Wallace Beery Movies

Want to know the best Wallace Beery movies?  How about the worst Wallace Beery movies?  Curious about Wallace Beery box office grosses or which Wallace Beery movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Wallace Beery 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.

Wallace Beery (1885-1949) was an American Oscar® winning actor.  Beery has an incredible 241 acting credits on his IMDb page.  Sadly were not able to find box office grosses on many of his silent movies in the 1910s and 1920s.  We did find box office information on all of his movies from 1930 to 1949…as well as handful of his silent movies.  This page will rank Wallace Beery movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Shorts, cameos and many of his silent movies were not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request by Søren.

Wallace Beery in his Oscar winning role in 1931’s The Champ

Wallace Beery Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Wallace Beery 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 any way you want.

  • Sort Wallace Beery movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Wallace Beery movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Wallace Beery movies by domestic box office rank
  • Sort Wallace Beery 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 Wallace Beery movie received and how many Oscar® wins each movie won.
  • Sort Wallace Beery 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.
 
Joan Crawford and Wallace Beery in 1932’s Grand Hotel

Possibly Interesting Facts About Wallace Beery

1. Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was born in Clay County, Missouri in 1885.

2. At the age of 16 Wallace Beery ran away from home and joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant elephant trainer.

3. At the age of 19 Wallace Beery joined his brother, Noah Beery, in New York.  He soon after began appearing on Broadway.  By the time he was 30 he was appearing in silent movies.

4. Wallace Beery was married 2 times.  Her first marriage was to actress Gloria “Sunset Blvd.” Swanson from 1916 to 1919.  His second marriage was to Rita Gilman from 1924 to 1939.  Gilman and Beery had one child…..a daughter named Carol Ann.

5. Wallace Beery’s nephew was Noah Beery, Jr.  Noah Beery Jr. had 173 IMDb credits…..but he is best remembered for playing James Garner’s dad in the television show The Rockford Files.

6. Wallace Beery was nominated for two Best Actor Oscars®.  Beery first nomination was for 1930’s The Big House.  He won the Best Actor Oscar® for 1931’s The Champ.  Beery shared the Oscar® win with Frederic March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)..though legend has it that Beery actually got one less vote than March….but the rules at the time declared it a tie…so they both got Oscars®.

7. Wallace Beery almost played the title role in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz but due to other film roles at MGM, he was forced to turn down the role.  Beery turned down the role of Captain William Bligh in 1935’s Mutiny on the Bounty  because he was unwilling to work with Clark Gable.

8.  Wallace Beery insisted on being paid $1 more than any other MGM star. In 1932 he was paid  $10,001 a week. That made him the highest-salaried actor in the world at the time.

9.  From 1916 to 1951 Wallace Beery held the world’s record for the largest black sea bass. He caught the fish off California’s Santa Catalina Island.

10. Check out Wallace Berry‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Adjusted Worlwide Box Office Grosses on 21 Wallace Beery Movies

  1. China Seas (1935) $287.60 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  2. Grand Hotel (1932) $283.20 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  3. Tugboat Annie (1933) $268.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  4. Hell Divers (1931) $256.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  5. A Date With Judy (1948) $254.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  6. Treasure Island (1934) $237.90 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  7. Dinner at Eight (1933) $225.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  8. The Big House (1930) $221.90 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  9. Stand Up And Fight (1939) $221.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  10. The Bowery (1933) $209.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  11. Min and Bill (1931) $209.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  12. Stablemates (1938) $198.10 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  13. Viva Villa! (1934) $196.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  14. West Point Of The Air (1935) $131.90 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  15. The Secret Six (1931) $118.10 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  16. The Mighty McGurk (1947) $110.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  17. Jackass Mail (1942) $108.10 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  18. A Lady’s Morals (1930) $98.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  19. Way For A Soldier (1930) $82.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  20. Alias A Gentleman (1948) $75.20 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  21. Big Jack (1949) $49.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office

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.

Steve’s Wallace Beery YouTube Video

 

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51 thoughts on “Wallace Beery Movies”

  1. According to the King of Hollywood Wallace Beery was Clark’s own inspiration for becoming the mega star that he ultimately became. Gable claimed that Wallace loved carrying about with him huge wads of dollar bills and showing off by flashing them about on the MGM sets.

    Clark was honest enough to admit that a materialistic and egotistical strain in himself made him long to be a big star so that he could be in a financial position to show off money as Wallace did.

    I have mentioned to the Work Horse that I recently let a new member of my amateur movie buffs group have sight of Bruce’s Greatest 50 stars book. Subject to a sight juggling of the individual ranking positions the new member agreed with most of Bruce’s selections with the exception of –

    (1) Myrna Loy on the main list. He felt that she was not a big enough box office attraction in her own right to warrant inclusion. If I am recalling correctly his precise words were “Who’d want to go to see a movie because SHE was in it? Betty Grable has been the most popular woman movie star ever It seems that there are many “great minds” that “think alike” these days!

    (2) Wallace Beery in the honorable mentions list on page 16 of the book. Although regarding himself as a true movie buff the newcomer had never before heard of Beery. It will therefore be useful to let him have sight of Steve’s video.

    Reply

    1. BEST POSTERS STEVE’s VIDEO

      1/two for The Bad Man
      2/Port of 7 Seas
      3/Message to Garcia
      4/two for Stablemates
      5/foreign language one for Salute to the Marines
      6/Mighty Barnum
      7/Billy the Kid
      8/Flesh
      9/set for Slave Ship
      10/two for Lost World
      11/The Sea Hawk
      12/two for The Bowery
      13/first one for Viva Villa
      14/two foreign langue ones for China Seas
      15/1st one for The Champ
      16/Robin Hood
      17/Dinner at Eight
      18/Grand Hotel
      19/Hell Divers
      20/two for The Secret 6

      Reply

      1. Greatly enhanced for my money by the glut of vintage lobby cards and very fine old posters. 99% rated.

        Best STILLS/LOBBY CARDS in my opinion are.

        1/first one for The Bad Man
        2/West Point on Air
        3/Message to Garcia
        4/Bad Bascom
        5/Stablemates
        6/Stand up and Fight with Cowboy of the Century
        7/two for Hell Divers
        8/With young Liz Taylor
        9/Billy the Kid
        10/Tugboat Annie
        11/Lost World
        12/The Big House
        13/two for Viva Villa
        14/Treasure Island
        15/China Seas
        16/Last of the Mohicans
        17/two for The Champ

        Reply

  2. And the Lensman returns after a two-week vacation. Just added Steve’s Wallace Beery video to this page. I have known the name Wallace Beery for a long time, yet I have seen only seen 5 of his movies. I know…I am disappointed in myself as well. I have seen #1 Grand Hotel, #2 Dinner At Eight, #4 The Champ, #7 China Seas and #11 Beggars of Life…one of the few silent movies that I have watched. Good video. Voted up and shared.

    Reply

    1. Hi Bruce, yep back again but I am getting a little tired of this. Too many videos dude. Let’s see how it goes. Your tally 5 of the 35 listed on the video chart, I’ve seen 10.

      My favorites include – Viva Villa, Treasure Island, Three Ages, Grand Hotel and The Lost World. Thanks again for the vote, share and comment, always appreciated.

      Reply

  4. You were right John….Wallace Beery was actually a request from Søren…..so it was not you getting old….it was me not being able to read…..lol.

    Reply

  5. 1 Often when a long career is split between the silent era and the talkies its longevity is not realised because many people brought up in the talkies era look upon the silent days as almost primitive and irrelevant and therefore may not pay much attention to them.

    2 Almost half of Wallace Beery’s career was spent in silent films but overall it lasted 36 years from 1913 until 1949 and as late as 1948 he played the lead in A Date with Judy in which he was supported by new young stars Jane Powell and Liz Taylor. Wallace made 3 films with Clark Gable and their contrasting personas seemed to create good screen chemistry.

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob.
      1. Thanks for checking out our latest and greatest page.
      2. I agree…it appears that the silent movies of a person like Beery are almost ignored.
      3. We found box office grosses on only 7 of his movies…that is only about 4% of his silent movies….granted some were shorts….but still 4% is way lower than I wanted for this page.
      4. Yep he had a long career…I wonder what type of roles he would have gotten in the 1940s if he had gotten the Wizard of Oz role?
      5. I also wonder if he would have been Pa Kettle if he had lived longer…..seems when The Egg and I was filmed…he would have been perfect opposite Main in that role.
      6. Two of the three Gable/Beery movies were when Gable was unknown…the 3rd and last was China Seas when Gable was a star…..I am betting Beery did not like Gable’s quick rise to fame…..which might be why Beery refused to work with Gable anymore after China Seas.
      Thanks as always for sharing your most excellent movie knowledge.

      Reply

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