts in Spellbound (not among Hitchcock’s best, though), The Spiral Staircase and Out of the Past. My most favorite starturns were in Slightly Scarlett, Home before Dark, While the City sleeps, the 3D outing Inferno, The Killer Is Loose and the poor man’s The High and the Mighty aka The crowded Sky. A beautiful Lady, who might have done better had she been at MGM during their run of big screen musicals in the 50’s- but we will never know. As it is, she still had a better career than most of her contemporaries who started out in small parts and then went into total oblivion. Good to know that she is still around at 95!
HI LUPINO Good point about Rhonda and MGM. As it was the studios that she was with would have seen only one career route for her – as the love interest of a more dominant male lead who would get top billing in action programmers
Examples are John Payne in Slightly Scarlet, Tennessee’s Partner, Crosswinds and The Eagle and the Hawk, Ronald Reagan in The Last Outpost, Hong Kong and Tropic Zone, Dana Andrews in While the City Sleeps and The Crowded Sky, Guy Madison in Bullwhip, Jeff Chandler in Yankee Pasha, Randolph Scott in Abilene Town and Stewart Granger in Gun Glory. That one WAS with MGM but by that time [1957] she had missed the boat on musicals.
Probably her biggest prestige western, and one of her few truly ”Big Pictures”, was Gunfight at the OK Corral but there she played 2nd fiddle to Lancaster and Douglas and did not get equal billing. Home before Dark which you also mention was a meaty A list drama and she was excellent but the star was Jean Simmons, billed alone above the title.
Rhonda did though as you suggest have a reasonably good career within her type of material and seemed to lead a happy and productive personal life as well, involving herself with many charities. She also appeared to have strong religious convictions and in the early 1960s campaigned for Mandatory prayer in schools and claimed that in her campaign she had the support of mega stars like Reagan, Wayne, Mary Pickford, Roy Rogers and Ginger Rogers.
HI AGAIN LUPINO
I should clarify a sweeping implication that I made when I listed in the 2nd paragraph of my previous post the action films Rhonda appeared in with the male co-stars whom I mentioned in that paragraph.
Whilst in those programmers and their like she a nearly always 2nd billed and the love interest of the male lead and usually the lead female that was not 100% the case.
For example in While the City Sleeps she was the adulterous wife of Vincent Price and her love interest “on the side” was James Craig, and I don’t think she shared any scenes with Andrews whose own love interest was Sally Forrest.
In Abilene Town she was just the 2nd female lead to Ann Dvorak. Ironically although Rhonda was again just the 2nd female lead in Home Before Dark that was her own stated favourite role.