Want to know the best Van Johnson movies? How about the worst Van Johnson movies? Curious about Van Johnson box office grosses or which Van Johnson movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Van Johnson 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 Johnson (1916-2008) was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at MGM from 1942 to 1954. His IMDb page shows 123 acting credits from 1940-1992. This page ranks 63 Van Johnson movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. But what about his other 60 IMDb credits? Well….his 42 television appearances, his 13 movies not released in North America, his 4 uncredited roles and his one short were not included in the rankings.
Drivel Part: So earlier today we were web hopping around some of our favorite classic movie Facebook pages. While checking out Classic Film Lovers’ Haven we noticed that their current banner was mentioning that tomorrow, August 25th 2016 is Van Johnson’s 100th birthday. Knowing that Flora had requested a Van Johnson page we wonder if we would be able to put together an entire Van Johnson page in time for his 100th birthday….well since you are now reading this page, the answer to that question was yes….thank you Eddie Mannix’s MGM ledgers.
Van Johnson 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 Johnson movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Van Johnson movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Van Johnson movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)….we were able to worldwide box office on 48 of his movies
- Sort Van Johnson 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 Van Johnson movie received.
- Sort Van Johnson 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Van Johnson Table
- Twenty-seven Van Johnson movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 42.85% of his movies listed. The Caine Mutiny (1954) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Van Johnson movie grossed $114.80 million in adjusted domestic box office gross.
- That translates to a career adjusted box office of $7.23 billion.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 44 Van Johnson movies are rated as good movies…or 69.84% of his movies. The Caine Mutiny (1954) is his highest rated movie while Plymouth Adventure (1952) is his lowest rated movie.
- Seventeen Van Johnson movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 26.98% of his movies.
- Four Van Johnson movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 6.34% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 34 Van Johnson movies scored higher that average….or 44.11% of his movies. The Caine Mutiny (1954) got the the highest UMR Score while The Enemy General (1960) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Van Johnson
1. Charles Van Dell Johnson was born in Newport, Rhode Island in 1916.
2. Van Johnson met Lucille Ball during the filming of 1940’s Too Many Girls. Ball took Johnson to to Chasen’s Restaurant, where she introduced him to MGM casting director Billy Grady. After his 6 month contract with Warner Brothers was terminated, Johnson signed with MGM.
3. Van Johnson was listed on Quigley’s Annual Top Box Office Star list 6 times. He was ranked 2nd in 1945, 3rd in 1946, 13th in 1947, 20th in 1948, 18th in 1950 and 20th in 1951.
4. Halfway through the filming of 1943’s A Guy Name Joe….Van Johnson was in a serious car accident that left him with a metal plate in his forehead and a number of scars on his face that the plastic surgery of the time could not completely correct or conceal; he used heavy makeup to hide them for years. When the crash happened, Johnson’s scalp was nearly sheared off. The closest rescue units responded, but because the accident happened just over the local county line, the rescuers had to stop at the county line and could not help him. Johnson had to slap his scalp into place and literally crawl nearly 50 yards to get to the rescue workers for aid.
5. Van Johnson’s injury caused the production of A Guy Named Joe to shut down. At first the studio wanted to replace Johnson….but Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne insisted that Johnson be allowed to finish the picture,
6. Van Johnson’s two main nicknames were: King of Dinner Theater & The Voiceless Sinatra
7. Van Johnson was married 1 times and had 3 children….one daughter and 2 stepsons…..the father of his stepsons was actor Keenan Wynn.
8. Van Johnson starred in 4 movies that earned Best Picture Oscar® nominations: 1943’s Madame Curie, 1943’s The Human Comedy, 1949’s Battleground and 1954’s The Caine Mutiny.
9. Van Johnson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6600 Hollywood Blvd.
10. Check out Van Johnson ‘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.
VAN JOHNSON VAN JOHNSON IS MOVIE STARS
STEVE1 I think that by giving the likes of Johnson credit for a 24th cast-listed role in Purple Rose of Cairo and awarding then-newcomer Virginia Mayo over $200 million for an 82nd cast-listed part in Kaye’s Up in Arms the Work Horse is possibly teaching his viewers bad habits.
2 For example hitherto I have excluded from my own database Brando’s archives swan song movie Superman Returns but I am now thinking of including it because at least the Brando cameo unlike Mayo in Up in Arms was placed in Supe Returns because of the publicity value of the Mumbles name.
3. I don’t think YOU will support me though because as well as a brief appearance in that movie Mr M did the VOICE-over throughout it. Is it not ironic though that Mr M bowed out with having his voice of all things.showcased in a superhero movie?
4 By the way it occurs to me that it may be that WH really gave Johnson credit for Purple Rose because it was a Woody Allen movie and WH likes an excuse for mentioning Allen movies ever since Woody enhanced Sir M’s career with Hannah and Her Sisters.
5 Thanks for your round-up of non Oscar winners – hope you haven’t plagiarised the list from Dan. I think that all of those you listed deserved an Oscar with one exception but I am not going to say who that woman/man is because I gave WH an undertaking that I would not keep repeating the person’s name on this site.
Bob, actually the inclusion of Mr. Mumbles in Superman Returns was a nice touch and I nearly cheered when Brando appeared in that film the first time I saw it. The man is a true film legend even if I do like to poke fun at him from time to time.
As for the film itself I liked Brandon Routh in the role but the film itself was dour and downbeat. Kevin Spacey fumbled the ball by playing Lex Luthor as a shouting bully with none of Gene Hackman’s charisma. Lex stabbing Superman with a shard of Kryptonite was the movie’s low point and aptly demonstrates how badly the filmmakers misjudged the Superman mythos.
HI STEVE
1 It’s like being in the desert and suddenly finding water – somebody ON THIS SITE with a sound reputation as a film buff has actually appreciated MB in Superman Returns! Truly “a day worthy to be marked with a great white stone.” I am afraid I can’t return the compliment with anything new because you already know how much I and my boyhood chums admired Tweedie as we used to call Chuck long ago.
2 Yes Hackman was a superb Luthor and I loved some of the dry wit that he brought to the role in Superman 1978. For example he is planning to blast a fault line in California for property speculation purposes and he says drolly to I think Superman as he leaves him floundering in Kryptonite “Everyone’s got their little faults. Mine’s in California!”
1 STEVE Over his film career Van made many of the kind of bright and breezy escapist films that lend themselves to colourful posters. Your selections well demonstrate that with standouts for me being the ones from Till the Clouds Roll By, Easy to Love, In the Good Old Summertime and Brigadoon. Van also appeared in some highly dramatic, as well as a number of war/adventure, movies and from those I liked the posters from Scene of the Crime, Plymouth Adventure, Men of the Fighting Lady and especially The Caine Mutiny.
2 Choice stills in my opinion were the ensemble one from The Last Time I saw Paris, dancing – instead of swimming! – with Esther in Thrill of a Romance and spanking June Allyson in Too Young to Kiss (1951). For me there was a touch of irony in this last one because only other night I saw Van in a 1984 episode of Angela Lansbury’s TV series Murder She Wrote and in it he was again romancing June Allyson though this time they were in their late 60s. They were a firm cinematic screen team in their heyday when they made 6 films together between 1944 and 1953 and despite their advanced years they blended well and very charmingly in Murder She Wrote.
3 You and Work Horse agree on 3 of the Top 5. He really stunned me by making Woody Allen’s Purple Rose of Cairo his No 2 for critic/audience Van is not mentioned on any of the posters for that one and IMDB excludes him from the main cast list. I favour including cameos/small roles in profiles of stars only if they have a special importance or a historical significance such as Sinatra’s career-reviving performance in From Here to Eternity, Nicholson’s star-making one in Easy Rider or Brando’s cameo in Superman Returns because, well, because he was put in it simply because he was Brando. Anyway Overall there are many good things in your video that make it a 9.4/10 for me. Most enjoyable.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, observation and trivia, always appreciated.
Was Van Johnson in Purple Rose of Cairo? I can’t remember seeing that one when I was preparing my master list of his films. I did leave a couple of medium scoring movies out to squeeze in a few more juicy posters at the bottom of the chart. No one will notice, well, maybe John. 😉
Have to confess when I’m putting these videos together I always get in the mood to watch some of these films simply by looking at the posters. Like you say Van managed to balance appearing in fun and fluffy musicals and comedies with serious war drama.
Van was in that select group of famous actors that has never received an Oscar nomination, a group that includes Edward G. Robinson, Myrna Loy, Richard Gere, Errol Flynn, Peter Lorre, Fred MacMurray, Jim Carrey, Martin Sheen, Joseph Cotten, Donald Sutherland and Marilyn Monroe.
Just re-read about Van’s having to help himself in his car crash near fatality.
I cannot imagine his courage.
And here he became a fan favourite of the bobbysoxers.
Flora
Hey Flora…..I found that information incredible too….state lines/county lines back then were like country lines today….I imagine stories like Van’s …are the reason they changed those rules….thanks for comment.
By the way – in regards to films I have seen-
I have seen 27 of them.
I won’t be able to keep sayin how many – NO VIEWING OLYMPICS.
Just thought I would mention it for this page – a favourite of mine.
Hey Flora…well your 27…easily destroyed Steve and myself…..as we only had a combined 18….10 for him…and 8 for me. Thanks for sharing your tally count.