Want to know the best William Wyler movies? How about the worst William Wyler movies? Curious about William Wyler box office grosses or which William Wyler movie picked up the most Oscar nominations? Need to know which William Wyler 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.
A couple of days ago Reddit user smaxwell87 shared our Steven Spielberg movie page on Reddit. Two things happened when the link was shared…first it set a single day record for views for one of our pages…secondly….it raised the question….could any director top Spielberg’s Oscar® numbers? To date Spielberg movies have been nominated for 112 Oscars®….winning 31 times. Lots of directors were mentioned on Reddit as possibilities….but only William Wyler (1902-1981) seemed to be close to Spielberg’s Oscar® numbers. So knowing that William Wyler was already on my request hotline page (request made by Chris and seconded by Flora)…and additionally requested by Reddit user tapomirbowles, we went to work on researching the movie career of William Wyler. So did Wyler give Spielberg a serious challenge? The answer can found on a table at the end of the page.
His IMDb page shows 72 directing credits from 1925-1970. This page will rank 30 William Wyler movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Shorts, documentaries, his silent films of the 1920s and some of his early 1930s movies were not included in the rankings.
William Wyler Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
William Wyler 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 Wyler movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort William Wyler movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort William Wyler movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort William Wyler 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 William Wyler movie received and by many Oscar®
- Sort William Wyler 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.
Possibly Interesting Facts About William Wyler
1. William Wyler was born in born in Mulhouse, Alsace. Back then Alsace was part of the German empire…just in case you did not know.
2. William Wyler was nominated for a record 12 Best Director Oscars®. He won three times. Only John Ford (4 wins) has more Best Director Oscars®.
3. William Wyler first Best Director Oscar® Nomination was for 1936’s Dodsworth. Counting Dodsworth he only made 24 movies from 1936 to 1970. That is an average of every other movie got Wyler a Best Director nomination….that there is Meryl Streep like numbers.
4. William Wyler directed a Best Picture Oscar® nominated movie for a record 7 consecutive years (1936-1942). Frank Capra has the 2nd longest streak with 4 consecutive years (1936).
5. William Wyler directed 14 performances that went on to win an acting Oscar®….that is also a record. Wyler directed another 17 performances that received acting Oscar® nominations.
6. William Wyler forced Henry Fonda through 40 takes on the set of 1938’s Jezebel,” Wyler’s only direction being “Again” after each repeated take. When Fonda demanded some input on what he was doing wrong, Wyler replied only: “It stinks. Do it again.”
7. According to Charlton Heston, William Wyler approached him early in the shooting of Ben-Hur (1959) and told him that his performance was inadequate. When a dismayed Heston asked him what he should do, “Be better” is all that Wyler could supply.
8. William Wyler nicknames were “Willy” and “99 Take Willie”
9. William Wyler was married twice in his life. His first marriage was to actress Margaret Sullavan from 1934-1936. His second marriage was to Margaret Tallichet from 1938 to his death in 1981. They had 5 children.
10. We have ranked over 23,000 movies at UltimateMovieRankings.com. William Wyler is the only person to have 3 movies with a score of 90 or better. On our Top 250 movies….3 of his movies are in the Top 25. Mrs. Miniver at 23rd, Ben-Hur at 8th and The Best Years of Our Lives in 4th.
Check out William Wyler’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globe® is a registered trademarks.
Hi, Bruce.
Saw this yesterday, but did not have time to answer. Thanks for doing Wyler.
I have seen 18 of Wyler’s films.
The highest ranking film I’ve seen is No.2: Mrs. Miniver. But except for Ben-Hur, I have seen the rest of his top 10.
The lowest ranking film I have seen is No. 22: Dead End.
I have lost track of the number of times I have seen The Best Years of Our lives, Funny Girl or his two with Gregory Peck.
I saw The Children’s Hour for the first time shortly after James Garner. Once was certainly enough. I hated it. That’s the title of his I saw the most recently for the first time.
My top 5 favourites are;
The Big Country
Roman Holiday
Funny Girl
The Westerner
The Best Years of Our Lives
My favourite film of Bette Davis and William Wyler is The Letter.
Thanks again,
Flora Breen Robison
that should read ‘shortly after James Garner died”
Got it.
Hey Flora….18? That is not fair. I am at 17 and was ready to celebrate…lol. Flora 18, me 17 and little Stevie at 10. Still have not seen Ben-Hur?….I still find that amazing. His two Peck movies are classics. The Big Country is my favorite Wyler movie too. Seems that many people feel that way too. I think Best Years of Our Lives is a good movie…but it is not a movie that I regularly rewatch.
I thought this interesting….every time Bette Davis made a Wyler movie….she got a Best Actress Oscar nomination. I would agree that The Letter is the best of the three Davis/Wyler movies. I am sorry I did not like The Children’s Hour….it is a movie that I have also wanted to watch….if only for the trifecta of Garner, Hepburn and Shirley Maclaine. Glad you liked my latest classic page on Mr. Wyler.
Excellent work Bruce. Considering he directed my favorite movie, Ben-Hur, I’m surprised to find I’ve only seen 10 of the 30 William Wyler films you’ve listed. Shameful! I’ve only seen bits of The Best Years of Our Lives and Mrs. Miniver. Must try harder! Good to see Judah topping the moviescore but only reached no.4 on the critics chart, oh well.
So, was Best Years of Our Lives the top grossing film of the 1940’s? Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949) was a massive hit but it made most of it’s money in 1950.
I liked the comparison with Spielberg. Wyler is out in front in awards but Spielberg has more box office hits, who has sold more tickets? 🙂
Hey Steve…..pumping fists….I am at 17 of his movies…..rarely do I top you when it comes to classic pages….”I just like to thank…” now if I can only take down Flora….lol. If William Wyler would have won a Golden Globe for Best Years of Our Lives….Ben-Hur would have fallen to 2nd place if Wyler would have not lost Best Director to Frank Capra for It’s A Wonderful Life. As for Best Years of Our Lives…Variety lists it as the 6th biggest hit….the first three are all Disney and I am not sure they should be counted….4th is Mom and Dad, 5th is Sampson and Delilah and 6th is Best Years. As for Spielberg vs Wyler…Wyler has him in Oscar love…but Spielberg easily has him in tickets sold. As always…I appreciate your input and visit.
Henry Fonda was married to Margaret Sullavan. Perharps that explains the 40 takes in Jezebel
Margaret Sullavan’s marriages:
Henry Fonda (1931-1932)
William Wyler (1934-1936)
Leland Hayward (1936-1947)
Kenneth Wagg (1950-1960)
Hey gps…thanks for the list of her marriages…three husbands in the 1930s…that had to be shocking back then
Hey gps….that might explain it….thanks for stopping by.
Hey, The Big Country is a favorite movie of mine. Looks like he was a busy man with many wonderful movies under his belt. Interesting comparison between the two directors. Funny Girl is another good movie. I have seen quite a few of the movies listed above but not all. I am glad to hear that you had such success on Reddit – whatever that is? CONGRATS.
Hey BERN1960….The Big Country is one of my favorites too. Seems strange that with all the success Wyler had….that he is almost forgotten these days…..but wow did he leave behind some good movies. As always thanks for stopping by.
I had no idea that this man he such an impressive run. A very informative page. Shared with my twitter group.
Hey Harry….Wyler had an awesome career. Glad you liked the page and glad you shared the link….both are greatly appreciated.