William Bendix Movies

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

William Bendix (1906-1964) was an Osca®r-nominated American film, radio, and television actor, who typically played rough, blue-collar characters.  He was one of the busiest actors in the 1940s, appearing in over 40 movies in that decade.  His IMDb page shows 92 acting credits between 1940 and 1964.  This page will rank William Bendix movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos, uncredited roles, and movies that were not released in North American were not included in the rankings.

On the set of 1948’s The Babe Ruth Story

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

1944’s Lifeboat

William Bendix 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 William Bendix movies by his co-stars
  • Sort William Bendix movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort William Bendix movies by domestic yearly box office rank
  • Sort William Bendix 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 William Bendix movie received.
  • Sort William Bendix 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.
1942’s Wake Island

Possibly Interesting Fact About William Bendix

1. William Bendix was born in Manhattan, Massachusetts, in 1906.

2. William Bendix’s father was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and a musician who performed in local New York bands.  Another relative, Max Bendix, was a violinist who once conducted the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

3.  In the early 1920s, William Bendix was a batboy for the New York Yankees and said he saw Babe Ruth hit more than 100 home runs at Yankee Stadium. However, he was fired after fulfilling Ruth’s request for a large order of hot dogs and soda before a game, which resulted in Ruth being unable to play that day.  He would play Babe Ruth in 1948’s  The Babe Ruth Story.

4.  William Bendix first gained notice with his Oscar®-nominated performance in 1942’s Wake Island and  in Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944).

5.  William Bendix played Chester A. Riley of The Life Of Riley on television, the big screen, and the radio.

Check out William Bendix’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

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18 thoughts on “William Bendix Movies

  1. William Bendix eh… which film do I remember him most from? Probably Lifeboat, since it’s Hitchcock, but I’ve also seen Connecticut Yankee a number of times.

    Okay I’ve seen… 9 films out of 58, probably more back in my youth, favorites are – Lifeboat, A Connecticut Yankee, The Big Steal, The Glass Key and The Blue Dahlia.

    Looking at the box office chart there are some sizeable hits at the top. I don’t think I’ve seen Wake Island, Guadalcanal Diary or Two Years Before the Mast, will keep an eye out for them when they pop up again on TV.

    Good work Bruce. Vote Up!

    1. Hey Steve….thanks for the feedback on our William Bendix page and his movie career. Your 9 has my total of 3 tripled. I have seen Lifeboat but none of the other ones. I have not seen any of those box office hits either. Apparently I missed the Bendix boat….but I now realize he had an awesome 1940s. Good stuff as always.

  2. i saw 11 including 3 of top 4. 10 and hidden gem is Hitchcock’s lifeboat. 9 woman of the year. wake island a 7 portrayed an incredibly important battle to slow the Japanese after their surprise attack on the neutral U.S.A at pearl harbor. i recently watched the babe Ruth story and thought it was enjoyable, a 7. i recently watched the glass key, a 7. i recently watched who done it, a 7. i recently watched they drive by night , an 8 with ida lupino. i recently watched boys night out , an 8.

    Yea turner classic movies. i feel certain i watched more but cannot remember them from 50 years ago. i watched a movie recently that i had completely forgotten watching just a few years ago, the judge with robert duvall and robert downey jr.
    this might mean my memory is failing and i will now be able to re-watch movies without losing the surprise ending and suspense. what an unexpected gift from aging and memory lose. LOL.

    1. Hey bob cox….Tally count…Flora 15, you 11 and me 3. Thanks for all the mini-reviews. It looks like you have been watching lots of William Bendix movies lately. I did not include They Drive By Night because IMDb listed it as an uncredited role. I agree with you on Lifeboat. Yeah for old age….lol. I wonder if I will ever forget that Bruce is dead the whole time in The Sixth Sense, or that Kevin Spacey is really the bad guy in The Usual Suspects or Anthony Perkins has some issues in Psycho? Good feedback as always.

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