Want to know the best Van Heflin movies? How about the worst Van Heflin movies? Curious about Van Heflin box office grosses or which Van Heflin movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Van Heflin 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.
Van Heflin (1908-1971) was an American Oscar® winning actor. Between 1936 and 1971 Heflin has 66 acting credits on his IMDb page. This page will rank 50 Van Heflin movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His television apperances, documentaries, shorts and movies not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings. To do well in our rankings a movie has to succeed at the box office, get good reviews from critics, liked by movie audiences and receive either some Oscar® or Golden Globe® love. This page was requested by Peterson.
Van Heflin 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 Van Heflin movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Van Heflin movies by actual domestic box office grosses
- Sort Van Heflin movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Van Heflin movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Van Heflin 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 Van Heflin movie received and how many Oscar® wins each movie won.
- Sort Van Heflin 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 search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Van Heflin Table
- Sixteen Van Heflin movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 32.00% of his movies listed. Airport (1970) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Van Heflin movie grossed $103.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 32 Van Heflin movies are rated as good movies…or 64.00% of his movies. Shane (1953) is his highest rated movie while Cry of Battle (1963) is his lowest rated movie.
- Twelve Van Heflin movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 24.00% of his movies.
- Four Van Heflin movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 8.00% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 25 Van Heflin movies scored higher than that average….or 50.00% of his movies. Shane (1953) got the the highest UMR Score while Cry of Battle (1963) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Van Heflin
1. Emmett Evan Heflin, Jr. was born in Walters, Oklahoma 1908.
2. Van Heflin began his acting career on Broadway in the early 1930s. From there he signed RKO movie contract. He made his film debut in 1936’s A Woman Rebels with some actress named Katharine Hepburn.
3. Van Heflin was only nominated for one Oscar® in his career…..but he made it count as he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for 1941’s Johnny Eager.
4. Van Heflin served as a combat cameraman in the Ninth Air Force in Europe during World War 2.
5. Derek Sculthorpe’s book….Van Heflin A Life in Film is a must read for any Van Heflin fan.
6. Van Heflin was married twice and had three children.
7. Many movie buffs know John Dillinger was killed after watching Clark Gable’s Manhattan Melodrama (1934)…but how many know that Lee Harvey Oswald was captured as he was watching Van Heflin’s Cry of Battle (1963)….Cry of Battle was part of a double feature that Oswald was watching.
8. Check out Van Heflin‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
But Wait There Is More! Adjusted Worlwide Box Office Grosses on 20 Van Heflin Movies
- Act of Violence (1949) $60.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Battle Cry (1955) $426.20 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- BF’s Daughter (1948) $105.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- East Side, West Side (1949) $138.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Grand Central Murder (1942) $43.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Greatest Story Ever Told, The (1965) $224.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Green Dolphin Street (1947) $442.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Johnny Eager (1941) $204.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Kid Glove Killer (1942) $41.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Madame Bovary (1949) $109.60 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Possessed (1947) $183.80 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Presenting Lily Mars (1943) $260.90 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Santa Fe Trail (1940) $217.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Seven Sweethearts (1942) $140.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Shane (1953) $451.30 Tap Roots (1948) $178.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Tennessee Johnson (1942) $56.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Three Musketeers, The (1948) $466.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Till The Clouds Roll By (1946) $439.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Under Ten Flags (1960) $53.10 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Woman Rebels, A (1936) $65.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
Steve’s Van Heflin You Tube Video
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globe® is a registered trademark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
Well….Seen…0…Heard of…3
So no knowledge of this man for me. However, I can appreciate the massive box office he took in….pretty impressive. Also, the 9th Air Force is pretty cool, those were the guys in the desert and it is still the command that is over the desert although under a different name now.
Hey BryRog57…..thanks for the thoughts on Van Heflin. So your tally is zero…but you have heard of 3…I am guessing…those 3 movies are Airport, 3:10 to Yuma and the Three Musketeers….all of course have remakes and sequels and spoofs in the recent past. Good to know that the 9th Air Force is one of the good ones. 🙂
For some reason I’m thinking of Dance the Night Away and Panama and Jump. No that’s Van Halen. I always found Van sort of dull but I thought he made one great film no one knows, Patterns. The following are the only people around on the current Oracle of Bacon top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list who appeared with him in a film.
Airport (1970) – 238 Joel Thingvall, 282 Christopher Lloyd, 313 George Kennedy, 391 Jacqueline Bisset
Battle Cry (1955) – 622 Ralph Moratz
Black Widow (1954) – 912 Arthur Tovey
Once a Thief (1965) – 660 Ann-Margret
Stagecoach (1966) – 660 Ann-Margret
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) – 20 Max Von Sydow, 65 Robert Loggia, 69 Martin Landau, 247 Charlton Heston, 323 Donald Pleasence, 781 Shelley Winters
The Raid (1954) – 937 Robert Easton
Woman’s World (1954) – 912 Arthur Tovey
Not counting Peggy Ann Garner (see below) Van appears to have appeared with 39 other Oscar winners.
A Woman Rebels (1936) – Donald Crisp
Act of Violence (1948) – Mary Astor
Airport (1970) – Burt Lancaster, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, Maureen Stapleton
B.F.’s Daughter (1948) – Charles Coburn
Battle Cry (1955) – Dorothy Malone
Black Widow (1954) – Ginger Rogers (film also has Peggy Ann Garner who received a special Oscar for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945))
Count Three and Pray (1955) – Joanne Woodward
Cry of Battle (1963) – Rita Moreno
East Side, West Side (1949) – Gale Sondergaard
Green Dolphin Street (1947) – Donna Reed, Edmund Gwenn
H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941) – Charles Coburn
Madame Bovary (1949) – Jennifer Jones
My Son John (1952) – Dean Jagger, Helen Hayes
Once a Thief (1965) – Jack Palance
Possessed (1947) – Joan Crawford
Santa Fe Trail (1940) – Olivia De Havilland
Shane (1953) – Ben Johnson, Jack Palance
Stagecoach (1966) – Bing Crosby, Red Buttons
Tap Roots (1948) – Susan Hayward
Tennessee Johnson (1942) – Lionel Barrymore
The Big Bounce (1969) – Lee Grant
The Feminine Touch (1941) – Don Ameche
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) – Charlton Heston, John Wayne, Jose Ferrer, Joseph Schildkraut, Martin Landau, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier
The Raid (1954) – Anne Bancroft, Lee Marvin
The Three Musketeers (1948) – Gig Young
They Came to Cordura (1959) – Gary Cooper
Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) – Frank Sinatra
Week-end with Father (1951) – Patricia Neal
Hey Dan.
1. Mmmm….Patterns?….I had never heard of that one before….but it looks like it got some good reviews…in his Top 5 when you sort by critic/audience rating…..I will have to keep an eye out for that movie.
2. Thanks for the Oracle lists.
3. List 1: Looks like two movies have most of the remaining actors…Airport and Greatest Story…I wonder how look those movies will have great “Oracle” connections?
4. 39 Oscars winners is about average for a career as long as his was….once again Greatest Story is well represented..with Airport not too far behind.
5. Good stuff.
6. Speaking of the Bacon Oracle….last night I watched a pretty bad movie….and is my routine I went to IMDb to check the information on the movie….well….the only actor I knew in the movie was Eric Roberts….so I went to his IMDb page to find the movie (the movie has three different titles so it was hard to find)….and was shocked to see 435 plus credits….and something like 40 in 2017 already…..goodness gracious he is a movie making maching….I counted over 100 movies since 2014….and I thought Danny Trejo was working hard…lol. Granted of those many movies…there were not too many I had heard of….but the quantity is truly impressive…..beginning to finally understand why he is #1 in their rankings.
Here are some of the more interesting 2 step connections for the top 10 people on the Oracle of Bacon top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list. This is not all their 2 step connections just some I find interesting.
Eric Roberts was in Before It’s Too Late (2013) with Robert Loggia who was in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) with Van.
Eric was in The Ambulance (1990) with Red Buttons who appeared in Stagecoach (1966) with Van.
Eric was in Father (2016) with Ann-Margret who also appeared in Stagecoach (1966) with Van.
Eric was in It’s My Party (1996) with Roddy McDowell who is also in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).
Michael Madsen was in No Deposit (2015) with Robert Loggia
Michael Madsen is also in Father (2016) with Ann-Margret
Michael Madsen was in Blood Red (1989) along with Eric Roberts with Aldo Ray who was in Battle Cry (1955) with Van.
Danny Trejo was in Smiley Face (2007) with Marion Ross (Happy Days ) who was in Airport with Van.
Samuel L. Jackson was in S.W.A.T. (2003) with Steve Forest who was in 5 Branded Women (1960) with Van.
Samuel L. Jackson was in Coming to America (1988) with Don Ameche who was in The Virtuous Sin (1941) with Van.
Sameul L. Jackson was in The Exorcist III (1990) with Vivica Lindfors who was in La Tempesta (1958) with Van.
Harvey Keitel was in Presence of Mind (1989) with Lauren Bacall who was in Patterns (1956) with Van.
Harvey Keitel was in La mort en direct (1980) with Max Von Sydow who is in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).
Harvey was in Point of No Return (1993) with Anne Bancroft who was in The Raid (1954) with Van.
Harvey was in Saturn 3 (1980) with Kirk Douglas who was with Van in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Robert De Niro was in Great Expectations (1998) with Anne Bancroft.
Bob was in Mistress (1992) with Martin Landau who is The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Bob was in The Last Tycoon (1976) with Jeanne Moreau who is also in 5 Branded Women, and with Donald Pleasence who is in The Greatest Story Ever Told
Willem Dafoe was in Manderlay (2005) with Lauren Bacall.
Willem was in Triumph of the Spirit (1989) with Robert Loggia
Malcolm McDowell was in Mortacci (1989) with Vittorio Gassman who is also in La Tempesta
Malcolm is In Voyage of the Damned (1976) with Lee Grant who is in The Big Bounce (1969) with Van. James Mason is also in Voyage and appeared with Van in Madame Bovary (1949). Jose Ferrer is also in Voyage of the Damned and The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Malcolm is in Delgo (2008) with Anne Bancroft
Donald Sutherland is in Johnny Got his Gun (1971) with Marsha Hunt who appeared with Van in Seven Sweethearts (1942). Marsha is 99 now (Kirk Douglas is 100 as everyone knows).
Don is in The Dirty Dozen (1967) with Lee Marvin who also is in The Raid and Telly Savalas who is in The Greatest Story Ever Told..
Don is in Alex in Wonderland (1970) with Jeanne Moreau
Don is in Oviri (1986) with Max Von Sydow
Michael Caine is in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979) with Slim Pickens who is also in Stagecoach.
Mike is in The Swarm (1978) with Fred MacMurray who is in Woman’s World (1954) with Van, Olivia De Havilland who was with Van in Santa Fe Trail (1940), Ben Johnson who was in Shane (1953) with Van. Also in The Swarm are Telly Savalas and Lee Grant.
Mike is in Alfie (1966) with Shelley Winters who is also in The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Mike is in Hurry Sundown (1967) with George Kennedy who is in Airport (1970) with Van.
Mike was in Pulp (1972) with Lizabeth Scott who was in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Van.
Mike is in Woman Times Seven (1967) with Vittorio Gassman
Mike is in The Two-Headed Spy (1961) with Donald Pleasence
Mike is in Shiner (2000) with Martin Landau
Mike is in A Bridge Too Far (1977) with Ryan O’Neal who is in The Big Bounce
Mike is in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) with Lloyd Nolan who is also in Airport
Mike is in Billion Dollar Brain (1967) with Ed Begley who is also in Patterns.
Mike is in The Wilby Conspiracy (1975) with Sidney Poitier who also in The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Hey Dan…..great connections….I really appreciate the information…especially the Caine stuff. It is amazing how closely all the performers are related. For Caine…The Swarm is a very popular movie for this game. #1 Roberts only has 4….good information as always….thanks for sharing it. 🙂
I started playing around about a month ago with the upper echelon of current Oracle of Bacon list. My plan was to see how many connections it would take for the top 10 connected people to connect to the nominees in the acting categories for the first 10 years of the Academy Awards. Eric is #1 so he would try to connect to the nominees in the first Oscars (there were only 3 in each category) then. I got as far as #4 Samuel L. Jackson to the 4th Academy awards and then it got frustrating. Most would connect in 3 moves but there had to be first someone they worked with then a middle man who shared the final destination and the direct linked actor. So you would get a number of #2 people. The following are interesting people Eric connected to in 2 moves on the way to the final destination.
Anne Shirley (last film 1944)
Arthur Lake (Dagwood in Blondie films, last film 1950)
Betty Bronson (Peter Pan in 1924)
Billie Burke (Glinda the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz)
Billy Beven (silent comedian)
Boris Karloff
Bonita Granville (Nancy Drew in 1938 & 1939 films)
C. Aubrey Smith (English character actor, born 1863, died 1948)
Carole Landis (died 1948)
Charles Bickford
Charles Farrell (Janet Gaynor’s leading man, starred in 1927 best picture nominee 7th Heaven)
Charles Middleton (Ming in 1930’s Flash Gordon serials)
Charles Ray (silent star first picture 1911)
Charley Grapewin (character actor, one of Dorothy’s uncles in the Wizard of Oz, born 1869)
Clark Gable
Claudette Colbert
Conrad Veidt (died 1943)
Creighton Hale (first film 1914, 310 credits ending 1959)
Dick Foran
Gloria Swanson
Richard Barthelmess (first film 1916)
Don Ameche
Donald Meek
Dorothy Gish (Lillian’s sister, first film 1912 last 1963)
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Dot Farley (361 credits from 1910 to 1949)
Edgar Kennedy (starred in numerous shorts at RKO in 30’s & 40’s, 447 credits from 1911 to 1949)
Fay Wray
Frances Dee (Joel McCrea’s wife)
Franchot Tone
Francis Ford (brother of director John, 492 credits from 1909 to 1953)
Frank O’Connor (642 credits 1915 to 1959)
Fred MacMurray
Fredric March
Gary Cooper
George O’Brien (cowboy star of the 20’s & 30’s, starred in Sunrise which won Academy Award for Most Unique and Artistic film the same year as Wings wins best picture. Were there 2 best pictures???)
Ginger Rogers
Guy Kibbee
Harold Miller (632 credits 1919 to 1964)
Hedda Hopper
Henry Fonda
Hobart Bosworth (born 1867, first film 1908)
Hoot Gibson (cowboy star of the 20’s, 30’s & early 40’s. First film 1910)
J.M. Kerrigan (first film 1916)
Jane Darwell
Jean Arthur
Jean Hersholt
Lew Ayres
Lionel Barrymore
Loretta Young
Margaret Lindsay
Marlene Dietrich
Mary Astor
May Robson (star of Frank Capra’s 1933 film Lady for a Day which Capra remade as Pocketful of Miracles in 1961 with Bette Davis doing her role. May was born in 1858, first film 1908)
Nora Cecil (first film 1915. IMDB used to list the 20 best actors and 20 best actresses of all time by their films rated. Nora was once #13)
Oliver Hardy
Pat Boone
Paulette Goddard
Pola Negri (silent star, made her first films in Poland 1915)
Richard Arlen (starred in 1927 Oscar winner for best Picture Wings)
Robert Montgomery
Rochelle Hudson
Rolfe Sedan (first film 1921, 312 credits through 1979)
Shirley Temple
Snub Pollard (silent comedian, later western sidekick, 591 credits 1915 to 1959)
Stan Laurel (well if there’s Hardy)
Toshia Mori (not famous but only 21 flics last one a Charlie Chan film in 1937)
Una Merkel
Victor McLaglen
Walter Connolly (died 1940, last film The Great Victor Herbert. He played Victor)
Warner Baxter
William Desmond (first film 1915)
The big first links for Eric were Marc Lawrence (first film 1932 last 2003), Hank Worden and one Sidney Miller (first film 1931 last 1989).
Samuel L. Jackson connected to 8 of the 4th Academy Awards acting nominees in just 2 steps (Jackie Cooper, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou, Lionel Barrymore, Richard Dix, Marie Dressler, Marlene Dietrich and Irene Dunne). He connects to Dressler (died 1933) in 2 steps!!! Marie connects through Bessie Love through Ragtime (1981) and she was the only in between fro Sam to Marie, I eliminated Ruth Chatterton because she was on her 2nd nomination. The only actor it took him more 3 connections to get to his final destination was Ann Harding whom I found 454 2nd connections to get to her.
Hey Dan…..I am always doing stuff like that myself. Sorry it got so frustrating…I am sure you….sometimes you think you have a great idea….but once you start crunching the numbers that idea seems to loss steam. That is what seems to have happened here.
Still there are some pretty good pieces of trivia listed here….though I do admit…for every name I know….there are three to four that I do not know. “Ann Harding whom I found 454 2nd connections to get to her”….now that is some impressive numbers. Thanks for sharing this information….it is always greatly appreciated
Hi
Another great character actor. That’s an amazing story I did not know about Lee Harvey Oswald, i wonder if he was a particular fan or just the movie he went to see.
No surprise that my favourite movie would be Shane, but I seen him in a few other movies, he was great with Crawford in Possessed and Airport, although it seems to have dated a bit.
But he had a great career.
Hey Chris….glad you mentioned his weird connection to Lee Harvey Oswald…I found it equally fascinating about Heflin’s movie being associated with the JFK killing. I knew he was captured at a theater….just never thought….what was he seeing? Of the two movies….the plot of Cry of Battle probably drew him in….though I am of course guessing.
Shane has been a very popular choice when people looking at my rankings…not thinking anybody is thinking I got that one wrong. He is good in Possessed…..yet takes a backseat to Crawford who is outstanding in that movie. I agree Airport is very dated…..the plane is almost like a spoof….you expect Martin to be drinking and smoking while flying the plane….it was easy pickings for the Airplane spoof….heck the Airplane spoof is coming up on 40 years old…..how did that happen…lol. As always…thanks for sharing your thoughts on Mr. Van Heflin.
Hello Bruce.
I’m happy you did a page on Van Heflin. I always liked Mr. Heflin. My favorite of his films is of course “SHANE” (1953) but I also like Johnny Eager (1941), The Starange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), Green Dolphin Street (1947), Count Three and Pray (1955), Battle Cry (1955) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). He was good in every film he did. Another great character actor. Thanks, Bruce.
Hey Lyle…years ago I decided to watch every movie that won a Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supp. Actor and Supp. Actress…..I think it is 542 movies…I have seen 521 of those movies…Johnny Eager is one of those missing movies. So I know one day….I will finally see it. Mmmm….I see you include Count Three and Pray….that is the second comment on that movie…I had never heard of it before…but it is working its way on to my list of movies to watch. As for Green Dolphin Street…I was shocked to see how well that movie did….was it the story….the power of Heflin or the power of Lana Turner….or the great mixture of all three? Thank you for the visit and the comment.
Nice new page. He is the type of actor you know when you see him but does not get mentioned to often when talking about classic actors. Love Shane, so I am glad it got the number one spot.
Hey SteinHOF….thanks for the nice words and for the visit. I imagine Shane is the movie most people would put at the top of their Heflin lists. You are correct…the name Van Heflin does not come up too often when talking about classic actors….but he had one heck of a career.