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.
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.
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.
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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Back in the 60’s & 1970 I went to summer camp for 2 months each summer. They showed movies over 2 night a time, but you got movies every day and when weather was bad. I was introduced to the Three Stooges features of the 60’s, the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, my first Laurel and Hardy features (Way Out West and A-Haunting We Will Go) and my first Abbott and Costello film, Africa Streams. Of course there was the forgotten Dracula film with Christopher Lee that we only saw part 1 of. Why, because when the camp left the hall where the films were shown at night, bats came down all over the place outside and well no one wanted to go back in. It is also the place where I saw The Babe Ruth Story and thought whoever this guy was he sure didn’t look like Babe Ruth. Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig okay. Ronald Reagan at 41 as Grover Cleveland Alexander, well we’re stretching. Dan Dailey as Dizzy Dean in the Pride of St. Louis at 38, beyond stretching.
I thought the Babe with John Goodman was disgraceful, all they cared about was all of Babe’s low moments (holding his manager upside down over the back of the train).
Bill made for me one really good baseball movie, but it’s a comedy, Kill the Umpire. It should be double-billed with another Columbia film of 1950 like itself, The Good Humor Man with Jack Carson, but I digress.
Bill has never been on the Oracle of Bacon top 1000; these are the actors he most appeared with on the 2020 list.
36 ANTHONY QUINN Guadalcanal Diary (1943)
68 JOHN CARRADINE It’s in the Bag! (1945)
81 ROBERT MITCHUM Macao (1952)
81 ROBERT MITCHUM The Big Steal (1949)
131 BURT LANCASTER Variety Girl (1947)
193 KIRK DOUGLAS Detective Story (1951)
193 KIRK DOUGLAS For Love or Money (1963)
262 KEENAN WYNN The Deep Six (1958)
296 JAMES GARNER Boys’ Night Out (1962)
379 WILLIAM HOLDEN Blaze of Noon (1947)
379 WILLIAM HOLDEN Streets of Laredo (1949)
379 WILLIAM HOLDEN Submarine Command (1951)
379 WILLIAM HOLDEN Variety Girl (1947)
406 LIONEL STANDER Guadalcanal Diary (1943)
467 JOHN WOOD Idol on Parade (1959)
512 RAY MILLAND Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
512 RAY MILLAND The Crystal Ball (1943)
512 RAY MILLAND Variety Girl (1947)
537 WOODY STRODE Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
549 VINCENT PRICE Dangerous Mission (1954)
549 VINCENT PRICE The Web (1947)
564 CYRIL CUSACK Johnny Nobody (1961)
643 JAMES WHITMORE The Deep Six (1958)
788 MARCEL DALIO A Bell for Adano (1945)
807 PERCY HERBERT Idol on Parade (1959)
837 BRODERICK CRAWFORD The Time of Your Life (1948)
851 ALDO RAY Johnny Nobody (1961)
855 VALENTINA CORTESE Thieves’ Highway (1949)
860 MIKE MAZURKI Taxi, Mister (1943)
915 STERLING HAYDEN Blaze of Noon (1947)
915 STERLING HAYDEN Variety Girl (1947)
917 PIPER LAURIE Dangerous Mission (1954)
956 LEE GRANT Detective Story (1951)
974 EDMOND O’BRIEN The Web (1947)
975 RICHARD JAECKEL Guadalcanal Diary (1943)
975 RICHARD JAECKEL The Young and the Brave (1963)
998 GEOFFREY BAYLDON IDOL ON PARADE (1959)
What no Alan Ladd or Bob Hope!
Bill appeared with 24 Oscar winners.
ANNE BAXTER Blaze of Noon (1947)
ANTHONY QUINN Guadalcanal Diary (1943)
BARRY FITZGERALD Duffy’s Tavern (1945)
BARRY FITZGERALD Two Years Before the Mast (1946)
BARRY FITZGERALD Variety Girl (1947)
BING CROSBY A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949)
BING CROSBY Duffy’s Tavern (1945)
BING CROSBY Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
BING CROSBY Variety Girl (1947)
BRODERICK CRAWFORD The Time of Your Life (1948)
BURT LANCASTER Variety Girl (1947)
CLAIRE TREVOR The Babe Ruth Story (1948)
DON AMECHE Greenwich Village (1944)
DON AMECHE It’s in the Bag! (1945)
EDMOND O’BRIEN The Web (1947)
GARY COOPER Variety Girl (1947)
GIG YOUNG For Love or Money (1963)
GLORIA GRAHAME Macao (1952)
HUMPHREY BOGART They Drive by Night (1940)
JAMES CAGNEY The Time of Your Life (1948)
JUDY HOLLIDAY Greenwich Village (1944)
KATHARINE HEPBURN Woman of the Year (1942)
LEE GRANT Detective Story (1951)
LORETTA YOUNG China (1943)
LUISE RAINER Hostages (1943)
PAUL LUKAS Hostages (1943)
RAY MILLAND Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
RAY MILLAND The Crystal Ball (1943)
RAY MILLAND Variety Girl (1947)
SPENCER TRACY Woman of the Year (1942)
SUSAN HAYWARD Skirmish on the Home Front (1944)
SUSAN HAYWARD Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
SUSAN HAYWARD The Hairy Ape (1944)
WILLIAM HOLDEN Blaze of Noon (1947)
WILLIAM HOLDEN Streets of Laredo (1949)
WILLIAM HOLDEN Submarine Command (1951)
WILLIAM HOLDEN Variety Girl (1947)
Hey Dan….great stories on your summer camp. I really enjoyed that bats ruined a movie about Dracula. Great memory. I have only seen a little bit of Goodman’s Ruth movie….but that little bit was pretty bad….probably the worst Goodman movie…and he has made a bunch. I will have to track down Kill The Umpire.
Not surprised he is not on the Oracle list….but he would have been in the 1940s…he averaged over 4 movies a year…and he not really get started until 1942. William Holden is a good legend to have as your most frequent Oracle star. 24 Oscar winners is a pretty good total…especially when realizing his career only covered about 20 years…that really limits the amount of possibles. Good stuff as always.
I have seen 15 William Bendix movies.
The HIGHEST rated movie I have seen is The Blue Dahlia.
The highest rated movie I Have NOT seen is Wake Island.
The LOWEST rated movie I have seen is The Deep Six.
Favourite William Bendix Movies:
Lifeboat
The Blue Dahlia
The Glass Key
Detective Story
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Boys’ Night Out
Woman of the Year
Other William Bendix Movies I Have Seen:
Guadalcanal Diary
Greenwich Village
The Big Steal
Race Street
Gambling House
Macao
Cover Up
The Deep Six
Hey Flora. Thanks for the feedback. Tally count….15 for you….and a very low 3 for me. 3 I have seen are in your favorites list….so that is a good thing. Detective Story is on my list of movies to watch. Glad your tally count is back to acceptable levels…lol. Good stuff.
Another feather in William’s cap from my viewpoint is that as Bruce’s chronological table above faithfully records his final movie 1964’s Young Fury starred another of my own idols [of 1950s/60s B westerns] Rory Calhoun. Young Fury was an A C Lyles “graveyard movie” so named because Lyles – a close mate of Cagney – made a string of 1960s westerns on the cheap which were peopled with has-been stars and supporting actors who had seen far better days and therefore could be hired for cut-price salaries.
Young Fury was no exception and apart from Rory and Bendix the cast included Ginny Mayo in a massive come-down and Lon Chaney Jr as well as John [“Mr Shirley Temple”] Agar.
My own favourite Bendix movies apart from most of the Ladd ones are Detective Story; Dark Corner; Crashout; Dangerous Mission; a Girl in Every; Streets of Laredo and especially Macao which one prominent film critic of the time designated “an overlooked gem”.
For moviegoers of my generation who were not Ladd/Calhoun fans William is probably best known for The Babe Ruth Story and for Life of Riley on big screen/TV/and radio as para 5 of Bruce’s Interesting Facts would perhaps suggest; but from my personal perspective well done Work Horse on selecting Bendix as your latest subject
“William Bendix was equally comfortable as a lovable family man or a homicidal maniac. He looked and talked like the Brooklyn-born man he was but – in common with Walter Matthau – his ordinary mug described a completer master of characterization.” From Rating the Movie Stars m 1983’s – need either the Work Horse or I say any more!
Hey Bob. First of all….love seeing some Joel quotes in your comment. Joel smiles down on us….or from your view looks smiles up on us…lol. Bendix has lots of connections…but glad he connected with Ladd 9 times and Rory Calhoun at least 2 times. Thanks for listing your favorites…I have not seen any of them…I will see if I can track some down. My local library is now open again…at least through curbside pickup. I agree…he is probably best known for playing Babe Ruth…which in some corners is considered the worst sports biopic ever made. But…it still gets talked about today…so that is something. Good stuff as always.
HI BRUCE
Thanks for feedback. John Goodman palyed Ruth in 1992’s “The Babe” and you cover that movie on your Goodman page.
Your sources think it even worse than the Bendix version- 52% and 57% respectively.
I have never seen William’s Babe and whilst I did see the Goodman version it was long ago so I can’t really comment on either movie.
Keep safe.
Hey Bob…I think both are pretty bad. That would make for an interesting double feature. I think older movies benefit slighty in the review percentage. Seems like not many classic movies get torched like current movies do. Good stuff.
HI BRUCE:
Thanks for your further thoughts – always welcome.
One thing I do remember about Goodman’s Babe Ruth is that the performance showed Ruth up as a crass vulgarain and an exhibitionist; and of course Bendix wouldn’t have been allowed to use some of the language that was in the 1992 movie.
Relatively speaking the mega stars of movies – Leach/Tracy/Gable etc – are few and far between so that proportionately very few actors become really big stars. Nevertheless the character actors and actresses are a large part of the indispensable backbone of movie-making and they therefore deserve due credit for what they do.
Bendix is in my view one such actor so his Cogerson page is “Voted Up” by me especially as William has always loomed large in my own consciousness because as Bruce’s tables above show William was in 9 Alan Ladd movies and Ladd is one of my personal all-time Top 5 idols.
Ladd and Bendix were close off-screen social friends and William was in so many Ladd movies that he was nicknamed “Alan Ladd’s employee”. William was always singing Alan’s praises as an actor who was underrated because critics tended to regard him as just a tough guy action star who competed with Alan’s friend Bogie for the title “the screen’s toughest tough guy.” Bendix would apparently make up spoof rhymes and songs about Ladd and recite/sing them on the set to the delight of cast and crew.
Hey Bob….glad you like our latest page. Interesting information on his connection to Alan Ladd. I did not realize he had been in 9 Ladd movies. Good nickname…”Alan Ladd’s employee”. That seems like good trivia for above. Not sure if you know it, but Joel and his team gave Bendix lots of high marks in “that book”.
Great UMR page
Mike
Thank you Mike.